PRINCE ALBERT — Last week the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division announced the ratification of the Local Implementation and Negotiation Committee (LINC) agreement.
Sask. Rivers Superintendent of Schools Cory Trann said teachers voted 70 per cent in favour of the contract, which reflects strong support from the staff. Trann said the mandate from the vote was a positive sign.
"We're pretty happy with the voter turnout and the per cent and the work that their team did and we did in partnership,” Trann said. “It was well received for sure.”
The negotiations took place between the SRPSD LINC Committee and the SRPSD Board of Education Negotiating Committee. Sask Rivers bargains directly with local teachers on issues outside the collective bargaining agreement.
Trann said the LINC agreement covers items such as sabbatical leaves, educational leaves, salaries for substitute teachers, and other matters not dealt with in provincial collective bargaining.
“There are the leaves that occur outside the collective bargaining and things that we agreed to, such as extracurricular hours and reimbursement,” he said. “These sorts of things support the local work that our teachers do for us.”
Trann said the provincial collective bargaining agreement has a finite group of items that are discussed. The items are provincially mandated.
Trann said a strong relationship between teachers and the division allowed them to reach an agreement.
“Local associations and boards have relationships that are positive,” Trann said. “This is a direct relationship between the teachers and the Board of Education for Sask Rivers. It just aligned those things … that aren't housed in the collective agreement. We always find them beneficial for our teachers and support the work they do, so it's a real good partnership.”
Trann added that the bargaining began last year, and the negotiations took place over a short period in the summer of 2024.
"Our negotiations were fairly prompt,” he said. “We negotiated over a series of a few months with communications back and forth, and they're all positive. In retrospect, it was done pretty fairly quickly.”
Trann said that the relationship between the LINC committee and the division is fruitful.
“The Board of Education and Sask Rivers are really grateful to the work that our LINC committee did together and the teacher's willingness to accept the vote,” he said. “We think it's a good LINC agreement and it's good for all parties involved.”
