The Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE) does not want the government to ban “amnesty clauses” in collective agreements, which ensure that disciplinary sanctions do not follow teachers from one position to another .
“Do you want these mistakes to disappear from the file after a certain time? » asked the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, on Tuesday to the president of the FAE, Mélanie Hubert.
Mme Hubert was visiting the National Assembly as part of the study of Bill 47, which aims in particular to prevent delinquent teachers from moving from one school to another. She, in passing, refused to answer questions on the decisive vote of the Haute-Yamaska Education Union (SEHY), whose members will decide on Wednesday evening the fate of the agreement in principle reached with the government. The president of the FAE said she would like to wait for the result of the vote before commenting on it.
In its brief, the FAE asks to “delete” an article from the bill which would prohibit clauses having the effect of “preventing a school service center […] to take into account a disciplinary measure” which has previously been imposed on an employee, in the spirit of grading sanctions. “We must still have the right, to a certain point, to be able to mend our ways. The principle of a disciplinary measure is to give a warning and to tell people: ‘mend yourselves and correct yourself,'” argued M.me Hubert.
Confidential disciplinary files
Amnesty clauses were at the heart of media reports, including one which illustrated the case of a teacher hired by two school service centers despite an investigation into him, due to the confidentiality of disciplinary files. . An investigative report commissioned by Minister Drainville also revealed that education employers must at best rely on Google to try to discover the background of hiring candidates.
The FAE welcomed “the minister’s desire to make school environments safer”. However, she said she believes that Bill 42, aimed at preventing and combating psychological harassment and sexual violence, is a better vehicle. “We cannot have two regimes in Quebec, for teachers [et les autres travailleurs] “, declared M.me Hubert. The FAE also judges that the National Student Ombudsman Act already offers “all the guarantees” to obtain “rapid processing of a complaint”.
Minister Drainville rather argued that his bill casts a wider net, since it concerns “any behavior that could reasonably cause fear for the physical or psychological safety of students” — and not just the concepts of psychological harassment and violence against others. sexual nature, as does Bill 42. “To fall back on Bill 42 is to limit the protection of students. […] I think that Bill 47 better protects students, and that is why we have a separate regime for students,” he said.
However, this broad definition is problematic for the FAE, which is also calling for a framework law on sexual violence inspired by that which exists in higher education establishments. “The bill proposes a very broad definition of behavior, [il porte sur] any behavior that could cause fear for safety. So, it could lead to all kinds of situations where the interpretation would be a little arbitrary, and it follows the person, then it harms,” observed M.me Hubert.