Negotiations between Sask. teachers and province to resume next week

Saskatchewan teachers and the province are set to resume negotiations on Wednesday.

Saskatchewan teachers and the province are set to resume negotiations on Wednesday.

On Friday afternoon, the Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee officially accepted the Teachers’ Bargaining Committee's (TBC) invitation to resume talks, according to a news release from the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF).

This comes after the province's newest offer was rejected on Thursday. Over two days, 88 per cent of STF members voted, with 55 per cent of those voting no to the latest offer. 

While Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said he feels as though binding arbitration would be the best course of action moving forward, STF president Samantha Becotte said there are still more options to discuss at the bargaining table. 

The offer teachers rejected included an accountability framework that would have been signed by the STF, government and Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) and attached to the agreement as a Memorandum of Understanding.

Also included was an additional $18 million per year to tackle classroom size and complexity, which would have been added to a multi-year-funding agreement that was signed by the SSBA and province earlier in 2024.

There was also the creation of a minister’s task force on classroom complexity that would have been made up of teachers, students and parents, as well as a policy table on violence free classrooms that was to be chaired by the Ministry of Education and include representatives from the STF and SSBA.