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!
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