 WORTH DOING Retirement and Financial Wellness Workshops Are you considering retiring in the next 10 years? It’s a good idea to get your ducks in a row well in advance. Attend an Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) online Pre-Retirement Workshop to start planning early. These sessions are helpful if you know your retirement date, but even if you don’t, you need to understand the retirement process, when you need to start filling out applications and how much money you will have during your retirement. Lifestyle planning is also important. Will you travel? Will you participate in other retirement pastimes (such as golf, lawn bowling or pickleball)? You should have some insight into what lifestyle you would like to have when you stop teaching and how much that will cost. This workshop will answer all your questions. Together, teachers and their pension partner will explore planning for retirement, the changing character of retirement and the process of making important decisions. You will learn about financial and lifestyle planning before, during and after retirement from a teacher’s perspective. The workshop will investigate various aspects of retiring, including building a financial plan, the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund (pension plan), wills and estates, benefits, and lifestyle planning for a successful and rewarding retirement. Choose one of the sessions below and watch for a link to register which will be posted approximately one month prior to each event date: https://teachers.ab.ca/events. Note that Pre-Retirement Workshops are all-day sessions (9:00 am–3:00 pm). Teachers in All Regions
This evening retirement information session offers general information on the Alberta teachers’ pension plan, planning personal savings, Federal benefits and other retirement income sources for early service teachers. The session’s focus is on forward planning early in a teacher’s career, while emphasizing debt reduction and savings planning. Pension partners are also encouraged to attend.
Retirement Planning for Women This session focuses on retirement planning for female teachers. Women and men face different challenges in their lives, and those challenges can have financial consequences. Women live longer, which means they will likely spend more years alone; therefore, they will need more retirement savings, so they don’t outlive their money. Teachers will have the opportunity to engage in an interactive workshop, which aims to improve women’s financial literacy and confidence.
Capital Planning Presentations Join Capital Planning to dive into specific financial wellness topics:
WORTH SHARING Financial planning can be a daunting task. Ensure you have the information you need by attending a Workshop this school year. #WEAREATA 
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 The collective agreement is intended to cover all members of a bargaining unit and provide them with provisions in an equitable fashion. In some cases, collective agreement provisions require some form of decision making and, potentially, need an arbiter to make the call on language. These clauses can have issues if they place members of the same bargaining unit in potential conflict with another member by limiting the entitlement from the collective agreement. In a school environment, the most responsible person would be the school principal, as they oversee the school’s operation. This can place school leaders in a “manager” position making it inconsistent with the collegial environment that should be fostered in Alberta schools. School leaders (including principals, vice-principals and assistant principals) are colleagues with their classroom teachers, not managers. While they play important roles in informing the decisions regarding the happenings in their school, having them in the final decider role places them in a difficult position and potentially in conflict with another bargaining unit member because of their role as agents of the division. A common area where this occurs is generally with leaves of absence. Inclement weather language is a specific example. It would not be uncommon to find language that speaks to “in the opinion of the teacher” or “after making reasonable efforts” used in this type of clause language that requires members to judge the situation. While some language allows full autonomy for the teacher to make the decision, others have language that places the final decision in someone else’s hands. While the language of the collective agreement will define who makes the decision on an entitlement, as previously stated, it should not traditionally have bargaining unit members making sole entitlement decisions for other members of the same bargaining unit. Even in situations where the language delegates authority, that delegation should not place school leaders in the role of manager and sole decider. The Association has an arbitration award from an Edmonton Public grievance relating to leave of absence deciders that reinforces that position. The proper role of a school-based leader should be as informing the decision rather than being the final arbiter of the entitlement. However, some agreements do have language that places the administrator in a more significant decision-making role than is ideal. There should be pushback where the language definitively states that the decider is the superintendent or other central office personnel, and they have arbitrarily designated that responsibility to an administrator. Should the language identify the “Superintendent or designate” as the decider and an administrator has been designated to be the final decider, then the Edmonton Public arbitration decision should be brought to the employer’s attention, and a resolution should be sought based on the award. Where the language specifically lists the administrator as the decider, we need to work with that language until it can be bargained out of the collective agreement. Regardless of who the decision maker is, they are acting as an agent of the division and need to make those decisions reasonably. The grievance-arbitration process is open to address any clause in the collective agreement where a breach is believed to have occurred, independent of who made the decision. WORTH SHARING Collective agreement language provides entitlements and provisions for teachers. Wherever possible, the employer should make decisions where the language requires it. School leaders should inform on the decision but should not be put in a position of final decider on entitlements for colleagues. Colleagues are not managers. Members with concerns should connect with Teacher Employment Services. #WeAreATA   Duty-Free Lunch language first appeared in teacher collective agreements in the 2018-20 central collective agreement and has been in effect since 2019 04 07. The language is intended to provide a rest period for teachers. The school division must schedule a 30-minute rest period for each teacher during each five (5) hours the teacher works. When reasonable, the break should be scheduled in the middle of the teacher’s assignment. If, for some reason, an unbroken rest period of 30 minutes cannot be scheduled, a teacher must agree to two rest periods of no less than 15 minutes each. This is an individual agreement between the teacher and the school division. It is not a collective decision coming from a staff meeting or vote. This does not mean that rest periods can be shortened without written individual agreement or teachers must request that break. Further, under no circumstances can there be less than two 15-minute breaks. Alberta’s Labour Relations Code states that a collective agreement is binding on the parties named in the agreement. A school division cannot alter the provisions of the collective agreement, nor can teachers accept conditions outside the collective agreement. A school authority must schedule each teacher’s timetable to ensure the teacher has rest periods that adhere to the collective agreement. Supervision and rest periods must be scheduled by the school authority, not created through sign-up sheets completed by teachers. Further, teachers cannot opt out of time caps or waive their right to a 30-minute rest period. WORTH SHARING Duty-Free Lunch language has been in place for teachers since April 2019. Teachers are entitled to rest periods. You have a right to a 30-minute rest period. #WeAreATA   The Association’s Central Table Bargaining Committee (CTBC) met with representatives of the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) on September 9 and 10, 2024. Wherever possible, the CTBC’s goal is to provide members with updates within 24 hours of each bargaining session. Each update will include a graphic representation of how the bargaining session went. This graphic features a dial range from “easy” to “difficult.” “Easy” is when the parties have reached an agreement, and “difficult” indicates no common ground. The CTBC updated members today, September 12, 2024, and shared the following graphic, which indicated a productive meeting where several items were signed off by mutual agreement.  Members can follow bargaining updates and stay informed by accessing the members only section on the Association’s website. To access today’s update, please click here. To access the approved initial proposal, please click here. WORTH SHARING It is important to stay connected and involved. You can do this through our social media sites, Facebook (The Alberta Teachers’ Association), Instagram (@abteachers) and X (@albertateachers). Show your solidarity with your colleagues and your support for the CTBC by wearing red on bargaining days. The next bargaining dates are October 2 and 3, 2024! #WeAreATA  |
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