Teachers across the province have expressed relief after Education Minister George Abbott announced May 5 the province would not appeal a recent Supreme Court decision regarding their union contract.
The landmark April 13 ruling declared substantial portions of Bills 27 and 28 to be unconstitutional.
In her decision, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin gave the provincial government a year to resolve an alternative to the legislation that removed class size and special needs support levels from the collective agreements.
The government saved a lot of money by implementing the bills, Cariboo Chilcotin Teachers' Association (CCTA) president Joan Erb says, adding about 3,000 British Columbia teachers lost their jobs as a result.
"The ruling means the return of $275 million worth of services to kids; that's the number 1 thing for us."
She notes teachers' working conditions reflect directly on their students' learning conditions.
In addition to the court case, the B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF) has filed thousands of union grievances regarding class sizes and composition since the legislation was imposed in 2002.
Following Bills 27 and 28, the education ministry implemented Bill 33 to restricted class size and the number of students with special needs.
"That bill turned out to be a complete disaster because the government then de-categorized learning disabled kids ... so they no longer funded extra support for those kids."
The victory not only reinstates teachers' rights for bargaining class size and composition, Erb says, but also allows them to do that at a local school board level.
"It's a huge victory for us that the government is not going to appeal. I think it's a very, very wise move.
"What Justice Griffin has said is that teachers now can negotiate and bargain class size, class composition and specialty teacher ratios at the local table."
Erb adds the timing is right because the CCTA is currently engaged in local bargaining, but adds the BCTF is "far apart" from the BC Public School Employers' Association (BCPSEA).
Even after the ruling, she says the BCPSEA is sticking to its directive that school boards only discuss the collective agreement's Appendix 2.
That appendix deals only with "very, very minute things," Erb explains, such as bulletin boards, facilities access and union recognition.
"We don't have any grievances or major outstanding issues in Appendix 2."
She notes, however, the CCTA fully intends to bargain class size, class composition and specialty teacher ratios.
"After Justice Griffin's ruling, BCPSEA said nothing has changed; BCTF said everything has changed."
School District 27 (SD27) Trustee Pete Penner says the local school board doesn't discuss collective bargaining in the media.
However, he does point out that issues at the bargaining table haven't changed yet, as Justice Griffin has given the province 12 months to negotiate with teachers, BCPSEA, school boards, and the BCTF on what the new rules will be.
"Nothing will happen until that discussion is ended," he adds.
"I'm really happy the minister of education is going to try to work together with all the parties without going back to the courts."
