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UPDATED: Teachers' union taking government back to court

The BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF) isn't waiting until current teacher contract negotiations are over or the provincial election results come in: they're taking the government back to court over reparations for Bills 27/28.

In a press release issued this morning, the BCTF announced it was headed to the B.C. Supreme Court this September to seek "restoration of the contractual provisions that were unconstitutionally deleted from the teachers' collective agreement."

On April 13, 2011, Madame Justice Susan Griffin ruled Bills 27/28, which legislated a teachers' contract in 2002 and took away teachers' ability to negotiate class size and composition, was unconstitutional. Justice Griffin ruled the government had one year to remove the laws and return teacher bargaining rights.

Government responded in 2012 with Bill 22, the Education Improvement Act, which established caps on class sizes and promised financial compensation to teachers with classes over the limit. The BCTF was unimpressed, however, and told The Tyee at the time that Bill 22 "immediately reinstates these provisions (from Bills 27/28) in identical terms in the same section of the same law."

This is in a sense old news. The union announced it was taking the government back to court last summer over a dispute about what Justice Griffin's ruling meant. The original court date was scheduled for December 2012 but was pushed to fall 2013 because of problems with court availability.

The union took the government to court over the interpretation of Justice Griffin's ruling once before in 2011. Griffin responded in October 2011 by throwing the case out, telling the BCTF the courts "do not exist to give opinions on hypothetical situations."

But Lambert says this time is different. Teachers have the right to bargain class size and composition now, but during current teacher contract negotiations the government won't let them.

"They're at the table saying there is no funding for those kinds of provisions in teacher collective agreements. It's a hollow right if you can't exercise it," she told The Tyee, adding the government isn't bringing the resources required for any of the aspects of teacher contracts currently being bargained.

She wants the courts to restore the contract language to the pre-Bill 27/28 era, allowing teachers to negotiate class size and composition without being told they can't because there's no money.

"And I'm hoping that there will be a remedy beyond that for schools, teachers and students in terms of resourcing the system adequately."

Lambert says the union made the announcement today because it's the day before the second anniversary of Justice Griffin's initial ruling on Bills 27/28. But waiting for the May 14 election to determine who will form government next would be a pointless delay.

"Any government in power after the May election will have to deal with the implications of that decision. Any government in power should stop the court wrangling and put the money into public education," she said.

UPDATE: The Ministry of Education told The Tyee Minister Don McRae was unavailable for comment, but given the case was originally filed in 2012 there was nothing new in today's press release.

Katie Hyslop reports on education and youth issues. Follow her on Twitter.


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