Teachers from across the province are celebrating after a B.C. Supreme Court ruling.
The decision, handed down Wednesday, declared the legislation that stripped teacher collective bargaining rights in 2002 unconstitutional and invalid. Justice Griffin found Bills 27 and 28 were unconstitutional because they infringed on bargaining rights and on the freedom of association guaranteed under the Charter of Rights.
In 2002, working and learning conditions clauses, such as class size and support for special needs, were stripped from teacher collective agreements by the Liberal government.
In the decision, Griffin stated:
“The legislation undoubtedly was seen by teachers as evidence the government did not respect them or consider them to be valued contributors to the education system, having excluded them from any freedom to associate to influence their working conditions.
“This was a seriously deleterious effect of the legislation, one adversely disproportionate to any salutary effects revealed by the evidence.”
“This ruling is of huge importance to teachers and students in B.C.,” Quesnel District Teachers’ Association president Teri Mooring said.
“It has been almost a decade of struggle but finally, full free collective bargaining for teachers has been restored, it is tremendously gratifying.”
In 2002, education minister, Christy Clark spoke of the benefits of the bills:
“…..The bill(s) gives back to local communities the right to make decisions about how to make their schools work best for their children and their local communities.
“It allows them to unleash the energy, the creativity and the innovation that each one of the partners who works in our education system has to maximize the value of every single education dollar and to make sure that every resource that we have is dedicated to improving the education of students.” –Hansard, Jan. 26, 2002.
However, the bill led to the loss of 2,500 teachers, larger classes and reduced education dollars.
“This legislation has had a deleterious impact on the public education system in B.C., as the government intended,” Mooring said.
“It is now up to premier Clark to ensure the stripped contract language is restored, to rectify this situation as quickly as possible. She owes that much to the students and teachers of this province.”
