Education minister calls on school boards to reach a deal with teachers before September

TORONTO, Ont. – The province’s education minister is warning legal action could be on the way if teachers and school boards are unable to reach an agreement by the start of the school year.

The McGuinty government has a deal to freeze wages for English Catholic school teachers but Laurel Broten says the other unions are refusing to bargain.

“This behaviour is counter productive and it is nothing more than a delay tactic,” she told 680News.

Broten is ordering school boards to get those wage freezes by the end of August.

“If they are unwilling or perhaps unable to do so, we will take the necessary steps which would include introduction of legislation,” she explained.

Toronto District School Board chair Chris Bolton told 680News he does not think much can be done in just five weeks.

“Between now and the end of August, many boards have already said the timelines are not reasonable,” he said.

Bolton added that he is not sure where these threats from the Education Minister are coming from.

“I’m not sure where the panic is here. It’s usual practice that we start our negotiations in the fall at the local level,” he explained.

Broten said that if school boards do not get wage freezes with teachers by the end of August, the current contracts will “rollover” giving all teachers a pay hike.

She said that will siphon millions of dollars out of the classroom.

“We need to ensure that we protect the classroom experience and that dollars are not pulled from the classroom to pay for an automatic contract rollover,” said Broten.

There has been no word on what legislation the province would enact.

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