NDP announces changes to Bill 8

The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) and the provincial government are making room for another the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) to join them at the bargaining table.

The announcement of an amendment to Bill 8, the Public Education Collective Bargaining Act, came last Tuesday from Alberta’s education minister David Eggen.

Eggen said the bill was created to allow every party impacted by the agreement to have a say in negotiations.

“We want the collective bargaining act to function properly and make sure everybody’s at the table from the beginning,” Eggen said. “It’s a good way to organize, to listen and then make adjustments, so we’ll be able to start building the collective bargaining process here straight away, and look for a fair process that is affordable as well.”

He added, the bill itself received a lot of support between politicians in the legislature as well.

“We had near unanimous support for Bill 8 in the house from all parties, 53-3. It’s nice to see the legislature working together,” Eggen said.

The TEBA will join the NDP and the ATA during the first round of the negotiation process.

The Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) is pleased with the amendment, but board president Helen Clease said, there is still room for more changes in the future.

“School boards really wanted to make sure that we were at the first round of bargaining,” Clease said. “To us, it was really important to make sure that local voice, the voice of the employer, was heard at that first round. And that first round is where it would be determined what would be negotiated locally, and what would be negotiated centrally.”

She told 660 NEWS, before the amendment was announced, the ASBA held a consultation meeting with 58 boards to provide some input on the bill, which was first introduced on November 26th, and was passed with the amendment on December 8th.

The first round of bargaining is set to begin in 2016.