B.C. Education Minister Not So Interested in Binding Arbitration Offer

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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B.C. Education Minister, Peterr Fassbender, has refrained from agreeing to a binding arbitration until he sees details of the union’s proposal, adding that he won’t “categorically say no” either. The minister clarified that the province will not negotiate to raise taxes to provide a settlement to the BCTF that isn’t in line with other unions, highlighting that an arbitrator can mandate a deal beyond what government feels it can afford.

During a press conference, Mr. Fassbender stated that “we have not seen any of the detail or preconditions attached to the proposal… that said, I’ve clearly said on behalf of the people of BC, the government, and the employer that we want a negotiated settlement — it must be done in a way that respects all parties — including the fact teachers deserve a raise… and in a way that respects taxpayers.” He also added that “the difficulty in this is I have no details on what’s in the proposal, and I hope we get them in writing so we can look at that.”

Whereas, the BC Teachers’ Federation proposed earlier to agree a binding arbitration as a last ditch effort to end the deadlock. President Jim Iker stated that “BCTF is proposing to send matters of compensation, benefits and preparation time to binding arbitration. We’ll also ask government to leave the matters currently before the court and related to the court ruling to the courts.” He added that “we will recommend to our members that if government agrees to binding arbitration and dropping E80 that we end our strike, we go back into our classrooms with our students, and we’ll deal with the deal through binding arbitration.”