Montreal, February 12, 2021 – The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) is enraged that the Treasury Board has unilaterally removed representatives of school boards (the employer) from the main teacher negotiations table at the 24th hour.
This unilateral decision goes against Québec’s Act respecting the negotiation of the collective agreements in the public and para-public sectors, which defines the Comité patronal des negotiations Anglophone and the Comité patronal des negotiations Francophone as the employer representatives.
“This is another slight on school boards and yet another centralized decision by this government that by-passes school boards unnecessarily. In effect this is an elimination of a very necessary moderating influence on the negotiation process. English school boards are active partners in education and the exchanges held during the negotiations process has always been effective and value-added in the past,” said QESBA President Dan Lamoureux.
“It is unfortunate that we find ourselves in this situation once again with the elimination of another very important advocacy that ultimately impacts our staff and students and we will not be a part of the main negotiating table. We call upon Treasury Board President, Sonia LeBel to reverse this decision,” concluded the President.
QESBA is the voice of English public education in Québec and represents 100,000 students in 340 elementary, high schools, and adult and vocational centres across Québec.