Yukon substitute teachers can now be represented by a union after the Yukon Teachers` Association ratified a new collective agreement with the government. The agreement provides for a salary increase of 6.7% over three years for teachers and an increase of 3.2% for qualified teaching assistants and tutors. Allowances for school staff in rural communities will also be increased by five per cent. The Yukon Teachers` Union went to court, alleging that the Yukon government`s hiring plans violated its collective agreement. The Yukon Teachers` Association and the Government of Yukon have reached an out-of-court settlement in a legal dispute over layoffs and hiring practices. (Crystal Schick/Yukon News) She also welcomed the fact that substitute teachers could now be represented by the union. Some substitute teachers asked to be represented, saying they had no way to fight for better salaries and benefits. “Money makes people`s backs go up a bit. So yes, that would have been the hardest part of the deal,” she said. Discrimination against a person based on their gender identity or expression is prohibited under the new collective agreement.
“In the future, we will be able to negotiate a better economic package for them,” Harding said. “They are the last child care teachers in Canada to be under the association. It`s really revolutionary. The new collective agreement, ratified this week with Yukon teachers, will help make the region a place where educators can work and stay, according to the president of the teachers` association. Before the deal, those workers had to be on probation for two years, sometimes longer, and if they decided to leave a school, that probationary period would be reset, Harding said. There are 90 days to implement the deal, Woods said, noting that flattening hiring records and completing the language would come next. She confirmed that dismissed teachers will be given priority for the new positions, but declined to go into further details of the deal, saying she wanted to share the information with YTA members first. YTA`s petition was scheduled to be heard on March 25, but it was quashed after the parties reached an agreement: “There was nowhere in Canada where you had to grant two years of probation to become permanent,” she said. .