Nova Scotia’s South Shore school support staff return to classrooms after deal reached

After being on strike for more than two weeks, school support workers on Nova Scotia’s South Shore are headed back to the classroom.

Roughly 150 school staff walked off the job on Oct. 25 in a fight for higher wages.

The striking employees returned to the classrooms Thursday after 98 per cent voted to accept a new tentative agreement that will help achieve wage parity with workers in other regions of the province.

“Achieving wage parity for school support workers is a long-overdue and important accomplishment,” said Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union President Sandra Mullen in a news release Wednesday. “These workers stood together to demand what was right and fair, and together, they were able to achieve equal, improved pay for their sector.”

Support workers in the South Shore Regional Centre for Education (SSRCE) have been fighting for higher wages for over a year. Workers on the picket line included educational assistants, early childhood educators, student support workers, outreach workers, parent navigators, library personnel, child and youth practitioners, Indigenous student advisors, literacy support workers and student supervisors.

As part of the tentative agreement, school support workers in the SSRCE will see their rate of pay increase to become the highest in the province for their positions. The agreement covers the time period between Apr. 1, 2021 and Mar. 31, 2024.

The deal would see an economic adjustment of 1.5 per cent, both in 2021 and 2022, before rising to three per cent in 2023, and 0.5 per cent in 2024. That adjustment is in addition to an advance increase worth 1.5 per cent for every member of the bargaining unit who is not already the highest paid in the province, effective the date of ratification.

The agreement requires the employer to make further adjustments in the event that school support workers in the SSRCE don’t end up making the highest wages in the province. Failure to raise wages to the highest threshold would see an increase of 50 per cent of the difference between their rate and the highest by Apr. 1, 2023, and the remaining 50 per cent by Mar. 31, 2024.

“After more than a decade of living with the austerity legacy of past-Premier Stephen McNeil, we are finally able to see that the collective bargaining process works, when it is allowed to do so,” added Mullen. “The current government not only allowed the bargaining process to unfold as it should – without legislative interference tipping the scales – but they have agreed to the principle of parity and fairness for these workers, and that is something that should be credited.”

A strike by 600 school support workers in the Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education also ended this week after they reached an agreement with their employer. That agreement also saw AVRCE employees achieve wage parity with workers doing the same job elsewhere in Nova Scotia.

The AVRCE support staff walked off the job on Oct. 24. They returned to classrooms on Wednesday.