Legislation to impose contract on teachers has just 3 clauses

The McNeil government's bill to force a new contract on the province's 9,300 teachers didn't include much for politicians to debate.

The Act Respecting a Teachers' Professional Agreement, which the government abruptly backed away from on Monday,has just three clauses and it's onlythe third that does anything.

It says the tentative deal reached between the province and the executive of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union on Sept.2, "is deemed to constitute a professional agreement entered into by the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development as an employer and the union as the bargaining agent."

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Seventy per cent of rank-and-file teachers who voted on the dealrejected it in October.

Schools reopen

On Monday, Bill 75 was set to be tabled in the legislaturefollowing the weekend announcement byEducation Minister Karen Casey that all schools would be closed to students.

The minister had claimed there were safety concerns as a result of the teachers' work-to-rule plan, but said Monday afternoon they had been addressed and the government would notmove ahead with the legislation at this point.

Schools reopened Tuesday.

The union hasmaintainedthesafety concerns had already been addressed last week, before the minister cancelled classes, and it did not issue any new directives to teachers on Monday.

'Not sure what happened'

"We're not sure what happened Friday and yesterday," NSTU president Liette Doucet said Tuesday.

"I would think they received a lot public pressure, a lot of pressure from parents, a lot of pressure from the general public about that bill."

She said the union still wants to negotiate a new contract but no talks are planned.

Casey would not say if the contract legislation would come on a later day, saying it servesas protection for the education system in the event strike action goes beyond the Education Act.

18 months without contract

Teachers have been without a contract for about 18 months.

Contract talks broke off Nov. 25. The union has questionedthe province's commitment to dealing with teachers' workplace concerns, including administrative workload.

The provincesays a number of those workplace issuesdon't belong in negotiations or are simply too expensive to be addressed all at once.