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Fact-finder appointed in stalled teacher talks

A labour ministry fact-finder has been appointed to make one last effort
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Education Minister George Abbott is introduced by president Susan Lambert at the BCTF convention in March 2011.

By Tom Fletcher

Black Press

A labour ministry fact-finder has been appointed to make one last effort to find common ground between the B.C. government and public school teachers.

Assistant deputy minister Trevor Hughes has until Feb. 23 to report on possible solutions to the year-long deadlock, but Education Minister George Abbott said Thursday he doesn’t have much hope of a solution.

Abbott said he met with B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Susan Lambert before Hughes was appointed, and asked one more time if there was any chance of a settlement under the province’s two-year “net zero” wage mandate. “The answer was no,” Abbott said.

The B.C. Public School Employers’ Association has heard that rejection many times during 11 months of fruitless negotiation sessions. BCPSEA issued a statement last week admitting that no amount of meetings will change the gap between the parties, with the BCTF seeking a 16-per-cent wage increase over three years and a list of time off and other benefit improvements.

Abbott said back-to-work legislation can be quickly drafted and passed in the legislature, if Hughes confirms that there is no hope for a negotiated settlement. Successive B.C. governments have plenty of practice imposing contracts on teachers, Abbott said, describing the relationship between the BCTF and the government as “a 50-year bad marriage.”

The BCTF has run a series of TV and radio ads to back its demand for the government to abandon its net-zero mandate, which numerous provincial government unions, including school district support staff, have accepted.

The BCTF released a list of public sector union settlements that have included raises in the past two years, including the Delta Police, Surrey firefighters, B.C. ambulance paramedics, and municipal workers in Kamloops, North Cowichan, Quesnel and Courtenay.

Abbott said the lack of formal report cards since teachers began work-to-rule in September is “damaging” to students who are struggling to keep up with their school work.