Bill ending Nova Scotia teachers’ contract dispute expected to pass today
Posted Feb 21, 2017 05:44:49 AM.
Last Updated Feb 21, 2017 06:29:11 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – A government bill aimed at ending the 16-month long contract dispute involving Nova Scotia’s 9,300 public school teachers is into the home stretch in the legislature.
Introduced last Tuesday, Bill 75 is expected to become law once debate on third reading wraps up later today.
Teachers went on a one-day strike Friday in protest of legislation they say takes away collective bargaining rights and doesn’t provide the help they need in the classroom.
But Premier Stephen McNeil has said the government will focus on a committee for classroom improvement that will receive $20 million over the next two years to address classroom conditions.
The law will also bring to an end the teachers’ work-to-rule campaign, which began Dec. 5.
The bill imposes a four-year contract that contains a three per cent salary increase and incorporates many of the elements included in the first two tentative agreements rejected by union members.