Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 10/99) - Almost half the city's public school teachers packed a meeting room Tuesday night to show their anger over deductions coming from their cheques which started without warning last month.

About 80 teachers were on hand as the president of the Northwest Territories Teachers Association (NWTTA) Pat Thomas and their local president, Amanda Mallon, took school board members to task over the deductions.

"On the morning of Jan. 15...the staff opened their pay envelopes and read from the memo...outlining a series of clawback payments for some members stretching well into 2001," Mallon said in a speech to trustees. "The secrecy and lack of forewarning sent a message to our membership. In some schools, that morning there were tears, there was anger, feelings of betrayal, frustration and disappointment."

Mallon was greeted by sustained applause from teachers at the end of her remarks.

NWTTA members found out that monies paid out last year for vacation travel assistance, Heritage Day pay and other areas, were being recovered by the board as allowed -- in the board's view -- by a new contract. The NWTTA disagrees and has asked for the matter to be sent to arbitration as soon as possible.

The board decided to collect the money at the rate of approximately $100 per pay period. No notice was given, however, and board superintendent of education, Ken Woodley, apologized for how the recovery was announced in a recent letter to all staff.

Thomas told the board Tuesday night her association wants the matter to go to a single arbitrator as quickly as possible. Confident of victory, Thomas also said the recoveries should stop in the meantime.

Mallon and Thomas were questioned by board members after their presentation.

Trustee Al Woods wondered how, in an age of cutbacks for GNWT workers and miners, teachers could have been surprised by such a move by the board.

A former GNWT worker herself, Thomas had a swift response.

"I knew that (GNWT cuts) was coming for six months," she said. "These people didn't and that is shameless and that is callous."

Teachers greeted her statement with loud applause which lasted about 30 seconds.

After the presentations, individual teachers declined to comment on the issue when approached by xxxYellowknifer. This happened numerous times Tuesday.

Board chair Dan Schofield was conciliatory after the speeches. While he said the board's legal advice differed from the association's on the recoveries, he pledged co-operation in other areas.

With some NWTTA members owing up to $6,000, Schofield agreed the board would work with its workers to design better repayment plans for hardship cases.

He added in an interview afterwards that it had always been the board's intention to deal with this in a manner he described as "caring" and "sensitive." The recoveries were to be stretched out in a reasonable and fair manner and any hardship cases were to be identified to the district office," he said.

If this wasn't communicated, he said, it should have been.