BC teachers union files complaint with Labour Relations Board over back-to-school plan

The president of the union representing BC teachers said a complaint has now been filed to the Labour Relations Board over the province’s back-to-school-plan.

In a letter to teachers, BC Teachers Federation (BCTF) President Teri Mooring states she  knows many of her colleagues feel “unsafe,” and that the union “continues to push every available strategy to address the inequities of working conditions, the haphazard implementation of health and safety measures, and confusing changes in government messages and documents.”

Mooring notes that lawyers for the BCTF “have been hard at work analyzing BC’s legislative framework to see what we can do from a legal perspective to force changes.”

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In the meantime, “the BCTF filed an application with the Labour Relations Board under Section 88 of the BC Labour Relations Code.”

This, she states, “is a rarely used provision that we believe can compel the government into a labour relations process to address our many outstanding concerns.”

In filing this application, Mooring says the hope is to “get the government to address the many communication, process, and health and safety problems of their restart plan. Our application seeks to enhance the enforcement measures to ensure school districts take all possible actions to keep teachers and students safe.”

Mooring says the BCTF has asked the Labour Relations Board “to address our concerns and application as quickly as possible.”