Liberal education bills violate charter right to freedom of association

BCTF News Releases: 2011 April 13

In summary, the teachers‟ position is that the provincial government by its legislation unilaterally voided existing terms in their collective agreement, and prohibited future collective bargaining, on the subjects of restrictions on class sizes, class composition (number of special needs children integrated in the class), ratios of non-enrolling teachers to students (teachers not assigned to classrooms, such as librarians, counsellors, and special education teachers), and workload. The teachers say that these matters have a substantial impact on their working conditions. The legislation also affected some other related issues, such as school calendaring and hours and days of work.

Reasons for Judgment