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On September 17, 2020, the BC Teachers’ Federation submitted an
application under Section 88 of the BC Labour Relations Code. You can
read the application here. The Federation announced the submission in a letter to all members from BCTF
President Teri Mooring. That letter is copied below.
Dear
colleagues,
First and foremost, I want to recognize how difficult the last two weeks have
been on all of you. As I wrote in my letter to the
Minister of Education this week, the employer is taking advantage
of your professionalism, the high expectations you put on yourselves, and your
caring for students. I know many of you feel unsafe and the government is
failing to ensure school districts are doing everything they can to ensure you
and your students are as safe as you can be.
The BCTF continues to push every available strategy to address the inequities
of working conditions, the haphazard implementation of health and safety
measures, and confusing changes in government messages and documents.
As part of our strategy, the Federation’s lawyers have been hard at work
analyzing British Columbia’s legislative framework to see what we can do from a
legal perspective to force changes. Today, the BCTF filed an application with
the Labour Relations Board under Section 88 of the BC Labour Relations Code.
It is a rarely used provision that we believe can compel the government into a
labour relations process to address our many outstanding concerns. Our hope is
to get the government to address the many communication, process, and health and
safety problems of their restart plan. Critically, our application seeks to
enhance the enforcement measures to ensure school districts take all possible
actions to keep teachers and students safe.
We have asked the Labour Relations Board to address our concerns and
application as quickly as possible.
Teri Mooring
President