What is Remedy?
Remedy occurs when a class exceeds the maximum allowable size and/or class composition limits as outlined in our Collective Agreement.
In 2002, the BC government stripped our Collective Agreement language related to workload, including class size and class composition. In 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada restored this stripped language.
According to this restored language, classes must be at or below specific class size limits and must also meet class composition limits.
When the employer organizes classes, they must make ‘best efforts’ to ensure that classes meet both size and composition limits as prescribed in our Collective Agreement. When, despite these ‘best efforts’, a class exceeds limits for size and/or composition, the teacher is entitled to remedy. Remedy is therefore the result of the employer’s violation of our collective agreement language.
How is remedy calculated?
Remedy is calculated as an amount of time.
Remedy is generated monthly by classes in violation of class size and composition language. The affected teacher receives remedy calculated in minutes.
How do I find out if my classes are in violation of class size and composition language?
Remedy generated for the current school year will appear on your pay advice beginning in October. No remedy is accrued during the month of September.
For information on remedy accrued during the 2023-4 school year, check with Staff Representatives at your school site.
I have a class with students with designations, but I do not accrue remedy. Why does this class not generate remedy even though there are students with designations?
When our class size and composition language was restored in 2016, the province and the BCTF disputed the interpretation and implementation of the restored language as it applied to students with designations.
The matter went to arbitration and in 2019 Justice Marjorie Jackson ruled that class composition should be based on the criteria in place in 2002 when the BC Government stripped our language (the ‘Jackson Arbitration’). Although students maintain their designations and funding based on current diagnostic criteria, because of the Jackson Arbitration the employer uses the narrower criteria of 2002 for class composition purposes, specifically when building the timetable. This means that not all students with designations count towards remedy calculation. To find out which students in your class are recognised as designated for the purposes of remedy, please consult My Education.
The workload for all teachers across all subject areas has been increasing. Remedy is not indicative of the challenges of a class or the workload of the teacher.
In the past I have used remedy for classroom resources or professional development. Why is remedy now applied to staffing?
Remedy is calculated in minutes. In the first two years we received remedy, it was used for staffing. After these two years, we shifted to using remedy for resources and Professional Development. Minutes were converted to dollars for teachers to use.
There were a few concerns with this approach. For instance, it became apparent that the employer was relying on remedy to not properly fund classroom resources. Additionally, remedy itself may be inequitable, as not all designated students are included in its calculation. As a result, whether or not a class generates remedy may not accurately reflect the true complexity of that class.
Therefore, for remedy generated during the 2023-24 school year, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was signed between the VSTA and the employer that remedy minutes would be converted to staffing at individual school sites. The intention of this agreement was to provide the time and classroom support to alleviate the demands of an increasingly complex workload.
The agreement that VSTA signed is intended to support teachers by alleviating the workload incurred by the increasing complexity of class size and composition. The agreement allows teachers to work with Staff Representatives at the school level to organize remedy staffing in a manner that works best for the school community.