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WEDNESDAY, April 23, 2014
VOL. 37 NO. 08 $1.30 inc. GST
BCTF strike action starts Wednesday By Tom Fletcher Black Press VICTORIA – After rejecting an offer from the school district bargaining agency for a long-term contract, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation has served notice it will begin work-torule action April 23. BCTF president Jim Iker announced Thursday that 72-hour notice has been given, after union members voted 89 per cent in March to endorse a three-stage strike plan. Phase one includes refusing communication with school managers, arriving no more than an hour before and leaving an hour after school hours, and refusing supervision of students outside class time. It does not affect pre-arranged voluntary activities such as coaching, but the refusal of supervision requires essential service levels that compel some teachers to assure the safety of students while they are out of classes. Report card preparation and parent meetings will continue.
Iker said progress at the bargaining table will determine how long phase one action would last. Phase two of the BCTF plan is rotating one-day walkouts in districts around the province. Phase three, a full-scale strike, would require a second vote by members to authorize. The BCTF has rejected the government’s offer for a 10-year agreement with pay increases totalling 6.5% over the first six years and additional wage increases to be negotiated for the final four years. There has been little change to the “lowball offer” on wages and no movement on the long-running dispute over class size limits and special needs support, Iker said. BCTF negotiators countered with a three-year proposal with three per cent plus a cost-of-living increase in each year. With compounding and current estimates of inflation, BCPSEA calculates that could amount to 13.5 per cent over three years. Iker said school districts are cutting staff and programs due to min-
istry budget cuts, and the ministry should at least cover school districts’ costs for increase medical services plan premiums and BC Hydro rate increases. The education ministry says perpupil funding has increased 38 per cent since 2001, and the ministry has provided $225 million over three years to hire 500 teachers and 400 new special education assistants for the 2012-13 school year. Peter Cameron, chief negotiator for B.C.’s 60 school districts, said once stage one strike action begins, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association will seek an order that the union pay for its extended benefits during any withdrawal of service. That would cost about $5 million a month for 41,000 public school teachers. “In order that there is in fact pressure on both sides, BCPSEA needs to respond to any phase one activities with measures that put corresponding pressure on the union,” Cameron wrote in a letter to Iker.
Rustic cabin behind Our Lady of Good Hope Church
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Make suicidal history off-limits in hiring checks: B.C. Privacy Commissioner The growing use of police information checks to vet job applicants is resulting in inappropriate disclosure of highly sensitive information like mental illness and past suicide attempts. B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham released a highly critical report on the practice Tuesday, urging government and municipal police boards
to order an immediate halt. Unlike a criminal record check, a police information check can turn up details about investigations that don’t lead to charges, charges that don’t lead to convictions and even the target’s mental health. “Mental health information should never be included in an employment-related record check,” Denham said.
“There is no reason why this information should be disclosed to employers, who would have no right to otherwise ask about this information in the hiring process.” B.C.’s record check system allows the release of more mental health and other nonconviction information that the vast majority of other jurisdictions the commissioner’s office
studied. Denham said personal information that ends up in police databases is routinely disclosed to employers without any evidence it predicts future criminal behaviour, improves public safety or results in better hiring decisions. “The information in these checks can have a significant and lasting impact on an individual’s privacy, human
rights and feelings of dignity and self-worth.” Non-conviction information held by police should be off-limits in employment-related record checks except in cases of prospective employees who work with children and vulnerable adults, Denham recommended. Denham’s office heard public submissions warning that disclosures of mental
health information vastly increases the potential for discrimination and further stigmatizes those afflicted. Some submissions also warned the spectre of inappropriate police disclosure may deter some people from seeking help during a mental health crisis. The report recounts individual cases of B.C. residents denied a job or unable to volunteer
for youth coaching due to unproven police suspicions that never led to charges or past suicide attempts that turned up in their employer-required police information search. That left some job applicants struggling to explain to prospective bosses why they were once suicidal or hospitalized for depression. Some said they have yet to land a job.
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