Kootenay Lake support staff ratify three-year agreement
By Nelson Daily Staff
More than 330 support staff in the Kootenay Lake School District have joined other union members in the province that have come to an agreement on a three-year contract with the BC Public School Employers’ Association.
In a media release Thursday, Kootenay Lake School District unionized support staff ratified the three-year term from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2022, with general wage increases of 2% per year, plus additional local funds negotiated that will result in tangible improvements to service delivery.
Some examples of negotiated improvements to service delivery include:
- funding for professional development;
- a premium paid for employee orientations, as well as mileage for casual custodians;
- labour-market increases for specific job classifications; and
- paid “release time” for educational assistants to attend professional development, or collaboration and peer mentorship.
Kootenay Lake CUPE Local 748 has 334 employees.
The BC Government said the agreements focus on improving services for people and ensuring fair, affordable compensation.
The ratifications complete the process begun by the September 2018 Provincial Framework Agreement, which paved the way for collective agreements to be negotiated between K-12 local support staff unions and the 60 public school districts throughout B.C.
Currently, there are approximately 230,000 public-sector employees covered by tentative or ratified agreements reached under the mandate.
With these ratifications, all 69 K-12 support staff agreements have been settled under the Province’s public-sector bargaining mandate.
The remaining unions and school districts that have ratified include:
- SD23 (Central Okanagan) and CUPE Local 3523 with 1,186 employees;
- SD34 (Abbotsford) and Teamsters Local 31 with 897 employees;
- SD40 (New West) and CUPE Local 409 with 371 employees;
- SD47 (Powell River) and CUPE Local 476 with 159 employees;
- SD49 (Central Coast) and the Non-Teaching Staff Association with 45 employees;
- SD52 (Prince Rupert) and IUOE Local 882B with 168 employees; and
- SD83 (North Okanagan-Shuswap) and CUPE Local 523 with 464 employees.
