Toronto Substitute Teachers Action Caucus
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Toronto Substitute Teachers' Grassroots Newsletter
July 2005
"On call" coverage and the Secondary Teachers' deal
From July 6 through July 13, members of the Secondary Teachers' Bargaining Unit (STBU) in OSSTF District 12 Toronto will vote at the district office on the tentative contract agreement reached by negotiators for the TDSB and the Federation on June 29. News media reported that the deal includes a 10% pay raise over the duration of a four year contract.
Inside sources indicate that the agreement provides for status quo on the issue of 'on-call coverage' for absent regular teachers. In other words, it's the same as during the last three years: if a teacher is absent for a whole day (the vast majority of absences are for a full day), then the absent teacher must be replaced in the classroom by a substitute teacher called by the dispatch system.
The Board and OSSTF may set up a joint committee to look at coverage problems and shortages in certain areas/schools, but that should not affect the fundamental requirement to call in a substitute teacher for the vast majority of such teaching assignments. (What officials really ought to investigate is how retired teachers with substantial pensions take work away from substitute teachers who have no other income. When large numbers of the double-dipping retirees stop working, after they've exhausted their 95 - 114 days maximum, disruptive shortages occur in the system.)
What about Occasional Teacher contract talks?
Talks have been on hold through most of the Spring, despite all the fuss about the urgency of a strike mandate vote in February. Many members saw that vote as just a public relations exercise by the non-elected bargaining team desperately seeking legitimacy -- an exercise rejected by over 34% of the voters when they voted NO.What will we get, in terms of job security (the critical need to put a cap on the OT list at 1200 names or less, instead of the 1700-plus last Spring)? What about wage/benefit improvements, now that all the other bargaining units have done their deals? Will OSSTF really step up to the plate and hit a homer for substitute teachers? Don't hold your breath.
Employment Insurance (EI) and Records of Employment (ROE)
TDSB officials report that an electronic version of Records of Employment, for EI purposes, is being sent directly to Employment Canada. The electronic transmission should be completed by July 8. In the week of July 11 the TDSB will mail to each substitute teacher a hard copy ROE.
You do not need the ROE to apply for EI. Just apply as soon as your work stops, or as soon as your latest EI claim ends. After you receive the ROE in the mail, take it to Employment Canada.
Renew by August 15 at TDSB -- or else!
To remain active on the Occasional Teachers' list at the TDSB, a substitute teacher is required to fill out and sign the TDSB mailed OT renewal form, and submit it along with a copy of her/his College of Teachers membership card, to the TDSB at 5050 Yonge Street, 2nd floor, Employee Services, Toronto, Ontario M2N 5N8, no later than August 15, 2005.
Employees of the TDSB are required to complete the 2005 Offence Declaration Form prior to September 16. This can be done on-line at TDSBweb.
Success at OSSTF Appeals Committee
The OSSTF Provincial Council (PC) Appeal Committee has ruled in favour of an Appeal against the decision of Judicial Council not to conduct a hearing into charges laid against Liz Barkley, Jennifer Mills and other members of the Toronto OTBU Executive in November 2004. The PC Appeal Committee ruled that a Judicial Council hearing should be held on Charge #1, in which Liz, et al, were accused of failing to convene a General Meeting of the Toronto OTBU in a timely fashion, in response to a petition of more than 50 OTBU members submitted on August 17, 2004.
As a result, PC Appeal Committee is referring Charge #1 back to Judicial Council requesting that the J.C. hold a hearing on this charge.
Below are excerpts of the rationale that was presented in the successful appeal re: Charge #1.
"Charge #1: The October 25 (2004) letter (of the Judicial Council chair) states that “By the date of the complaint (Sept. 21, only 10 school days into the 2004-05 school year) it is not possible to determine whether such a meeting would have been called in compliance OTBU Bylaw 3.” Given that the new charges were filed on October 27, it was indeed possible and necessary to conclude that an OTBU General Meeting was not called in compliance with Bylaw 3. Concerning the argument that “no time line (is) specified in OTBU Bylaw 3.3 within which such a meeting has to be called”, it is necessary for Judicial Council to consider the intent of Bylaw 3.
Surely it would be absurd to suggest that a Bylaw which empowers members to call a General Meeting by petition can be ignored or delayed at will by the recalcitrant body being petitioned. (Bylaw 3 clearly invests in the members the power to call a Meeting: “A General Meeting may be called by 50 members upon request in writing to the Secretary.”)
Furthermore, there are the views stated in September 2004 by Craig Brockwell, OSSTF Liaison to D12 OTBU, and by Tom Byers, the former appointed OTBU Trustee and the author of the Bylaw in question, who said that it would be reasonable and appropriate for the OTBU Executive to convene a General Meeting in late October or early November, given the members’ petition which was submitted on August 17.
The Judicial Council should rule on the interpretation and enforcement of the intent of Bylaw 3, and conclude that the Executive is in violation of the Bylaw."
Action Caucus Social a delicious success
Over forty members and guests attended the annual end-of-school-year Toronto Substitute Teachers' Social hosted by the Action Caucus on Sunday, June 5. It was a very warm afternoon, but participants cooled down with ice cream and tasty summer drinks, and they tucked into an enormous spread of delicious ethnic foods and conventional Bar-B-Q fare laid out in a large, shady High Park Avenue backyard.
Speeches were kept to a minimum, but included timely reminders about E.I. entitlement and O.T. status renewal, plus an invitation to members to attend Action Caucus monthly meetings when they resume in September. Over $80 was collected to sustain the Action Caucus telephone Help Line. (You haven't made a donation yet? Please respond to this message for details.)
Thanks go out to all the activists who organized the food and drinks, who phoned members about the Social, and who prepared and decorated the venue.
Meetings continue with Ministry of Education officials
Following initial meetings with Ontario Education Ministry officials in March and June, Action Caucus leaders are set to meet again with government policy makers in July. The ongoing lobbying effort is about raising awareness of the important role of substitute teachers in public education, and seeking Ministry action on key issues, including the following the requests:
1. Restore most of the occasional teaching assignments to substitute teachers who have little or no pension income. Reinstate the 20 days per year limit on retirees earlier than the August 2006 date already set for its reinstatement.
2. Restore the right of substitute teachers to be able to choose the union to which we belong -- a right removed by amendments to the Education Act of Ontario in 1997. Prior to that, many substitute teachers belonged to the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, by choice.
3. Investigate the arbitrary and undemocratic practices of the OSSTF with regard to the representation and administration of the Toronto Occasional Teachers' Bargaining Unit.
4. Replace, in statute, the derogatory and inferior term "occasional teacher" with the occupational designation used throughout the rest of Canada and the world, "substitute teacher".
Get ready for Labour Day
Education workers will join the rest of the labour movement and hit the streets at 9 a.m. on Monday, September 5 for Toronto's annual Labour Day Parade.
Last year, substitute teachers walked with the Workers' Solidarity and Union Democracy Coalition banner, as part of the postal workers' contingent.
Let us know that you are planning to join in this year's parade fun, which will include free union gear, refreshments and admission to the CNE, by responding to this message and/or phoning the Action Caucus Help Line at 416 - 588-9090.
* Could OSSTF officials reduce substitute teachers to such primitive conditions? Don't let them. Join the Action Caucus today.Contact Us: Hotline: 416 - 588 - 9090 | email: Substitute Teachers' Action Caucus