In Ontario, principals and vice-principals once belonged to teachers’ unions; however, that changed in April 1998, following the implementation of legislation removing principals and vice-principals from teacher bargaining units. Principals and vice-principals, who were prevented from membership in any union, very quickly organized themselves into voluntary professional associations. The Ontario Principals’ Council (OPC) is the voluntary, professional association representing over 5000 principals and vice principals working in the 31 English public school boards. In each public school board, an OPC District engages in local advocacy on behalf of its members, all of whom must be members of the OPC, and a minimum of two provincial Councillors are elected by the District to represent the interests of principals and vice-principals at OPC Provincial Council. The primary purpose of OPC is to promote and better the terms of employment for its members, including by way of negotiating employment contracts through the OPC and/or the OPC districts on behalf of the Members.[1]
While contract negotiations had been occurring at the local level since 1998, most recently under the auspices of PPM 152, in 2013, for the first time, the OPC entered into good faith provincial discussions on behalf of its Members. These discussions with the government and school board representatives were intended to address provincially-driven terms and conditions of employment for principals and vice-principals. An agreement was reached related to such items as maternity leave, sick leave and short-term disability leave, unpaid days and retirement gratuities. The Ministry communicated these terms to school boards and the OPC via B-Memo 16. In addition, a signed letter of agreement with the Minister specifically recognized the OPC as the representative body for principals and vice-principals operating in the English public school boards, when it comes to their terms and conditions of employment.
Bill 122, legislation governing provincial bargaining in the education sector for teachers and support staff was introduced and passed in 2014. The School Boards Collective Bargaining Act (2014)(SBCBA):
- created two-tier bargaining at the provincial and local level
- created a procedure and criteria to determine what items are negotiated centrally and what items are negotiated locally
- designated the four publically funded trustee associations as the employer bargaining agents for provincial negotiations and
- recognized the responsibility of school boards with respect to local negotiations.
Following passage of the SBCBA, the government entered into discussions with the OPC and the Trustee Associations to establish Terms of Reference for Principal and Vice-Principal negotiations which included consideration of how terms and conditions of employment for principals and vice-principals are to be determined, both provincially and locally in the future. Terms of Reference were agreed to and on January 21, 2016 initial provincial discussions were held with OPC, the School Board Associations and the Crown. It was agreed that local negotiations would be sequenced following the completion of provincial terms and conditions of employment. A tentative agreement was reached in May 2016. On June 3, 2016, it was announced that all Parties had approved the tentative agreement on provincial terms and conditions of employment.
Locally, each OPC district has a Terms and Conditions team that negotiates with senior management of the school board on behalf of all principals and vice-principals in the board. OPC trains and supports the Terms and Conditions (T&C) teams by developing template and district specific language, by offering legal advice about negotiating strategies and/or in response to school board proposed provisions, and by conducting regular training sessions for T&C representatives. The OPC assists the Terms and Conditions teams in understanding its obligations, and those of the school boards, under PPM 152, which governs the local negotiations.
[1] OPC Constitution, Objectives, pg. 1