Sask. teachers announce more job action after province rejects request for third party arbitrator

STF announces more job action WATCH: With no contract agreement in sight, the STF announced more job action set for next week.

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) has announced further job action less than 24 hours after the provincial government rejected a request to bring in a third party to help the two sides settle their ongoing contract dispute.

In a news release on Friday, the STF said that noon hour supervision will be paused on March 18 and 19 at multiple school divisions.

“The STF is disappointed that Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill has rejected the Federation’s invitation to take part in binding arbitration on the issue of class size and complexity,” the release said.

“The Minister continues to insist this issue cannot be part of a provincial collective bargaining agreement; however, a conciliator’s report released in January validated teachers’ position that class size and complexity can be articles for negotiation, the STF said.

Following Question Period on Thursday, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said binding arbitration would not be appropriate.

“Binding arbitration would deal with items in the provincial collectively bargained agreement. We've been clear that these issues — class size and complexity — are not issues related to the CBA,” Cockrill said on Thursday.

Cockrill added that the province has a deal on the table for teachers that “addresses several other asks” from the STF, but he felt the two sides had not had an adequate amount of time to discuss them.

Noon hour supervision will be suspended on March 18 at all schools in the North East School Division, Prairie Spirit School Division and Regina Catholic Schools Division.

Noon hour supervision will be suspended the following day for all schools in eight more divisions.

Christ the Teacher Catholic School Division, Good Spirit School Division, Île-à-la-Crosse School Division, Northern Lights School Division, Prairie South School Division, South East Cornerstone School Division, Sun West School Division and Living Sky and Light of Christ Catholic school divisions along with Sakewew High School in North Battleford.

Saskatchewan teachers have been without a contract since August of 2023.

-- With files from Rory MacLean.