Occasional Teachers' Bargaining Unit Newsletter:

Volume 2, Issue 3 (May 4, 2004)

President's Message (by Joe Wilson)

Opening Thoughts

It seems amazing that we are already moving toward the end of the school year. Was it really last year that we finally turfed our profoundly anti-education Tory government, to elect a Liberal government that we continue to hope will be a real change - even if they have set a disturbing trend of not fulfilling their campaign promises. Well - whatever: Harris and Eves and their whole cabal are gone - and that has got to be good for all of us committed to quality public education!

AMPA has come and gone, with no major changes, but with a clear message that teachers are tired of being assailed, attacked, taken for granted and mistreated. It seems our "interesting times" will continue.

Locally, District 11 has, I feel, continued to be well organized, well run and responsive to the needs of its members. I think our District Office, led by outgoing president Don Rowdon, staffed by four talented and caring Federation Services Officers, and organized by Administrative Assistant extraordinaire Laurie Lafraniere, has worked long and hard to take care of us all. And soon - we all get that wonderful summer break that we all so richly deserve!

OTBU Annual General Meeting

Per By-law 1 of our Occasional Teachers Bargaining Unit Constitution, I am announcing the date of our Annual General Meeting:

The main order of business will be electing a new OTBU executive. Candidates who wish their names to appear on the ballot may indicate their intention to run for office by submitting their name, supported by two other members’ signatures, to OSSTF Administrative Assistant Laurie Lafraniere at the District Office by May 28, 2204. Note that any member of the bargaining unit may be nominated from the floor at the AGM by 2 other members (mover and seconder).

The term of office is two years (coinciding with the District 11 executive). The executive positions are: President; Vice-president; Secretary-Treasurer; CBC Chairperson.

The reality in recent years has been that it is very hard to fill out the executive - and fairly often in my term it has been me alone. This makes it easy to schedule meetings, but is not a good situation. Currently, Peter Thompson and Melanie McLellan have been assisting me in a variety of ways - and helping make sure you and your interests are properly represented. Thank you to both!

Please give strong thought to putting your name forward: democracy works best with consistent, responsible representation.

I will be putting my name forward again as your OTBU president, and hope that there will be other candidates for this position and the others on the OTBU executive.

Collective Bargaining

We are soon to begin negotiations with the board for a new collective agreement. If it seems like we only just signed one - we did - an extension of the previous agreement which took us to the end of this school year. My hope was that the board would agree to our bargaining unit negotiating jointly with the Teachers' Bargaining Unit, a direction provincial OSSTF favours. We may be able to negotiate together on some items which clearly are the same for both bargaining units. We will continue to move in the direction of joint negotiations, which recognizes the very close connections between the TBU and OTBU, and which should give us considerably more bargaining clout.

As part of the bargaining process, please send me feedback on what you feel our bargaining priorities should be. Please consult the box below, and fax, mail or email your thoughts and priorities to me.

As you probably know, former OSSTF Chief negotiator Bob Fisher now is with the Provincial Secretariat at Mobile Drive. As Bob and his table team did a fine job for us last negotiations, I plan no significant changes this time. Negotiations will be a topic at our AGM.

Workplace Information and Supports

We have been pursuing this topic at labour-management meetings all year. It is really a matter of implementing a letter of intent in our Collective Agreement, which makes clear that Occasional Teachers are to be properly supported at the workplace (almost always a school) by appropriate information and support. We have a draft document which can be used as a model by schools for the sort of information and support OT’s need when they show up for a job. Its intent is to make sure that you are quickly and efficiently informed of school schedules, routines, rules and other pertinent information. You are given a map of the school, informed how to contact key support people, and are given access to your classroom. Procedures are being worked out to also make this information available on-line, through the employee portal. This means you could access this information before going to the school.

The one missing piece may be ways to ensure that, in addition to this general school support, OT’s are also given clear, appropriate information by the classroom teacher being replaced: lesson plans; access to support materials; seating plans; attendance materials; names of key contact person (e.g. department head).

To help me follow through with this, please let me know of significant instances where you have been very poorly supported by the school or teacher. I know it is VERY hard for OT’s to follow up on this type of thing - because it jeopardizes future job possibilities. I can better help ensure that there are general procedures and routines in place if I know how well things are working - or not working - for you in this regard. The best way to contact me is via email, or by relaying a message to me via our Administrative Assistant at the District Office.

Access to LTO Positions

In October the board sent a memo to principals informing them they should not use OT’s at the top of the salary grid (which would mean essentially retired OT’s) for LTO positions unless it could not be avoided. When I became aware of this memo a few weeks ago, I shared my concerns with the District Executive and with our OSSTF provincial liaisons. This sort of thing no doubt has been informal process for some time, but to blatantly state in a memo that members’ access to possible jobs would be formally and arbitrarily limited, and without any negotiation or even communication with OSSTF, is totally unacceptable. We continue to work on the premise that "a member is a member", and that the rights of all members are respected .

