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April 29, 2023 Rally for Public Education

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I want to take a moment to thank all the School Staff Liaisons that connected with their staff to express how important it was to participate in the Rally for Public Education on April 29. Your efforts are recognized and greatly appreciated as you are a significant reason we saw more than 200 PSTA members and their family drive 5 hours on a Saturday to #MakeNoise4Ed.

It felt so energizing to be in a crowd of families and teachers gathered to share a unified message that we care and want a properly funded public education system for our kids.

The Rally for Public Education is just the beginning and I believe we are seeing a growing movement of people concerned about cuts to our children’s education.

We need to keep up momentum and there are many ways you can help.

What you can do:

Negotiation Information

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Our Provincial Collective Bargaining Agreement (2019-2023) is set to expire on August 31, 2023 so the STF Provincial Bargaining Team has been working hard for months planning and gathering the voice of teachers. There will be many opportunities for members to participate and support the work of our negotiation team. This post will be pinned to the top of the website and act as a information hub for PSTA members so please share this link and refer back as this page will be updated as more information is made available.

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Update Your Information for Provincial Collective Bargaining
Has your contact information changed? Ensure your details are up to date to receive important information on provincial collective bargaining. To update or validate your information, please log in to MySTF. You can also fill out a Change of Information Form or call us at 306-373-1660 or toll-free at 1-800-667-7762 to update over the phone.

STF Pre-Bargaining Survey

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STF Members will be entering provincial collective bargaining later this school year and have already hosted Virtual Town Hall meetings, focus groups and a survey to gather information from teachers to better understand their concerns and negotiation priorities.

The PSTA wanted to encourage all teachers to participate in the survey so we offered an incentive to meet as a school staff and complete the survey while enjoying coffee, donuts or another treat by providing school staff with $1.50/member so the School Staff Liaison could purchase the treats.

While we don’t know the number of teachers that completed the survey independently, we did receive reimbursement claims for a total of 79 teacher in 5 schools.

Thank you to the SSLs that organized survey meetings at their schools.

STF Council Passes Resolution to Prevent “Double Dipping” for LEADS and STF Staff

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On Friday, October 28, councillors voted in favour of the following resolution:

BE IT RESOLVED that beginning July 1, 2023, the STRP Plan Text be amended to prohibit LEADS and STF staff positions from collecting a monthly pension from the STRP during periods of re-employment as LEADS and STF staff, and to require that those members suspend their monthly pension and re-enroll as regular contributors to the STRP for the duration of their re-employment as LEADS or STF staff members.

Double dipping for a short period of time (i.e., six months), does not have a significant cost to the plan, however, some school boards have used this flexibility as a recruitment and retention tool at the expense of the plan. In some cases, we have members double dip in excess of eight years, usually in senior positions, which has had a significant cost to the plan. STRP has approximately 175 to 200 members double-dipping annually, including 12 LEADS and Federation staff members.

This change does not apply to teachers who give early notice of superannuation and are able to retire and collect pension for a defined period of time. The change only applies to LEADS and STF staff members.

Provincial Collective Bargaining Information

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The STF website has a page for members to access all of the current information and engagement opportunities related to Provincial Collective Bargaining at https://www.stf.sk.ca/teaching-saskatchewan/collective-bargaining.

There are three opportunities to participate in the Virtual Town Halls:

  • November 7 at 4 p.m.
  • November 9 at 7 p.m.
  • November 15 at 8 p.m.

The STF is hosting virtual town halls on Zoom and inviting teachers to attend one of the three meetings. This is a great opportunity to engage in discussion with the provincial bargaining preparation team and help identify member priorities and needs for the upcoming round of bargaining in May 2023.

You can find more information and links to register for the Virtual Town hall meetings at https://www.stf.sk.ca/professional-resources/events-calendar/bargaining-virtual-town-hall

STF Webinar: Teachers In Their First Five Years

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On February 24th, the STF is hosting a free Zoom webinar for all teachers in their first to fifth year in Saskatchewan. This will be an opportunity to share important information on the pension and benefit plans, while also giving you an opportunity to network and ask any questions you may have. The webinar will be facilitated by Troy Milnthorp, STF Senior Managing Director, Corporate Fund Services.

There will be 2 Zoom sessions on February 24th at 4pm and 7pm.  Registration is not required.

Go to the STF Website to join the sessions.