 |
|
|
|
|
Subscriber pages
 News Desk
Columnists
Editorial
Readers comment
Tenders
Demo pages Here's a sample of what only subscribers see Subscribe now Subscribe to both hardcopy or internet editions of NNSL publications Advertising Our print and online advertising information, including contact detail. |
Teachers' new contract calls for safe schools Northern News Services Published Monday, February 28, 2011
A new collective agreement for the territory's teachers will see their salaries increase but it also calls for the establishment of a safe schools anti-violence committee.
The Nunavut Teachers' Association and the territorial government signed an agreement Feb. 17, a deal 20 months in the making. The four-year contract, effective from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2013, will see teachers' salaries increase 4.5 per cent in the first year, two per cent the following two years and 2.5 per cent in the final year. Principals' and vice-principals' allowances will be increased by 4.5 per cent effective July 1. Language allowances will stay at current rates while the northern allowance will stay at April 1, 2010 rates. Nunavut Teachers' Association president Robin Langill estimates the deal will cost the GN between $17 million and $22 million over four years. The deal also includes two new provisions. It allows teachers to take up to two days off per year to hunt, fish or harvest, and it also calls for the establishment of a safe schools anti-violence committee, mandated to find ways to keep the territory's schools violence-free. The committee's terms of reference, to be determined 60 days from the deal's signing, will involve at least two representatives each from the teachers' association and the territorial government. Earlier this year, a Kivalliq teacher was assaulted in his classroom. A teenage male was expelled from school and charged with assault in relation to the incident. Both sides recognize there is a problem with violence in schools, Langill said. "Teachers have been put at risk, even assaulted. Students have been put at risk. They have been assaulted and bullied," he said. "Teachers deserve a safe working environment. Schools have to be a safe place for students." Nunavut Human Resources Minister Hunter Tootoo said the GN agrees. "The GN is committed to working with the Nunavut Teachers' Association to provide a safe learning and teaching environment, not only for the staff but for the students as well. We strongly believe this new proposed safe schools, anti-violence committee will be a positive step in achieving that goal," he said. "By having it in the collective agreement, it's an opportunity for both sides to jointly develop something so that we're all marching to the same tune."
|
