Without losing a day of salary, school principals will benefit from a substantial salary increase thanks to negotiations and pressure tactics exerted by teachers.
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As soon as the teachers have signed their new collective agreement, it will be the turn of the school directors to undertake discussions with the government about their working conditions, which will be set by regulation in the National Assembly.
The agreement with the teachers will then serve as a starting point for exchanges, which generally benefit from the gains obtained by their employees.
“It’s not written, but that’s it,” confirms on the line the president of the Quebec Association of School Management Personnel, Carl Ouellet. “In our latest regulations, we followed what was offered to teachers in terms of salary increases, bonuses and fixed bonuses.”
A minimum”
According to the proposed agreement reached by the government and the Common Front, teachers will have salary increases of 17.4% over five years. A 6% increase is planned for the first year, if the agreement is accepted. The increases will be 2.8%, 2.6%, 2.5% and 3.5% respectively for the following years.
Management has closely followed developments in the situation in recent months, “without taking a position,” specifies Mr. Ouellet. “We hope to have the same thing to leave, it’s the minimum,” he said. Then we will work again on other elements.”
The president of the Quebec Association of School Management Personnel, Carl Ouellet.
They will argue in particular that it is not advantageous enough for a teacher to move to the management side at the moment, even though there is also a lack of staff at the head of schools and it is necessary to have a teaching certificate to obtain a director position.
“The teachers don’t come,” laments Mr. Ouellet. It’s not the same conditions, it’s more pressure, it’s more responsibilities and more accountability as management.”
At work, despite the strike
While teachers have given up several weeks without pay in the hope of improving their working conditions, management assures that in the meantime they have earned their salary.
Although their establishments were closed due to the strike, they plead that they were at work.
“We had work, teleworking. With the service center, things continue to work,” he explains, maintaining that staff members were not on strike. In particular, they had to give a sign of life to the management of their establishment, online, once or twice a day.
In the pockets of school principals
- A school principal earns between $84,101 and $142,024, depending on the number of students and the number of years of experience.
- In 2022, school principals obtained a salary increase of 6.6% on average.
- There are between 3000 and 3500 school principals and assistant principals in educational establishments in Quebec.