Ontario to pay education workers salary increase as remedy to Bill 124
Tens of thousands of Ontario education workers will receive a salary increase after their union, the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), reached an agreement with the province on a remedy for the wage cap law being struck down.
“After a very long day of meetings, we are pleased to share that we have reached an agreement with the Crown and CTA regarding remedy for Bill 124,” reads the statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.
“The ability of the OSBCU to reach this deal in a timely manner is directly related to the worker power that has been built over the last year and continues to build today.”
OSBCU said the agreement reached includes 0.75 per cent retroactive compensation increases for 2019-20 and 2020-21, and an amount between 1.5 per cent and 3.25 per cent for 2021-2022, as determined by an arbitrator. Additionally, wage rates in the 2022-2026 collective agreements will also be increased and wage hikes will be pensionable.
These increases are on top of the one per cent workers received in their 2019-2022 collective agreements, the union said.
In October, the provincial government said it had agreed to give some public high school teachers and elementary school education workers retroactive salary increases to compensate them for their constrained wages under Bill 124 – which capped salary increases to one per cent over a three-year period.
An Ontario court declared the 2019 law unconstitutional as it infringed workers’ rights to collective bargaining and freedom of association. The province is appealing the ruling.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario ratified a new contract in late October, reaching an agreement with the government for its 3,500 education worker members.
Their agreement is similar to OSBCU’s in that it also included an additional 0.75 per cent in salary increases for the first two years of the contract that was covered by Bill 124, with the amount for the third year to be decided by an arbitrator between 1.5 and 3.25 per cent.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation agreed to the same terms with the province and will join the ETFO as a “united front” when heading into arbitration in January.
OSBCU-CUPE members will hear more information about the agreement in the coming days, the union said.
With files from The Canadian Press
OnraThis article was reported by CTV News
