B.C. government threatens a wage rollback, offers bonus for year-end agreement

VANCOUVER – The B.C. government is threatening to cut teachers’ wages if a contract agreement isn’t reached by the end of this school year.

Peter Cameron, the chief negotiator with the B.C. Public Schools Employers’ Association, says wages will be cut by five per cent if a deal isn’t reached by the end of June.

If an agreement is reached by that time, Cameron says teachers get a $1,200 signing bonus.

He says the teachers have asked for a 15.9 per cent pay increase over four years, which is out of the ball park when compared to other labour sectors.

The government is now offering a six-year contract, after announcing Thursday that it was backing away from the hope of a 10-year deal.

There’s no word yet on what the B.C. Teachers Federation thinks about the offer, but president Jim Iker said yesterday that they were pleased to see the government back off its demand for a decade-long contract.