Upgrading the salaries of Qubec’s teachers – Canada NewsWire

"If Quebec Wants to attract and retain teachers, the government needs to make a major investment and that includes salaries for teachers"- Heidi Yetman, President, QPAT

MONTREAL, Dec. 12, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ -It was with a great deal of frustration but very little surprise that the Fdration des syndicats de l'enseignement (FSE-CSQ) and the Qubec Provincial Association of Teachers (APEQ-QPAT) learned about the Statistics Canada publication on teachers' salaries in Canada in 2017-2018, which once again ranks Qubec's teachers in last place, far below the Canadian average.

The publication (available here: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-604-x/2019001/tbl/tblc3.1-fra.htm) shows a 13% gap between teachers' salaries in Qubec and the average for Canada in 2017-2018. Even worse, compared to their colleagues in other provinces, Qubec's teachers will need at least five additional years of service to reach the top of their salary scale.

"Qubec's teachers are rightly demanding, at the very least, that their salaries should be brought up to the level of the Canadian average, to show that their work is valued," said Luc Gravel, the FSECSQ's Labour Relations Vice-President, who is responsible for the provincial negotiations. "We are one day away from submission of the employer's inter-sector offers and less than a week away from submission of the sector-based offers, and the Government needs to understand the message that the question of salaries, like the question of better working conditions, is unavoidable."

The salary demands for teachers are as follows:

"Clearly, the abolition of the first six steps on the scale, as promised by the Legault Government, will be insufficient to correct this unfair situation, which has persisted for many years," said Heidi Yetman, the QPAT President. "Things need to change now!"

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The Fdration des syndicats de l'enseignement (FSE-CSQ) is a grouping of 34 unions representing more than 65,000 teachers from school boards throughout Qubec. Its membership includes teachers from the preschool, elementary, secondary, vocational training and adult general education sectors. It is affiliated with the Centrale des syndicats du Qubec (CSQ) and negotiates jointly with the Qubec Provincial Association of Teachers (APEQQPAT), which represents the 8,000 teachers in Qubec's English school boards. Together, they represent a total of 73,000 teachers.

SOURCE Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers

For further information: Julie Montpetit, Media Officer, APEQ-QPAT, 514-249-9653, julie_montpetit@qpat-apeq.qc.ca; Sylvie Lemieux, Media Officer, FSE-CSQ, 418-563-7193, lemieux.sylvie@fse.lacsq.org

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Upgrading the salaries of Qubec's teachers - Canada NewsWire