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OCCASIONAL TEACHERS’ BARGAINING UNIT OSSTF DISTRICT 17 - SIMCOE
Unit 6 – 51 King Street Barrie 705-726-1722 www.d17otbu.ca Email: [email protected]
Y E A R E N D N E W S L E T T E RSummer 2016
2015/2016 EXECUTIVEJeff Parton (Prez) 705-444-3162 [email protected] Petersen (1st V President) 416-262-5994
[email protected] Cudney (2nd V President)705-445-1488 [email protected]
Kate Dewey (3rd V President) 705-361-1918 [email protected]
Ben Andrews (Chief Neg/GO) 705-737-2729 [email protected] D’Antimo (Treasurer) 705-436-4835
[email protected] Nelson (Sec. /CBC) 705-322-6360 [email protected] Jessome (CBC) [email protected]
COMMITTEE REPRESENATATIVESNonvoting positions
Kate Dewey (Health & Safety + Human Rights) Deanna Nelson (Status of Women)
Chris Petersen (CPAC & Communications Officer) Ty Walkland (Educational Services Officer) 416-262-5157
[email protected] Dear Member; Hopefully your past school year has been a rewarding and satisfying experience. Casual work was down overall by -8%. There are several factors for this, but a large reason was the Contract Teachers working to rule and not doing their normal PD last fall due to negotiation difficulties. Conversely, LTOs have increased 9% in number of days taught. Please read this newsletter! Even though it’s the end of the school year, there is still very important information within and the bottom line is it’s your bank account and career we are talking about here. However, paramount to all of this, is one important thought; SCARRI won’t be jolting you out of bed at 6:00am until September, so enjoy those sleep-ins. Hopefully you are enjoying all your summer activities to the hilt.
ATTENTION – CRITICAL ITEMS !We have become aware that some of you do not know or understand certain important
elements of our Contract. It became very evident at the AGM when some people didn’t even know of some of the items; items that could have a large impact on you staying on SCARRI. To that end I’ve included some of the more relevant items below so you are fully aware of them come fall start up:
WORK COMMITMENT - Article 12.03 (a): Commitment language is now back to having to do 10 assignments each semester for a total of 20 for the school year. It is not 20 over the whole year as in was before. Starting in the fall (2016) the full extent of this Article will be in place. If you are in an LTO or are a part Contract teacher on the Supply List, your work with the Board is pro-rated towards the 10 day/semester commitment language. For example: teaching a full LTO load of 3 periods, you do not have to commit to the 10 days,
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2 periods – you would have to teach 3 or 4 supply days, and if you are doing a 1 period LTO/contract you should be doing at least 7 days for commitment purposes.
LEAVES - Article 12.03 (g): There is now much tighter language on when applying for non-medical leaves. Leaves commencing in September have to be in to the Board by June 1 of the previous semester. Leave applications have to be in to the Board in January for Semester II leaves. Medical leaves are obviously a bit different, but get them in as soon as possible once you know the leave has to be used.
REMUNERATION - Article 15.07 (a): Pay will increase by 1% as of September ($222.20) and another .5% increase in February 1, 2017 ($223.31).
EMERGENCY REPORTING SHEET – You should carry the form “Occasional Teacher Emergency Record”. The maximum number of emergency duties is 4 full periods per year (Additional Professional Activities). These apply to assignments that are not on the replacement teacher’s schedule such as on calls, hall duties, bus duty etc. A normal emergency assignment of 37.5 minutes or less counts as a half (.5) duty and if it is more than 37.5 minutes it is considered a full (1.0) duty. Make sure you get these duties signed off on the form. After you have completed the 4 full period duties you submit a photocopy or scan to the Human Resources department at the Board office and us. After that you can legally refuse to do any emergency duty assigned to you by showing the original sheet to school administration, if indeed, they try to assign extra APAs. Do not volunteer for any extra duties (on calls especially) as you are inadvertently depriving another supply teacher of a possible assignment.
DECLINE RULE – 15 time decline rule: This rule is per semester and applies to only your discipline/subject area. Also, they only apply to full day assignments. If you turn down a job in your discipline for a full day but pick up another job for that day, the decline is negated.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGThis year’s AGM was held on May 19th with 44 members present, our second highest turn out.
We capped the night off at the good ole “Crock and Block” in Barrie. Peggy Stevens was the chairperson again this year, running a meeting which had minor housekeeping resolutions passed and 1 action motion carried. Several items were discussed especially Treasurer Marcia D’Antimo presenting next year’s budget; which was subsequently accepted. Our Executive saw some minor changes this year as Ty Walkland is back in as 2nd VP. Paul Cudney has taken a hiatus for now from that 2nd VP role and will be sorely missed. New addition Matt Boyd was nominated and accepted the CPAC rep position.
COMMUNICATION
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Our membership is highly transitional in nature as you can well imagine. Many of you do not have permanent work sites; therefore, communication with our members is our most critical element in all we do. The best way we have found is by direct email and, to that end, we have approximately 95% of your personal email addresses, but we would like to have 100%. Please forward your personal email address to Communications Officer Chris Petersen at [email protected].
CONTRACT(Collective Agreement)
Also with respect to our current contract, is the maintenance of that binding document. We do this by ensuring that our employer follows the collective agreement’s legal intent. If you know of violations in any area, please let us know. For example; the assigning of extra duties above the actual teacher’s timetable; such as illegal on-call coverages. Also, pay discrepancies continue to be a concern. Contact Ben Andrews by email or text (so he has written proof) of any problems associated with “contract maintenance” issues.
