Posts published in “K-12 Bulletin”

The Public Interest Disclosure Act came into effect December 2019, and is being phased in to cover provincial public sectors over a five-year period. On December 1, 2023, PIDA began covering the K-12 sector.

PIDA provides a legally protected avenue for employees and former employees to report serious or systemic wrongdoing to their supervisor, a designated officer, or the Ombudsperson.

The BC Ombudsperson, an independent officer of the BC Legislature, is mandated under PIDA to investigate allegations of wrongdoing from public sector employees, and complaints from employees who believe they have been subject to reprisals for reporting wrongdoing, seeking advice about reporting, or participating in an investigation

PIDA requires that all School Districts have at least one Designated Officer to receive and investigate disclosures.

Employees can seek advice or report wrongdoing to their supervisor, the Designated Officer, or directly to the Ombudsperson office. Employees can report reprisals only to the Ombudsperson.

Members can also seek advice from their union. It is important to note that a union’s role under PIDA is to provide general information about what is involved in making a complaint, but not to assess whether allegations would meet the threshold of wrongdoing.

School districts should be informing the Local and members about their procedures for assessing and investigating disclosures. If your school district has not already done so, you may wish to raise it with them.

Reporting wrongdoing to the BC Ombudsperson

If you make a report of wrongdoing to the BC Ombudsperson, an investigator will contact you within 2 business days to clarify the details of your report. You can submit a report of wrongdoing in writing by completing this form.

Once you have submitted your report, you can expect the following:

Review & Assessment

The Office of the BC Ombudsperson will review the information provided to determine if there is a reasonable basis to launch an investigation. This includes assessing whether, if proven, the allegations meet the threshold of wrongdoing under the law. Not all allegations will qualify as potential wrongdoing.  Your identity will be kept confidential during this process. You will be informed of our decision to investigate your report.

Investigation

BC Ombudsperson investigations are conducted in a timely and fair manner. This includes providing any person who is the subject of an investigation with notice of the allegation and the opportunity to respond. If your report is investigated, additional contact with you will depend on the individual circumstances of the investigation. All investigations are completed as quickly as possible.

Report & Recommendations

Following an investigation, the BC Ombudsperson will issue a report containing any findings and recommendations to the public body involved. The discloser, or person who report the wrongdoing, will also receive a summary of conclusions and findings.  If in the public interest, the BC Ombudsperson may report publicly on the outcome.

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Since the pandemic, education workers have seen a dramatic increase of violence and harassment in schools. To understand this development, CUPE National’s Research Branch is collaborating with scholars at the University of Ottawa on a new nationwide study that examines education workers’ experiences of physical violence and harassment. In particular, the study explores how intersecting factors such as gender, ethnicity and dis/ability influence those experiences.

This will be the largest study of its kind ever conducted in Canada and one of the few studies to examine the effect of the pandemic on rates and impacts of violence and harassment in schools. We are asking CUPE locals to share information about this research with their membership and to encourage as many education workers as possible to get involved.

Participation entails a 40-minute, online survey that is entirely anonymous and confidential. The survey will ask respondents about their experiences of explicit forms of physical violence as well as other manifestations of harassment, including slurs, insults, put-downs, being ‘ganged up’ on, and damaging accusations. No personal information about who members are or the school(s) in which they work will be collected. The survey can be completed in French or English, and a report on findings will be available in the summer of 2024.

Click here to launch the survey, or copy and paste the link below into your internet browser.

https://uottawapsy.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3kMOhVp9rd8l9no

We have linked a poster and a social media shareable announcing the study to this email. We encourage you to distribute them widely to spread the word about this important research.

View PDF here.

In its efforts to address the province-wide shortage of affordable and accessible child care, the provincial government today announced a $2/hour increase to the wage enhancement for private sector early childhood educators (ECE). This increase will bring the private-sector ECE wage enhancement up to $6/hour effective December 1, 2023. The public-sector ECE wage enhancement will remain at $4/hour.

The Ministry of Education and Child Care has told CUPE this subsidy is needed in part because private sector ECE’s make significantly less than those working in the public child care system.

All child care workers in B.C. of course deserve a fair living wage, health benefits and retirement security – public or private sector. But CUPE well knows that the best way to achieve this for workers is with strong properly funded public child care.

