Gone is the two-tier system for teachers coming out of retirement to contribute during the pandemic. Quebec amended the decree which forced some of them to return to the starting salary level when they returned to class.
Since September 2020, retired teachers who wanted to lend a hand in Quebec schools during the pandemic were given their pre-retirement salary only if they had left the network after July 2015. The rest of those concerned fell back to square one: l pay grade one.
However, since Saturday, this requirement no longer holds. The Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, signed a ministerial order to correct the situation. And a letter was sent to the unions.
“The time of retirement no longer has an impact on eligibility for this measure for the person who wishes to return to work,” reads the missive.
This adjustment has been demanded for a long time by Quebec education unions, who rejoiced Monday to have won their case. “Since the release of the first decree, it was unacceptable. Every time we met someone from the ministry, we remembered that it was nonsense, ”said the president of the Federation of Education Unions, Josée Scalabrini, on Monday evening.
According to the union representative, this “ageist” measure deprived the network of a lot of professionals.
By appealing to retirees, Jean-François Roberge wishes to make up for part of the shortage of teachers in the public network. He claims to have rehired 700 individuals last year and is partly counting on those who return to the network to add 8,000 professionals in five years. For the moment, the minister’s office has not been able to assess how much the weekend adjustments will cost.
At the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE), Minister Roberge is urged to ensure the sustainability of his measure. “The FAE and the government have not reached an agreement that would take into account the effects of the end of the decrees,” said union president Sylvain Mallette in a written statement.