The provincial government has a new offer for teachers which they say will put their salary well above the western Canadian average teachers’ salaries and will provide them with a four-year deal. The new offer includes a $1500 dollar one-time payment for teachers in the first year and a two per cent salary increase in each of the next three years. The province says that would mean teachers would be making 105 per cent of the western Canadian average. The offer also includes committed funds for classroom size and composition, through a committee that was struck last fall. The salary increases are in addition to the 1 per cent salary increase that teachers received on August 31st of last year.

On Monday, the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation announced that starting Thursday teachers will be showing up 15 minutes prior to the start of the school day and they’ll be staying no later than 15 minutes after the final bell meaning that extra-curricular activities will come to a halt. The sanctions come after teachers voted 90.2 per cent in favour of job action last month amid talks between the provincial government and the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation on a new collective agreement. Teachers have been without a new contract since August 31st, 2019.

In response to the provincial government’s new wage proposal, the president of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation says he is disappointed by the repeated attempts to undermine collective bargaining by focusing on salary. Patrick Maze says they need to address the urgent needs related to class complexity at the bargaining table and not in a government committee that is looking at the situation.

Because job sanctions begin on Thursday, meaning no extracurricular activities, Maze says students are paying the price for the government’s decisions. The Teachers’ Bargaining Committee has stressed that there will be no contract talks until the government commits to adequately addressing class complexity challenges.