Update

Hi Folks,

District Professional Development Day

A big thanks you to Kevin, Mark and the whole Pro-D Committee for a well-organized and fascinating day on Friday. A great deal of work and coordinating went into making it a successful day.

Bullying and Harassment Training

Last Monday the School Board passed an updated version of their policy on Harassment. This was in response to the new Worksafe BC regulations on bullying and harassment in the workplace.

The district has required all employees to take an on-line training to acquaint everyone with the new policy. A number of concerns were expressed about being required to complete the training but not being provided the time to complete the training.

We wrote to the District expressing our concern about not being provided the time to complete the training.

Oddly enough the District agreed. Administrators have been asked to facilitate teachers completing the training during work time. In some cases the administrator will be able to provide the necessary coverage, and in some schools a TTOC will be hired to provide the coverage. The training is meant to take 20-30 minutes.

Bargaining

There is a bargaining protocol in place between the BCTF and BCPSEA that requires each group to communicate to its members through in a secure manner. This is meant to eliminate bargaining through the media that often takes place.

The BCTF means of accomplishing these communications is through the Members Only portal at the BCTF website.

If you have not already signed into this portal, it would be a really good idea if you did. (You only need your SD 85 employee number to register)

The following links will lead to some very useful information.

I highly recommend the following link: bctf.ca/myBCTF/BargContent.aspx. Click on the February 21st, 2014 Statement from Jim Iker. During a recent round of discussions with school staffs we discussed the possibility of a certain vote we may be asked to take in the next little while. It would be a ‘really’ good idea to read the statement from Iker.

This link will direct you to all of the updates from the bargaining table: https://bctf.ca/myBCTF/ReportFromTheTable/

Suffice is to say that after a year of bargaining there continues to be a vast difference between the BCTF and BCPSEA bargaining positions. And, since Judge Griffin’s ruling of January 27th, that distance seems to have grown.
Stay tuned,

Fred

Fred Robertson
President
Vancouver Island North Teachers’ Association
lp85@bctf.ca