Saturday, April 2, 2016

Ontario teachers’ unions call on minister to apologize over sick-days comment


The heads of two teachers’ unions are demanding that the Ontario Education Minister apologize for suggesting teachers are abusing their sick days plan.

Responding to a Globe and Mail story about a report that said sick days are increasing, Education Minister Liz Sandals told reporters earlier this week that Ontario teachers are taking more sick days because they lost the right to bank them for a cash payout upon retirement.

“There’s no reason to believe that they’re actually sicker than they were two years ago,” Ms. Sandals said.

Paul Elliott, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, called Ms. Sandals’s statements “provocative, presumptuous and completely unsubstantiated.”

“Her comments demonstrated a lack of respect for the dedication displayed every day by Ontario’s education workers,” he said in a statement on Thursday. “We hope the Minister will learn to more carefully consider her public musings in the future.”

Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, also took issue with Ms. Sandals’ words.

“Minister of Ed should publicly apologize to teachers in this prov for her unacceptable & unfounded comments,” he said on Twitter.  (more...)

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