The provision of remedy arises from Letter of Understanding No.17 which was signed in March 2017 as a result of the Supreme Court of Canada decision in November 2016. The Supreme Court ordered the restoration of the BCPSEA-BCTF collective agreement provisions that were deleted by the Public Education Flexibility and Choice Act in 2002.
LOU 17 was meant to provide funding for improvements in teacher working conditions through the hiring of more teachers.
In Surrey, the agreement between the STA and the district was that if more teachers could not be hired to improve working conditions, “remedy” would be offered in the form of prep time, co-teaching, or having a non-enrolling teacher work in the affected teacher’s class. This agreement was in place from 2017 until the 2021 – 2022 school year when the agreement was modified to include in-lieu time as the fourth form of remedy.
In lieu time has specific criteria and can only be taken in full day increments:
- Elementary full day = 300 minutes
- Secondary full day = 325 minutes
- Teachers do not need to be at school for in lieu time BUT teachers must check in with their administrators no later than 30 minutes prior to the start of the school day to ensure a TTOC is available. If there is no coverage the teacher will report to work in a timely fashion and will not lose their remedy time.
Also new for the 2021-2022 school year is the ability for teachers to transfer all or part of their remedy time to another teacher within their school if they choose. Note that remedy minutes transferred from one teacher to another cannot be used for in lieu time.
Teachers are encouraged to use their remedy time if it is available.
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