Good morning,

As was just sent out in a mass email, here is a reminder to send your pictures in (using your board email) so a FOB may be issued for you to gain access into SCDSB schools on days when you get a call. See the message from the board below:

Occasional Supply staff (this process does not apply to casual Operations/ custodial staff) are currently being issued security identification badges/fobs (ID Badges). These will be used for identification purposes and also building access based on the employee's assigned jobs in SCARRI. An automated process will grant access to schools based on accepted SCARRI job assignments on the day of the job.

To prepare for the process of printing each employee's ID badge we are asking you to send in an appropriate photo of yourself to [email protected] from your own SCDSB email account. Using a SCDSB email account is necessary to allow us to verify your identity before printing the ID badge. When sending the photo by email the following information must be included:

1. Send email to: [email protected]  from your scdsb.on.ca email address
2. Subject of email: Your Name - Occasional Employee ID Badge Photo
3. Attach your photo to the email. Photo should clearly show your entire face.
4. In the email message body include: 
   a. Your Full Name 
   b. Your Employee ID (which is the same as your SCARRI Access ID) 
   c. The name of a SCDSB school that you often visit.  This is where your completed card will be delivered for you to pick up. If you would rather pickup your ID badge at the Education Centre in Midhurst, please indicate this instead of a school.

For further details, review the iOS fob photo instructions.

Note, that the ID badges will not be active when delivered to the school and you receive them. You will need to login to the SCDSB staff website to activate your ID badge before it will work for building access. Instructions for activation of the ID badge are located on the staff website.

The process of printing the ID badges will start in January 2016.  When your badge is ready to be picked up you will be notified with an email to your SCDSB email account. When picking up your badge you will be required to show identification.  You will also need to sign for the badge when you receive it.

You may also visit the education centre between Monday, February 8 and Friday, February 19 to have your photo taken if you wish. Reception staff (usually Lynn Timms) at the front desk will take your photo and send it directly to [email protected] for you. Be prepared to provide identification to staff to verify your identity. Your photo will be queued up for processing and your location for pick up will need to be documented.

If you have any questions please email [email protected]. 

With respect to our recently signed Collective Agreement is a concern several of you have voiced over the last few weeks. That concern is over the change from 20 commitment days per year back to the former 10 days per semester to stay on the Supply List (SCARRI). Simply put, because of the fact the Contract was signed almost half way into the school year one has the entire year to do the total of the cumulative 20 days for commitment purposes.
Bottom line, don't fret if you only have 7 or 8 days in the first semester.

The following is an analysis of our recently ratified Contract:  


Current OTBU Collective Agreement “Precis”

 

As you are all aware of, we ratified our Collective Agreement back on December 16.  Below are the most relevant Articles that pertain to you as a Supply Teacher/LTO. The areas that are in brackets and italicised are my comments pertaining to the Article’s actual intent or understanding.  The contract should be up on our web site now for complete perusal.  If there are still explanations needed please email me at my OSSTF email address: [email protected] or call 705-428-3537.

 

Part A - Central Agreement:

·       The Contract expires on August 31st of 2017

·       Sick leave credit is 5.5 days per full semester with a 60 day short term disability leave pegged at 90% of salary.

·       There will be an exploratory Regulation 274 committee made up of Government and OSSTF officials with an end date of March 31. After that they will present their combined findings to the Bargaining agents.

 

Part B - Local Agreement:

·       (All strips that the Board had insisted upon were ultimately withdrawn).

·       Several housekeeping Articles were cleaned up; mostly definitions, redundant items, and out dated articles deleted.

·       Article 12.02 (c): Persons repeatedly not making themselves unavailable could be taken off SCARRI.

·       Article 12.03 (a):  Commitment days are now back to having to do 10 each semester for a total of 20 for the full school year.  It is not 20 per year as in the last contract. (This was a point the Board did not want to back down on whatsoever).

·       Article 12.03 (g):  There is now much tighter language on when applying for leaves.  Leaves commencing in September have to be in to the Board office by June 1 of the previous semester. Leave applications have to be in to the Board in January for Semester II leaves. (there was lots of abuse regarding leaves in the past)

·        Article 14.02 (a):  Now if daily supply assignments are cancelled due to weather and, therefore, resultant bus cancellations, you should monitor media outlets or the Board’s web site to find that information out. The Board will attempt to call out but if it is in the media, news etc. the job is deemed cancelled if buses are not running.

·        Article 15.05 (a):  Con Ed teachers will now get a credit of 1:1 for any previous teaching experience to be paid retroactively back to Sept 1/2015. (It used to be what we considered punitive at a ratio of 2:1). So if one has 5 years teaching experience you will be paid at Grid level 5 starting Semester 1.  (this is a big win for us and we have been fighting for years to change this unfair situation)

·        Article 15.07 (a):  Pay will be a lump sum bonus payment of 1% for 2015/16, a 1% increase as of September 2016, and a .5% increase as of February 1, 2017. (Totally it is an increase of 2.5%. The bonus tied to this year’s pay will simply be calculated on how much you have made gross throughout this year and will be paid out sometime this summer - 2016)

·        Article 15.09 (a) [i]:  With regards to daily pay, no one shall get paid more than 1.17 of a day’s pay. As an example; if one has a 2/3’s LTO (.667), you can work a ½ (.5) day of supply to = 1.17. (This also was an insistence by the Board’s negotiation’s team. Initially they demanded a pay cap of only 1.0 but we pushed and got it to 1.17).

·        Article 15.10 (a): Cancellation time has increased to 75 minutes from the previous 60 minutes. If a job is cancelled during that time frame you can still report to the school in question and be given a different assignment for the day or ½ day. (This is an increase of 15 minutes in this article, another win for us).

·        Article 15.14: For the purposes of reporting EI hours, each day is deemed as being 8 hours in length.

·        Article 19:  The Board has given us a $2,000 stipend for Professional Development for all members. (This is the first time the Board has given us PD monies).