HO: Staff Job Actions

Senior management, school and district administrators, and members of the Professional and Administrative Staff Association (PASA) are expected to cross a picket line and to work behind a picket line. 

All employees who are members of trade unions normally honour picket lines that are legally in place.  The policy of the Board of School Trustees (the “Board”) to deal with such absences is to deduct a day's pay for each day of absence and ,if the absences continue for a long period, to determine whether or not to deduct a share or an appropriate share of the cost of other benefits.  The policy requires the Board on each such occasion to make a decision for an appropriate response, depending on the situation and the length of the strike or absence of employees who honour the picket line. 

Decisions on whether to grant the use and accumulation of sick days, vacations, and certain other benefits when there are extended absences by virtue of a strike or the honouring of picket lines are matters that  usually form part of the negotiations on the return-to-work settlement following the dispute.  Negotiations are, therefore, required within the policy of the Board at the time, and all agreements to be ratified by the Board in the same way as negotiations for additions, deletions, or amendments to collective agreements, as discussed under other file headings. 

Teachers from time to time have taken a day off to protest certain "political actions".  All such absences have resulted in a loss of pay for time lost but in no discipline.  The Board has made a decision on each such occasion to deal with each specific case.  In the past, there has been adequate advance notice for a policy statement to be made without undue pressure on time constraints.

DMT Responsibility: AS-HR