VANCOUVER — For months, the contract stalemate between the BC Teachers’ Federation and the provincial government was confined to the bargaining table.
The arguments moved inside the courtroom on Tuesday as the union asked for clarification on a ruling that it believes gives teachers the right to negotiate class size and composition.
In April, Justice Susan Griffin of the B.C. Supreme Court declared “unconstitutional and invalid” a law that restricted teachers’ bargaining rights. The 2002 legislation took the makeup of classrooms — the total number of students, as well as the numbers of special needs students integrated into each class — out of collective bargaining.
But in the months after the ruling, with the province and union negotiating a new contract, Education Minister George Abbott has refused to discuss class size. That led the union to walk out of talks.
Union lawyer John Rogers appeared before Griffin on Tuesday and applied for an order of clarification. He argued the two parties can’t move forward because they have vastly different interpretations of her ruling.
“We say that such direction . . . would provide both convenience and fairness in these proceedings,” Rogers told the court. “It’s clearly in the interests of all parties that there be a common understanding. The lack of such a common view, in our submission, would undermine the potential for resolution and create the possibility of prolongation in the dispute between the parties.”
Karen Horsman, the lawyer representing the province, opposed the union’s application.
She said the province is only halfway through the year-long period it was given by the judge to consult with teachers and formally respond to the decision.
“The real disagreement between the parties . . . is in BCTF’s insistence that anything short of the immediate repeal of the legislation and the return of class size and composition issues to the collective bargaining process would be contrary to the court’s ruling,” Horsman said.