EMPLOYMENT INSURANCEBecause all Occasional Teachers including LTOs are not contractualized, one can apply for
Employment Insurance in the off months. Some things to note about EI are: The following codes are from HR and are for this year’s EI applications. For summertime
applications: 3511012016201606 (effective from June 17 to July 23), December applications: 3511012016201612 (effective from December 16 to January 15), and March Break applications: 3511012017201703 (effective from March 10 – April 2 ) .
You can start your application by logging on to www.servicecanada.gc.ca and going to On Line Forms and Services.
Follow EI’s obligations of having to look for work, being available for work, and be willing to accept other related occupations within a specified geographic area.
There are minimum hours that are required for each application and for that matter, area. A day worked for the Board has been negotiated at 8 hours/day (NOTE: Article 15.14)
If you are a new applicant to EI you will need more hours than a repeat applicant/recipient. Check with EI to determine your hours needed as it varies region by region and the unemployment rate in each particular area. Next January new rules kick in and hours are going to be reduced.
To qualify for EI Maternity/Paternity benefits, the minimum hours required are 600. The eligibility period or the period one collects for totally are dependent on your hours
worked toward the claim and, again, the regional unemployment rate.
“Pic by Part” jeff parton photography
Specializing in Weddings, Sport, Portraits & Aerials
FOBs
There are still 98 Secondary Supplys without FOBs as of the middle of June. If you have not applied for one, you will need to do so immediately before September start up. The Board has deemed it a condition of employment and, therefore, if not in your possession removing you temporarily from SCARRI i.e. NO WORK!
GRIEVANCES
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We have had a significant number of grievances this year, in fact, the most ever in one year. Most were, thankfully, of a minor nature, but there were indeed serious ones. All have been resolved at the time of this writing by our judicious Grievance Officer Ben Andrews. The majority were related to Reg 274, missed assignments, classroom management, and pay issues.
NEGOTIATIONS Bill 122 is clearly flawed and will probably not look the same come the next round of
Negotiations.
OTIP LOYALTY PROGRAMME We were approached last winter by the Ontario Teachers’ Insurance Plan (OTIP) to support them through what’s known as a loyalty programme. By us supporting (advertising) this teacher owned insurance company we would be helping get the word out about their services. They are wholly owned by all the Teacher/Support Staff unions in Ontario. By us supporting them, they will in turn provide a stipend to us that we can use locally for members, from everything such as PD funds, charity donations, or overall assistance. You will see the use of their logos, banners, footers, and ads on our communiques etc. They are highly competitive so we would, of course, highly recommend checking them out. See the ads within.
Anita Chamberland handing over OTIP’s $5,000 Loyalty cheque to Secretary Deanna Nelson (June 20 - 2016)
JOBEN VIDEO PRODUCTIONSWeddings, Special Event videos.
Documentaries, Editing, Titling, Film, Slide, and/or PhotographConversions to video etc.
Ben Andrews: 705-737-2729 [email protected]
OFFENCE DECLARATIONYour Offence Declaration should have been updated in June as required by the Board. If not
filed prior to September’s school start date, you will be disallowed teaching privileges in Simcoe County schools and possible removal from SCARRI.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENTWe do have considerable funds available now for PD and we even negotiated some from the
Board. So if you have something that is PD based, please download the form from our web site, get it back to us and we will then take it to our Executive for consideration.
REGULATIONS 274/12 (& 148/15)
Nothing has changed regarding the Reg other than the Government and OPSBA were to meet regarding it and get a report out to both parties. As they say in Stayner, we’ll await the proverbial cows to come home to see that report.
SCARRI
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The number of supply teachers currently on SCARRI is 415. To insure your daily remuneration is correct and accurate please record the job number, date of the assignment, location, and the teacher you are covering for. Please report all extra duties outside the replacement teacher’s timetable and record them on your Emergency Sheet and get it signed off by an admin person. These could include an on call, hall duty, caf duty etc. that are not on the regular teacher’s schedule. Lately the Board has sometimes been obligated to pay for those extra duties because they went beyond contractual parameters. If your Emergency Sheet is not signed you should report this to Grievance Officer Ben Andrews at his email address (letterhead). One can access SCARRI on line. Known previously as SCARRI FX, it is now located at scarri.eschoolsolutions.com. This site acts as a computer based version of SCARRI. Your ID number and password are used the same way on the site as by phone. One can also check the number of days that one has taught over the year if you are unsure (i.e.: for Pension restrictions or Employment Insurance purposes). One can also go in to the staff portion of the web site and verify jobs taught in the Verification Area (bottom right).
Another issue over the years has been unfilled jobs. The Board and Contract Teachers obviously have concerns when jobs are not filled. Also, our members miss out on a job opportunity and thus, remuneration.
SUPPLY TEACHINGA GENERAL OBSERVATION
If you’ve had a bad day or two while you’ve been teaching this past year, please consider the following:
We have the availability of usually a well-stocked library. The use of workout facilities that are normally accessible to us. One can choose when one works. The majority of times we only work a total of 3 hours 45 minutes per day in the classroom. We are surrounded by energetic and for the most part optimistic kids. Other than bus duty, no outside yard duties compared to our Elementary compatriots (i.e.:
standing in the middle of February on the NW side of a school playground with winds howling down from Nunavut at 90+ km/hr.).
Most times a long lunch period that is solely yours to attend school cafeterias, or sometimes enough time to go and procure sustenance.
We have full computer access and usually Wi-Fi accessibility. Compared to the corporate world, we get a very respectable part time wage.
WEB SITE Our OTBU web site is located at www.d17otbu.ca. Please take time to check it out, as there is a lot of pertinent information on the site and contains such items as: our Constitution, the Current Collective Agreement (Contract), calendar of events, posts, blogs, and links to our other Bargaining Units within District 17.
Yours in camaraderie,
Jeff Parton (President,D 17 Occasional Teachers’ Bargaining Unit)
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