Quebec reaches tentative deal with major teachers' group

The Quebec government and one of the province's largest teachers' labour federations have reached an agreement-in-principle on non-monetary issues in their current dispute.

TheFdrationdessyndicatsdel'enseignement(FSE)was negotiating alongsidethe Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT), whichrepresents about 65,000 teachers across the province including8,000 teachers who work in the province's English-language school boards.

"It's a good settlement. It's reasonable,"said Richard Goldfinch, president of QPAT."It actually brings some lightening of the teacher workload,"

Goldfinch said the association's leadership will recommend that its members accept the deal.

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Teachers have been without a collective agreement since April.

Teachers, along with other workers in the public sector still without a contract, have been holding rotating strike days throughoutthe fall as a way to protest againstlagging negotiations.

Goldfinch said that only the non-monetary issues have beensettled, and negotiators continue to discuss salary and pension issues.

"We know that they're hard at it right now. We expect that we should be hearing stuff within the next day or so on that, and if it doesn't happen then, Idon't know if we will be able to do it before the holidays," he said.

The other main teaching group in Quebec, which is represented by the Fdration autonome de l'enseignement (FAE), is still without an agreement.

Its 34,000 members held three strike days last week.