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YTA President Sue Harding and Education Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee

YTA president, ministers praise new contract

The territory’s teachers will receive annual salary increases totalling 6.7 per cent over three years, it was announced today.

By Whitehorse Star on January 16, 2019

The territory’s teachers will receive annual salary increases totalling 6.7 per cent over three years, it was announced today.

The contract means a new teacher will see his or her pay rise from $70,242 per year to $71,858 annually effective July 2018, with incremental increases taking effect in years going forward.

A senior teacher with about a decade or more of experience and other education credits will also enjoy a slight increase, moving from $112,283 to $114,866 annually. The same timelines apply with respect to incremental increases and effective dates.

As well, as the Star reported last month, amendments will be made to the Education Labour Relations Act to enable substitutes to be included in the Yukon Teachers’ Association (YTA) bargaining unit.

Those teachers’ inclusion will bring the YTA’s membership to approximately 1,000 people.

On Monday, YTA members voted to ratify a new three-year collective agreement with the Yukon government. It will expire on June 30, 2021.

Reached by the Star this morning, a spokesperson for the Public Service Commission (PSC) shed light on the new contract.

The total increase to the payroll over the three-year term sits at just above $4.7 million – but some of that will come from savings that come with ending severance pay accruals for those who retire or resign.

That means this is not the actual increase in cost to the government, wrote Nigel Allan, a PSC spokesman.

The overall increase is just above 5.5 per cent, but after the agreement to end severance accruals, the wage boost was topped up at 6.7 per cent. That makes the savings by ending these severance accruals at just over $1 million.

Allan also wrote that the general wage increase is about $4.4 million, while the 3.2 per cent rise in salary for education assistants and tutors translates to about $156,000.

The revised agreement includes a range of provisions. Those include changes to maternity and parental leave, and defining the criteria to convert temporary employees to indeterminate employees.

The agreement also moves YTA employees to a biweekly pay system to ensure they’re paid throughout the whole year instead of only during the school year.

“The new agreement is good news for Yukon families, students and educators,” YTA president Sue Harding said in a statement.

“It represents significant progress in the modernization of Yukon education labour standards, which will be key to attracting qualified educators to our territory.”

The agreement extends supplementary benefits to employees on maternity and parental leave throughout the calendar year, and not just the school year.

It raises community allowances by five per cent for school staff working in the communities. That will cost just over $20,000.

The agreement also provides for:

• adding “gender identity or gender expression” as a prohibited ground of discrimination;

• ending resignation and retirement severance accruals as of June 30, 2018 (current entitlements are unaffected);

• defining a new standard of probation for teachers and education assistants/tutors; and

• giving more priority throughout the hiring process to Yukon First Nations teachers.

“I would like to thank the bargaining teams for their professionalism and diligence that has allowed us to achieve a fair and financially responsible collective agreement that meets the needs of Yukon educators,” said Richard Mostyn, the minister responsible for the PSC.

“The new agreement resolves many outstanding issues to the satisfaction of both parties, and I look forward to us continuing to work together to achieve the best outcomes for Yukon students.”

Negotiations began in May 2018 to replace the previous collective agreement, which expired in June 2018.

The new agreement must be implemented within 90 days.

“The Yukon Teachers’ Association is an essential partner in our efforts to provide educational programming and supports that meet the needs of Yukon students,” said Education Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee.

“We are glad to have reached an agreement that supports our teachers and school staff in our effort to ensure Yukon learners have the skills and knowledge they need to live happy, healthy lives.”

Pending the inclusion of substitute teachers in the YTA, the collective agreement covers about 900 principals, vice-principals, teachers, education assistants, remedial tutors and Aboriginal language teachers throughout Yukon.

– With a file from Palak Mangat

Comments (6)

Up 5 Down 0

Response to Response to Response on Jan 19, 2019 at 12:36 am

Contractors get sick of contracts being given to southern companies to save money. Take a good look a the tiny little FH Collins job. Teachers, lawyers, doctors, surgeons also get sick of not being considered for jobs here due with the perception that 'outside' hires are somehow better. One such Yukoner who became a surgeon had to go and work in New Zealand after the government invested $25,000 of the Yukon grant in his education and probably more Yukon private grants. He could not get work here and more troubling is that they hired surgeons from down south in his field after he moved away. What I'm saying is that it is not a 'disservice' to hire Yukoners; it is a disservice to hire people from outside at every turn just because they are perceived to be more educated, have cheaper contractor bids or have buddies up here in government who want to bring them up. Hire Yukoners and Yukon First Nations and give us a chance! And lack of experience? Give me a job out of university and I'll have that experience in a few years of working that somebody from Victoria or Toronto may already have.

Up 8 Down 4

Response to the response on Jan 17, 2019 at 10:38 pm

There seems to be a lot of Yukon “nationalism” going on recently. A little pride in ones territory is not a bad thing. But implying that Yukoners should be prioritized over higher qualified teachers from across Canada is doing a disservice to the Yukon, not a favour.
I may have more sympathies to this ideal if the Yukon didn’t receive less than 20% of its actual revenue from its own taxpayers (mines really) with the other 80% coming from the rest of Canada. Don’t like other Canadians coming up here, fine, give up on all the amazing funding you get as the result. It’s an odd thing the Yukon has an attitude like Alberta, with financial books worse than PEI.

Up 10 Down 10

response to Yukoner79 on Jan 17, 2019 at 1:14 pm

Response to yukoner79: You make good points about having preferential hiring for Yukoners. When the government gives taxpayers $ to provide education grants to Yukon students, they should be hiring them when they want to return here and work instead of paying vast sums to have others move up here for careers that our own grads can do.
All too often, Yukon university grads are told that they do not have experience and as a result, southern teachers get hired. How are you supposed to get experience as a new grad, right? So...yes hire Yukoners but also hire Yukon First Nations as priority because most Yukon communities are mainly First Nations and it is imperative to have culture valued in those communities, not have southern teachers go there for a year or two to pad up their pension or have an adventure and then move on.
In Whitehorse, it is important to have First Nations teachers and build positive relationships for students, parents and culturally in society. Instead of the negative history of residential school, having Yukon First Nations teachers in schools puts value on culture and hopefully changes the racism that is ever present....sometimes priority hires have to be in place or people don't get hired...that applies to First Nations grads and all Yukoners.

Up 6 Down 7

managers out on Jan 16, 2019 at 11:37 pm

Great to have subs included in the Yukon. Last jurisdiction to do so. Now to get administrators into their own union. That should be next. Imagine if Many Rivers managers and workers were all represented by the same union?

Up 19 Down 2

Yukoner79 on Jan 16, 2019 at 7:02 pm

This is excellent news and they got a great deal. Question - CBC also reported prioritizing hiring Yukon FN teachers. Is this a thing or is that for language programs? Not against hiring Yukon First Nations teachers by any means but don’t understand why it is being a priority? Shouldn’t it simply be qualification-based? Even extended to include preferential hiring to “Yukoners”? YNTEP is inclusive to non-FN students - maybe the hiring process should not be labelled as giving FN priority? Just noticed it’s not reported in this article but highlighted by CBC. And don’t really like it.

Up 6 Down 3

Jason on Jan 16, 2019 at 3:45 pm

Sweet deal

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