Text of Memorandum of Understanding

http://www.bcpsea.bc.ca/documents/Publications-@Issue/2017/S2%20-%202017-03-07,%20FINAL%20MoA%20for%20Signature,%20V.2.pdf

Summary: Tentative Memorandum of Agreement (between British Columbia Public School Employers’ Association (“BCPSEA”) and The British Columbia Ministry of Education (“Ministry of Education”) and British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (“BCTF”)

• The key components of the Memorandum of Agreement are as follows:
  Acknowledges restoration of the deleted language as required by the Supreme Court of Canada decision and provides a final solution to the matter;
• Acknowledges that students are entitled to equitable access to learning and that students with special needs are entitled to an inclusive learning environment — the parties agree that implementation of the collective agreement language will not be a barrier to these principles;
• The processes described in the Memorandum of Agreement will be implemented for the 2017-18 school year and the Education Fund and Priority Measures agreement will stay in place for the remainder of the 2016-17 school year;
• There are committees and dispute mechanisms in place to address the complexities of implementation, update out of date terminology, address definitions in the current context to help reduce grievances and arbitrations and to provide assistance to the parties;
• Non Enrolling Teacher Ratios are restored with the ability to combine three of the five categories for posting purposes. This combining of the three categories is more reflective of the current context;
• Process and Ancillary language will be restored with a transition period to have full
  implementation by the second semester of the 2017-18 school year and start of the 2018-19 school year. The local parties will also be able to recommend to the provincial parties that they keep their existing processes and modify the agreement to reflect that local agreement;
• Class size provisions will be restored;
• Composition language will be restored with a transition period and committees to deal with the changing nature of how we address students with special needs. An arbitration process is built in, in the event we don’t agree before the start of the 2019-20 school year.