On March 18, 2020, the 颅Southeast Kootenay Principals鈥� and Vice Principals鈥� Association applied to the Labour Relations Board for certification to be the 颅exclusive bargaining agent for all principals, vice-principals and district principals employed in the Southeast Kootenay School District.
The application failed, but whether or not the situation is a tempest in a teacup or a sign of a gathering storm remains to be seen. sa国际传媒鈥檚 principals and vice-principals are the only Canadian school administrators who do not have the right to collective 颅representation for negotiation.
The application to the Labour Relations Board by the Southeast Kootenay principals and vice-principals was something that has not happened before. To understand what brought this about requires an understanding of sa国际传媒 school district labour relations issues dating back 34 years or so. Back then, local teachers and principals bargained with their individual school districts together.
In 1987, the provincial Social Credit government, two years after Bill Vander Zalm became premier, tabled Bills 19 and 20.
These significant changes to sa国际传媒鈥檚 labour legislation incorporated teachers into mainstream labour relations regulation, allowed the sa国际传媒 Teachers鈥� 颅Federation to gain status as a powerful 44,000-member trade union, provided a clear, though limited, right to teacher strikes and lockouts, and broadened the scope of negotiable matters.
The scope of teacher 颅bargaining was also broadened to include salary and working conditions.
However, directors, 颅principals and vice-principals were excluded from this system and, therefore, were no longer able to negotiate alongside teachers.
With principals and vice-principals out of the teacher bargaining unit, principals and vice-principals became part of the 鈥渕anagement structures鈥� in school districts, with virtually no bargaining power when it came to their own contracts.
Since that time, the BCTF has been highly successful in improving the working conditions of teachers. Hours of work, days in session, class size and composition were all bargained into teacher contracts along with the right to strike, ironclad job security and the development of automatic and significant 颅protections against 鈥渓ess than satisfactory鈥� assessments.
Meanwhile, principals saw no such restrictions on the 颅employer鈥檚 expectation of them.
Quite the contrary.
Boards knew that, and as far as contract bargaining was concerned, principals and vice-principals were essentially left out in the cold.
Subsequently, over the years, the compensation gap between teachers and principals has 颅narrowed in most districts.
In the Southeast Kootenay School District, for example, the highest-paid teacher with a master鈥檚 degree, depending on the location of the school, draws total compensation of $92,978 to $97,693, while the lowest-paid principal (master鈥檚 degree required) draws $108,000.
Other issues, like salary placement in accordance with the sa国际传媒 Public School 颅Employers Association鈥檚 standards on their provincial grid, maternity leave and short-term disability, were not included in principals and vice-principals鈥� contracts in many districts.
The certification 颅application by the Southeast Kootenay Principals鈥� and Vice Principals鈥� Association follows more than six years of advocacy by the sa国际传媒 Principals鈥� and Vice Principals鈥� Association to establish a 颅provincial negotiation table to represent sa国际传媒鈥檚 school leaders.
In some provinces 鈥� for example, Alberta and Saskatchewan 鈥� principals and vice-principals are part of the same bargaining unit as teachers and a single collective agreement covers teachers, principals and vice-principals.
The Southeast Kootenay 颅Principals鈥� and Vice 颅Principals鈥� Association asked for the 颅language of members鈥� personal services contracts to be restored to the original language of the master district contract, which had been written collaboratively in 2013 and did apparently include considerations such as maternity leave.
But the Southeast Kootenay school board declined.
Not good enough, 颅according to Darren Danyluk, 颅principal of David Thompson 颅Secondary School in Invermere and 颅spokesman for the sa国际传媒 颅Principals鈥� and Vice-Principals Association.
Danyluk said one example of inequity is that principals鈥� and vice-principals鈥� contracts in the Southeast Kootenay district don鈥檛 include maternity-leave provisions. 鈥淢any new vice-principals are young women: What happens to them when they decide to start a family?鈥�
Danyluk added: 鈥淢embers in some districts are presented with employment contracts that have clauses arbitrarily 颅rewritten or removed by the 颅district, and the members are told that they can choose to sign, or choose not to sign and move on from the role. That doesn鈥檛 instil trust, or provide any sense of employment stability for those school leaders.鈥�
When Ernest Hemingway described the warning of an approaching thunderstorm as a cloud 鈥渘o bigger than a man鈥檚 hand,鈥� he might have been describing the first attempt to find shelter under the labour relations code by the 34 members of the South Kootenay Principals鈥� and Vice Principals鈥� Association.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent who, back in the 1970s, as a school principal, successfully negotiated the teacher association (of which he was a member) contract in his district.
