In 2019, the Union filed a grievance about PTOC prep time. The Grievance was referred to arbitration. The parties were able to reach an agreement before going to a hearing: 

  1. An employee’s PTOC assignment that is reasonably expected to have an FTE of 0.4 or more and a duration of five months or longer will include preparation time under Article D.4 in accordance with the employee’s primary teaching qualifications (elementary or secondary) and anticipated assignment(s).  
  1. The parties agree to make a plan for the provision of preparation time for PTOC assignments described in paragraph 1 in accordance with the following factors:  
  • preparation time already provided to that person in the school year  
  • preparation time anticipated to be provided in the PTOC assignment(s)  
  • limitations and restrictions, related to a protected ground under the Human Rights Code, on the person’s ability to perform the full scope of teaching duties, including duties normally associated with preparation time 
  • availability of time during the assignment(s) to schedule preparation time  
  • for PTOCs dispatched like TTOCs, scheduling and timetabling factors which may require preparation time to be provided in elementary on an average basis 
  • any additional factors the parties agree on in a particular case 
  1. All other PTOC assignments not described in paragraph 1 above will include preparation time in accordance with paragraph 6 of the 1997 Teacher-on-Call Payroll Issues Resolution Memorandum which states: “TOC’s will receive the prep time that the teacher they are replacing would normally have received on that day”. These individuals will track their lost preparation time associated with the PTOC assignment(s) using the same method and services provided by the District to TTOCs. 
  1. Lost preparation time recorded during the PTOC assignment(s) will be provided prior to the end of the PTOC assignment where possible and otherwise in the 30 working days after the end of the PTOC assignment. 

Due to the complexity of the issue, the parties were unable to reach an agreement on remedies for affected teachers. The agreement can be found on the STA Website under Negotiated Agreements.

Contact: Kelli O’Malley at grieve2@surreyteachers.org  

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