20 December 2022
Nego 2023 – English School Boards
The Comité patronal de négociation des commissions scolaires anglophones (CPNCA) has just submitted its offers to the Fédération du personnel de soutien scolaire (FPSS-CSQ) about the collective agreements S12 and S13. The FPSS-CSQ President says, “for the workers of both the Anglophone school boards and the Francophone school service centers, the government is continuing to ignore the needs of school support staff, serving us the same cold dish as in 2019.”
CPNCA Offers
The CPNCA says they want to improve the attraction and retention of support staff in the context the labour shortage, promote the academic success of all students, increase flexibility relating to the organization of work, and update and revise certain provisions of the collective agreement to reflect today’s realities. Unfortunately, these laudable orientations are being used to conceal measures that do not correspond to the needs of school support staff.
When they say they want to review the notion of a position, review the work week and working hours, change the way personnel are assigned and reduce the obligations of the employer, they are wanting to go backwards rather than forwards.
Demands of the FPSS-CSQ
School support staff make up 40% of the people working in schools across the province. Whether administrative, manual, technical, paratechnical or direct student services, these people contribute to education by supporting the work of teachers, professionals and administrators. Mr. Pronovost says that “Without school support staff, our schools and centers would not be able to function; the employer’s offers do not reflect our importance and the essential contribution we make to education. We are indispensable.”
Improve the quality of school support staff jobs
The staff shortage problem is a major issue for the members of the FPSS-CSQ. We are calling for very specific measures to improve the attraction and retention of staff. Quality jobs with full-time positions are required, along with the elimination of split shifts, the promotion of all school support staff jobs, and family-work balance. Concrete action was needed from the government to resolve these problems and it completely ignored them instead,” says Éric Pronovost.
Other sectoral filings to come
The FPSS-CSQ also represents school support staff from the Cree and Kativik school boards. We will be given these government offers on December 21.
Meetings will begin in January
Our CSS negotiating team will begin meeting with the CPNCF team in January. The exact date has yet to be determined. Mr. Pronovost concludes, “we will have the opportunity to show them the urgency of improving the working conditions of school support staff; it will be crucial that the employer party listen.”