We are following this up, and I hope to be able to report to you more at the AGM.

Retiree Access to OT List

Earlier this year a memo came from the board stating that retiring teachers will no longer have free access to the Occasional Teacher list, and that retirees should not count on being eligible to do occasional teaching to supplement their pensions. This memo was later rescinded, and so this long-standing practice will be in effect for the upcoming school year. However, the days of this automatic retiree access to the OT list may be numbered.

Access to the list is a management right (occasional teachers are not our members until they are on the list). The board’s priority has been to ensure that there are sufficient numbers on the list for all geographical and subject areas, and they have always been responsive to our concerns. They try to keep a balance of retired teachers, career occasional teachers and those seeking contract positions. We agree with them that the numbers on the list should be fully adequate for system needs, but not so large as to make it unwieldy, and to significantly reduce the amount of work available to our members. We will continue to monitor the situation and revisit it at labour-management meetings.

An Improved District Office

After exhaustive efforts, we were unable to sell the District Office building for a reasonable sum, and so had to abandon efforts to build a new District Office on Third Street. We will now devote the funds put aside for the new building to renovating the old one. Note that there will be no extra levy of any sort on members to carry out the renovations: the funds have been set aside since amalgamation some years ago.

The renovated building will be made fully accessible, will have considerable improvements to the basic building structure, and will have a larger meeting room which can be made available for membership use. It will have a kitchen servery, a separate entrance, and can be isolated from the office section. This means it will be ideal for meetings, socials and special events by OSSTF members. The down side is that the staff has to move out in mid May to a temporary location at the Fairmont Mall, 972 Hamilton Road (near Highbury). The hope is to be back in our renovated and greatly improved District Office in September.

Intent to stay on the OT List

Manager Peter Martin has sent out a memo with instructions re the "Occasional Teacher, Secondary" form.

***You must submit this form if you wish to remain on the list next year!!**

It is available for completion May 1-31, 2004. On-line access is through the employee portal > my TVDSB applications >HRS Applications > Temp/Occasional Employee Canvass. If you cannot access it on-line, forms are available through Human Resource Services at the Board Office. Call them to arrange getting one. This form can also be used to request a leave of absence for the 2004-2005 school year or to inform the board that you do not wish to remain as a Secondary Occasional Teacher. Note that the need to notify the board of your intent to remain on the list is not new, but the opportunity to do it on-line is.

Do not neglect submitting the form. Again, you must inform the board of your desire to stay on the Secondary Occasional Teacher list if you wish to continue next year.

Note also that the board is trying to operate electronically, on-line, as much as possible in dealing with forms, memos and information gathering. Please cooperate with this effort: it is faster, more efficient, saves paper and allows for better tracking and information verification.

Offence Declaration Forms

The next stage to the Tory created check for criminal offences, which began last year with the initial check on all employees, is the annual Offence Declaration Form. It is essentially an update on the original criminal offence check. It either is your confirmation that you have not committed a criminal offence in the last year, since the initial check was done, or that in fact you have. If you have committed an offence, the next step depends on how serious it was, and whether or not the board should take any action.

This is not voluntary. It must be done. If you don’t submit the form, you will be contacted, and essentially will not be able to continue to work for the board until it is resolved. The deadline is September 1, 2004 - but I urge you to do it before the end of the school year, or the end of August at the latest. As noted in the previous item, please, if at all possible, do this electronically. Go to the Employee Portal, and click on "Complete Your Offence Declaration". The form is available in hard copy from the board office, at the OSSTF office and at most board work sites.

Many are very unhappy with this requirement - but any response to its appropriateness is political - to right-wing governments that enact this sort of legislation or perpetuate it. However, when the law requires it, it must be done The process the board is using has been developed collaboratively, as was the original criminal check process, in response to the Tory legislation. Again, the reality for all board employees is that it must be done.

Political Action & Election Readiness

Are we always involved in elections? After the high-stakes provincial election we just came through, the federal election may seem anti-climactic - but it’s not. There are many vital issues which need our close attention. If teachers and educational workers can not be deeply involved in the democratic process - who will be?

I will not pretend to be neutral in his upcoming election. I will be working as campaign manager for Banting English teacher Irene Mathyssen in her NDP campaign in London-Fanshawe. I hope you will consider supporting Irene - to send one of our own to Ottawa - but to keep this message at least remotely non-partisan - please do get involved in the election, educate yourself about all the parties, candidates and issues, and support the candidate of your choice. I will soon be in almost full residence in our office at 972 Hamilton Road, literally right around the corner from our temporary OSSTF office - feel free to drop in and say hello.

Let us not take thought for our separate interests, but let us help one another.
(OSSTF Motto)

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