Work-to-rule: What to expect for school this fall

While work-to-rule happened in English public schools a few times over the past few years, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA) hadn't resorted to this tactic.

But if bargaining sessions scheduled between OECTA, the government and the Catholic School Trustees Association over the next few weeks are unsuccessful, work-to-rule will go ahead as teachers return to school.

OECTA was in a legal strike position as of Aug. 17. The work-to-rule will impact both elementary and secondary schools, as OECTA represents English Catholic teachers at all grade levels.

While negotiations are also supposed to happen at a local level, OECTA has chosen to forgo local negotiations until a provincial deal is reached.

Extracurricular activities and field trips will be impacted, as will report cards, said Dan Charbonneau, who represents secondary school teachers who work for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.

Teachers also won't report to work until 15 minutes before the start of the instructional day, he said.

While Charbonneau said he realizes this may be disappointing for students and parents, he said they should vent their frustration to the province.

He said OECTA already made huge sacrifices during the 2012 negotiations, and the province and school boards are pushing for more concessions.

“We gave our pound of flesh last round,” Charbonneau said. “We would like status quo with some improvements.”

Sudbury Catholic board chair Jody Cameron said he's holding out hope OECTA will reach a provincial-level deal before September. Just in case, though, the board has come up with a contingency plan.

“It's a contingency plan that if there would be any strike type action, it outlines what the board would do in regards to its schools and its staffing and its students,” he said.

Barring a new contract, work-to-rule is also expected this fall for English public elementary and secondary schools.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) began work-to-rule this past spring with withdrawals designed to inconvenience the government, but not students. The union is expected to escalate its work-to-rule soon, which could mean students and parents will beginning feeling the pinch.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) also announced it will not participate in extracurricular activities this school year, unless it had a contract. More services may also be withdrawn in the future.

“It's very frustrating for my members, because the last thing they want to do is start off a new year in strike action mode, pulling services,” said OSSTF District 3 president James Clyke, who represents Rainbow District School Board secondary school teachers.

“At the same time, we don't really have too many other options.”

Both unions have provincial-level negotiations coming up this month and in early September.

They also began the bargaining process at a local level earlier this year. That resulted in the OSSTF members in Sudbury and two other jurisdictions going on strike for a month this past spring.

While local negotiations continue for the ETFO, Clyke said a contract for his local will be worked out through arbitration, under a process imposed by the government after the spring strike.

The union representing French-language teachers, L'Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO), said it has provincial-level bargaining dates later this month and in early December.

However, AEFO provincial president Carol Jolin told NorthernLife.ca that work-to-rule is a possibility if negotiations don't go well, although strike action won't kick in until later on.

“We're not planning anything, really, for the beginning of the school year,” he said.