B.C. teachers' strike: cash offer to end strike ends today
$1,200 bonus available to B.C. teachers if agreement is reached before July 1
The province's offer to give B.C.'s public school teachers some extra cash if they sign a deal ending their strike expires today.
The more than 40,000 teachers are being offered $1,200 apiece to end the job action that halted classes for more than half a million students on June 17.
Class size, wages and support staff numbers are the key issues in the dispute.
B.C.'s labour board ruled last week that teachers must hold summer classes for students in Grades 10 to 12 who failed courses during the year and can't retake them in the next school year.
The board has asked school districts to submit a list of courses and the number of educators needed to teach them to the teachers' union by Wednesday.
Meanwhile, it remains unclear whether the handful of schools that don't close for summer will reopen this week.
The province asked the labour board to force teachers at these schools to return to work, but the board has delayed its decision.
Teachers, however, have promised to remove picket lines at the year-round schools as of Tuesday, July 1, meaning classes could resume as early as Wednesday.
The affected year-round schools listed in Friday's ruling by the Labour Relations Board are:
- Spul'u'kwuks Elementary - Richmond
- Garden City Elementary - Richmond
- Power Program (Grades 10 to 12) - New Westminster
- Douglas Park Spul'u'kwuks Elementary Community - Langley
- Kanaka Creek Elementary - Maple Ridge
- Cataline Elementary - Cariboo-Chicoltin
The Labour Relations Board will also have to decided on whether to force teachers back to work at B.C. custodial and treatment centres that offer year-round schooling.
More stories on the BC. teachers' strike:
- Labour Relations Board deems remedial summer school 'essential'
- B.C. teachers' strike: schools on modified calendars to reopen
- B.C. teachers' strike: No summer school for many if picketing continues
- B.C. teachers will picket summer school if no contract deal by June 30
- B.C. teachers' strike: 5 big questions
With files from CBC News