Bigger salaries, pensions for Yk1
School board signs new collective agreement with teachers' association
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Teachers and educational assistants working for Yellowknife Education District No. 1 (Yk1) will see a small salary increase and larger pensions under the terms of a new four-year collective agreement with the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association (NWTTA).
Al McDonald, assistant principal for Sir John Franklin High School, left, Yk1 board chair John Stephenson and Yk1 manager for personnel services Stacey Scarf sign the new four-year collective agreement between Yk1 and the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association on Thursday evening at the Yk1 board office in Yellowknife. - photo courtesy of Tracy Turk |
The new collective agreement signed Thursday includes a one-per-cent salary increase in each of the final two years of the agreement.
Teacher housing allowances of $450 per month, or $5,400 per year, will also be moved to the salary grid, according to association president Fraser Oliver.
"The advantage that we see is that if a teacher is making $100,000 a year and you add $5,400 to it ... the raise is going to be higher on your third and fourth year because of this," Oliver said.
 | Pensions will also grow | 
|
"Eight per cent of their salary goes into their pension and their employer, Yk1, would match it to eight per cent," Oliver said. "So in the long run, their pension is going to be higher than it would be if we didn't move that (housing allowance) in," he said.
Principals will benefit with an allowance increase from $10,000 to $13,000. The allowance compensates principals for responsibilities like budgeting, scheduling, supervision and attending board meetings, which are frequently done when most staff have time off, Oliver said.
"Yk1 principals were one of the lowest paid in Canada, so it's just to bring them up in line with what's happening in the other two collective agreements," he said.
Teachers will now be paid for one of three discretionary days that they may take, which are designed to give employees the flexibility to attend events like weddings or anniversaries.
"There is a financial cost to our members when they do have these," Oliver said, explaining that under the former contract, employees had to pay for a substitute teacher on each of their three discretionary days.
Teachers will also now be able to accumulate as many as 150 sick days per year under the new contract. This number is up from 120.
"Every teacher gets 20 sick days per year," Oliver said.
"If you only use five, you can accumulate those extra 15 the next year."
The change will help people who may be dealing with a severe illness and need long-term treatment, as long-term disability benefits don't kick in until about three months, Oliver said.
Although not a major sticking point, the new agreement also calls for improvements to hiring practices by ensuring job postings are circulated internally to all members.
"They were very positive negotiations and it's always an important conversation that we have between the teachers' association and Yk1, the employer," said Yk1 chair John Stephenson.
"The teachers' association came to the negotiations understanding that the financial situation was tight and that there were no sources of new dollars."
Teacher well-being was a strong focus in the negotiations for that reason, he said.
A proposal made in the NWTTA's contract negotiations with the GNWT this October to ease teacher workloads by cutting up to 100 hours of contact time with students in the next two to three years would also hold true for Yk1, Oliver said. That change starts with a 2016-17 report card pilot program that gives teachers three days at school a year without students in the classroom so they can complete report cards.
"The membership have supported this because it does impact wellness by helping to reduce workload and allow teachers the opportunity to do more work at school (rather) than take it home and do it on weekends or evenings," Oliver said. "I think it's a step in the right direction."
Yk1 trustees ratified the new four-year collective agreement with the association on Thursday after negotiations that lasted from Nov. 7 until Nov. 9. The agreement is effective until Aug. 31, 2020.
Approximately 215 NWTTA members are employed by Yk1. About 91 per cent of those members voted on the collective agreement on Wednesday, with 93.4 per cent in favour of accepting it.
