Teachers protested outside of Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard’s office Tuesday over what they call a lack of progress in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.
Public school teachers say they will engage in work-to-rule pressure tactics as the school year begins.
Several teachers’ federations in Quebec are telling their members not to take on extra-curricular activities given to them by management.
Public school teachers will work their 32-hour workweek and no more.
The federations did say teachers can take on volunteer or extra-curricular activities if they choose but not assigned tasks.
Most of these tasks would include administrative paperwork, after-work meetings, lesson preparation and other tasks outside of their working hours.
Teachers must respect the labour laws, the current collective bargaining agreement and their students’ needs in any work-to-rule tactic, explained a spokesperson from the Ministry of Education.
Teachers say over the past five months, the government and the federations have been meeting regularly, but claim the government isn't coming with any real offers – only demands.
Those demands, they say, include increasing class size ratios and removing coding for special needs students. Teachers say this would mean less support staff for teachers with students that have special needs.
Teachers also say the government offer to increase their salaries by 2 per cent over five years is too low.
The government wants to extend the workweek for teachers by three hours and move the retirement age from 60 to 62.
Teachers’ federations are also saying the government wants to change the way their pensions are calculated by reducing their defined benefits after retirement.
Teachers that retire early could also be penalized with an increased actuarial reduction.
The Ministry of Education said the government will continue to negotiate with the teachers’ federations but would not comment on how the negotiations are progressing.
