Minister of Education on Continued OSSTF Job Action

Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, issued the following statement in response to the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) announcement of continued job action:

“OSSTF union leadership have made clear that they will continue to take job action—which hurts students most—unless taxpayers accept their demand of $7 billion in enhancements to salaries, benefits, and other entitlements.

If there were any question that this wasn’t about salary, those doubts were put to bed when the four teacher unions launched their challenge to legislation that deals with compensation increases for the public service. 

We have made a reasonable offer on compensation – a $750 million increase in compensation for the second highest paid educators in the country. 

We are calling on OSSTF to cease from continued job action, accept our offer of private mediation, stay at the table, and focus on improving learning in the classroom, not enhancing compensation for their members.”