School District 43 is seeking clarification from the BC Public School Employers' Association on whether SD43 teachers should be paid for their first day back to work on Sept. 19.
The move comes after angry teachers filled the board of education meeting Tuesday night clamouring for what they said was a missed day's pay.
"The board is following up with a commitment to look in to it," board chair Melissa Hyndes said.
But as of Thursday, no further information was available as to whether the provincial agreement supersedes the locally-bargained agreement that sets rules for how teachers are paid.
According to SD43, the teachers' collective agreement stipulates that teachers are paid a monthly salary based on a 20 working days. Subtracting 13 days the teachers were on strike left Tri-City teachers with seven days pay on their cheques.
But the teachers who showed up Sept. 19 to get classes ready for students say they should be paid for eight days.
And Education Minister Peter Fassbender had said if BC Teachers' Federation members ratified their deal on Sept. 18, they would be paid staring on Sept. 19.
"I'm just dumbfounded, to be perfectly honest," Coquitlam Teachers' Association president Charley King told trustees at the board meeting. He said part-time teachers got paid for the day and the teachers' deal reached with the province said teachers would be paid for that first day back to class.
He said if that wasn't the case, teachers should have been told.
The district estimates paying the teachers for the day would cost about $850,000 including benefits, and Hyndes told The Tri-City News that if the provincial agreement does supplant the local collective agreement, she hopes that the day's pay would covered by the province.
"When the government says that the deal was fully funded, to me, then, it should be fully funded," Hyndes said.
Meanwhile, trustees have expressed concern about teachers not getting paid for Sept. 19, with Anmore/Belcarra trustee Holly Butterfield noting she was also contacted by upset teachers.
Teachers have also been active on Twitter, expressing their displeasure or offering alternative suggestions. Noted one: "I believe I shouldn't be paid for the 13 days we weren't working but it's kind of mean to deduct all of them from the 1st cheque."