Thanks to the work of CUPE members through the CUPE BC public child care campaign, B.C. has recently made great strides in public child care that have benefited families and CUPE members across the province.

CUPE advocacy has been crucial to the launch of 24 seamless child care pilot projects across B.C. The Delta School District’s pilot project, staffed by members of CUPE 1091, was so successful it was expanded to provide even more child care spots in Delta schools.

CUPE’s advocacy was pivotal to the opening of the Nakusp Early Learning Childcare Centre – a new public child care centre staffed by School District 10 workers – members of CUPE 2450. This centre, opened in June 2023, now offers over 80 child care spots all staffed by CUPE members.

And this September, thanks to the efforts of CUPE 723 and the support of the CUPE BC child care campaign, Campbell River SD 72 launched a before- and after-school care program and is building six new public child care centres, providing hundreds of new child care spots staffed by CUPE 723 education assistants – many of whom are now working full-time hours with before- and after-school work.

These are just a few of our most recent successes. We know more successes are possible.

CUPE will continue to advocate for more public child care spaces for B.C. families, and to rise up more B.C. child care workers through a strong publicly funded child care system.

Please take a moment to visit seamlesschildcarenow.ca and send this message to your MLA calling for more public child care.

On Wednesday, September 20th right-wing groups across the country are organizing protests to spread disinformation about 2SLGBTQI+ people and resist trans-inclusive policies in schools.

There will be counter protests in many cities across our region. The hateful protest is called #1MillionMarch4Children. Over 80 locations have been announced as participating. You can find a list of events on the right-wing website, Blueprint for Canada.

The K-12 Presidents Council urges you to take action:

• Show up! The BC Labour Against Transphobia Flying Squads list has set up a sign-up form for counter-protesters to connect with each other – _there is safety in numbers so please join if you can and share through your trusted networks (not social media): https://forms.gle/9h6mAcK62YLQjeh96
• Issue a statement condemning this hate in our communities
• CUPE has supported campaigns and events by Momentum, the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity, and the Enchante Network. You can add your voice to Momentum’s federal campaign to #Act4QueerSafety here
• Try to get Poilievre to reject the Conservative’s anti-trans policies here.
• You can contact your municipal representative through CCGSD to pass 2SLGBTQI+ inclusive policies here.

For 2SLGBTQIA+ community members who are impacted by the ongoing rise in hate speech and rallies and need support, here are some resources available to you:

Trans Care BC

Catherine White Holman Wellness Centre

Transgender Map

2 Spirits of BC

Gender Generations Project

View PDF here.

As we wrap up another school year, the K-12 Presidents Council would like to recognize the exemptional work of all school support workers. Throughout the year, students, families, and communities have been able to depend on you every day.

Thank you for your work keeping our schools, buses and other learning environments clean, healthy and safe for all, and for providing the highest quality of services to our public education system.

Celebrating our successes
Over this past school year, we successfully bargained a new Provincial Framework Agreement with the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association. The 3-year PFA gained new commitments for support staff education, a new Provincial Joint Health and Safety Taskforce with a mandate that includes supporting measures to address workplace violence prevention, and $3 million in annual funding for benefit enhancements.

For members in locals participating in the Unionized Support Staff Extended Health Plan, these enhancements take effect July 1, 2023 (click HERE for a summary of these improvements).

The PFA also included general wage increases and cost of living adjustments that exceed those seen in most other Canadian jurisdictions. The full 6.75 percent wage cost of living adjustment ifor this year of the PFA was triggered. This increase comes into effect July 1, 2023.

The PFA also includes a cost-of-living wage protection for July 1, 2024. We expect to have information on this increase in March of next year.

Building on the PFA, all K-12 school support locals concluded local bargaining in March. Several locals across the province were faced with concession demands. But members stepped up with mobilization efforts, participating in strike training and kept united fronts across the province.

The credit for our successes sits with our members. Your ongoing support and participation helped us make real gains that we can build on in the coming years.

Looking ahead
We all know how quickly summer seems to go by, and the K-12 Presidents Council is already preparing for the next school year. Next October the Council will be holding its first in-person meeting since the pandemic. Local presidents will be discussing the issue important to our members and how your union can best support you in your workplaces.

Once again, thank you for your support and for the work you do every day. Have a good summer.

View PDF here.