An agreement reached between the Coquitlam Teachers' Association and the School District 43 board of education will see teachers get paid for Sept. 19, dubbed back to school preparation day.
And to pay for the day for full time teachers - part time teachers had already been paid - the district will appeal to the Ministry of Education for help.
In a press release sent out at 3:30 today - when a teachers' rally had been scheduled for outside the board office - the district stated it would provide that day of pay, which in earlier interviews had been pegged at costing about $850,000 including benefits.
"In an effort to fulfill the commitment made to teachers by the government, the board has made a decision to provide payment for a full day to all full-time teachers," the statement says.
Read the entire statement here:
The Coquitlam Teachers' Association had earlier tweeted out that an agreement has been reached with School District 43 and that a rally planned for today, Tuesday, at 3:30 p.m. had been cancelled.
Earlier today, a Ministry of Education spokoesperson said a complicated salary calculation may be behind the confusion about how School District 43 teachers should be paid.
"If the employer hasn't lived up to local provisions of the language, they have those avenues," the spokesperson told The News.
His comments come as teachers were preparing for a rally today, Tuesday, and School District 43 administrators were behind closed doors, apparently hammering out a deal for teachers.
According to the BC Public School Employers' Association, teachers in SD43 were properly paid for all the days worked in September.
The teachers were angry that their September pay cheques were for seven days instead of eight. But according to the district, teachers are paid a monthly salary based on a 20 day month, subtracting 13 days not worked during the strike, leaves a seven-day pay cheque.
In its statement, SD43 noted that although it applied its collective agreement as it had in the past, the result was inequity between local teachers and others across the province. As well, the statement noted the purpose of the collective agreement article was to address the issue of pro-rating salary rather than days not worked due to labour disputes.
