Nova Scotia Teachers Union ratifies contract with province

Public school teachers in Nova Scotia have ratified a new contract agreement with the province.

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union, which represents 10,000 teachers in the province, released the results on Wednesday evening showing 91 per cent of its members voted 80.5 per cent in favour of the deal.

"The contract moves teachers priorities forward, which were working conditions for teachers, classroom conditions for kids, their salary, restoring purchasing power and dealing with the retention and recruitment crisis. So you know, the contract made some gains on all of those things," union president Ryan Lutes told CBC News.

In a news release, the NSTU noted that when compound interest is factored in, the contract gives teachers a salary increase of 11.47 per cent over three years retroactive to Aug. 1, 2023.

Substitute teachers will also see a raise with an additional 12 per cent salary increase. They also now require eight fewer consecutive days to qualify as a full-time teacher in some roles. Lutes said this should help with the teacher shortage.

Ahead of the contract being accepted, Lutes said teachers want more action from the province on school violence. He said they have pushed to have more mental health resources available in schools. As a result, he said more counsellors will be added to the school system.

"That's going to have a positive impact on our kids and hopefully that has an impact on decreasing school violence as well," he said.

Lutes said school violence is complex and more work will need to be done to address it.

Teachers were not able to get the smaller class sizes they had hoped for, but Lutes said they're not expected to get any bigger than they are now.

"If the population continues to increase like it has, the number of teachers are going to have to increase. So that's something that teachers will definitely hold on to for our next round of bargaining and look to lower those because I think, overall, our teachers recognize that kids have more needs than they did 10,15, 20 years ago and and class sizes need to adjust to reflect those needs," he said.

The contract is in effect until July 31, 2026.

Nova Scotia's Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Becky Druhan said the agreement recognizes that students are at the core of the education system.

"We've heard from teachers about how to improve classroom conditions and outcomes and are acting on a shared commitment to create great learning and great working environments, both through this new agreement and through ongoing work at the departmental, regional and school levels," Druhan said in a news release on Wednesday night.

The department said the agreement will be posted online in the coming days.