| County teachers cashing in on sick
days |
| By Cheryl Canning |
| Enterprise-Bulletin Special (Fri,
January 5, 2000) |
| Little Johnny doesn't know the apple he gives his
teacher daily may not only keep them healthy, but can turn into
cold, hard cash on retirement day. |
| Healthy teachers with accumulated sick time reap the
benefits of up to $33,000 upon retirement for their unused sick
days. |
| Last year, the Simcoe County
District School Board forked over $4.6 million to retiring teaches
for accrued sick leave, unused over the educator's career, in the
form of a retirement gratuities plan. |
| "It's one of the incentives for being a
dedicated teacher, and not taking sick days," said Terry
Paddison, a retired teacher. |
| Police, fire, and military personnel are also
rewarded for their years of services, he said. |
| An additional $9.2 million was procured from the
school board's budget in 1998, when a retirement package window
opened by the ministry of Education and Training, allowing an
inordinate number of teachers to accept earlier retirement packages. |
| "It doesn't take to much creativity to figure
out how more money could be spend," said school board
chairperson Mary Anne Wilson, when asked about the $13.8 million. |
| The gratuities are pulled from the 'in-class'
envelope, that is, money used for in-class expenditures. These
could include computers, textbooks and desks. Wilson insists
that other boards pay similar retirement packages. They are a
part of the collective bargaining agreement made with Ontario
teachers for almost three decades. |
| "We're not the highest paying board in
Ontario," said Wilson, adding many teachers don't get the full
amount. |
| Debbie Clarke, the board's communications officer,
said teachers receive between $5,000 to a maximum of $33,000 upon
retiring. |
| "Most individuals who retire are retiring with
close to 30 years of service." said Clarke. "They
can't get any more than half of their year's salary." |
| The Ontario Federation of Secondary School Teachers (OSSTF)
states in its collective agreement with the Ministry of Education
and training that "it is the policy of OSSTF that any teacher
with 10 or more yeas of accredited service with a board should be
entitled to receive from that board a sick leave credit gratuity, a
service gratuity in lieu of sick leave, upon leaving the employ of
that board." |
| Money for the packages is taken directly from the
teacher compensation grants given to school boards in Ontario to
cover teacher's salaries, benefits and retirement gratuities. |
| Two years ago, the ministry announced an early
retirement package allowing teachers to retire early, and made a
one-time payment of $82 million to help the province's boards payout
the gratuities packages. |
| Wilson said she's not sure how much funding the board
received from the ministry in 1998 to cover the $9 million in extra
retirement packages. |
| The possibility of continued gratuities depends upon
a school boards' willingness to negotiate the package out of future
contracts with teachers' federations. Both the school board
and teachers' federation will not comment on current contract
negotiations |
