Your Collective Agreement

As an employee of a district school board or school authority and as a member of your ETFO local, you 
are covered by the terms of a collective agreement. That agreement is negotiated between the union 
and your board and contains a number of provisions outlining your rights as an employee. Although 
your salary and benefits may seem the most obvious and important to you right now, your agreement 
also contains clauses on working conditions such as class size and preparation time, supervision duty, 
leave provisions, seniority, transfers, resignation and termination dates, protection against arbitrary 
disciplinary action, access to your personnel file, and much more.

The terms of your collective agreement are legally binding upon you, the union, and your employer and 
are enforceable under law. If you think your employer has violated the terms of the agreement, you or the 
union may have recourse to a grievance. The grievance procedure is a process for resolving differences 
arising from the application or interpretation of your collective agreement. It provides an opportunity 
to resolve differences at the local level. If there is no satisfactory conclusion, the parties have access to 
arbitration, a procedure where a neutral third party hears the arguments and renders a final and binding 
decision.

Check your collective agreement for pertinent clauses:

O Salary
O Grid placement (Have you applied for and received your QECO evaluation?)
O Class size
O Preparation time
O Supervision duty
O Length of school day
O Leave of absence plans, including pregnancy and parental leaves and deferred salary leaves
O Insured benefits
O Transfer dates
O Seniority
O Harassment and non- discrimination clauses
O Other important clauses

Make sure you 
have a copy of 
your collective 
agreement handy 
and get to know 
what’s in it!

19

WELCOME TO THE  

ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 

2014-2015

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