Healthy workplace

Canada is experiencing a labour shortage unprecedented in my lifetime. Gone are the days of teachers being in over-supply.

Fifteen years ago young teachers were leaving BC faster than raw logs.

Management grew complacent about conditions on the front-line, as there were 10 applicants for every posting. Legislating teachers back to work became a convenient way to ignore festering workplace issues and artificially depress wages. We find ourselves today in very different circumstances. If our childrens' education is to remain world class, we must restore the working conditions of those who work in our schools.

We can begin locally by ensuring that our staff are accorded the highest respect while on the job. Professional behaviour in our schools should be a universal expectation of all who enter the doors. The same behaviour expectations the public finds in government offices should be prominently displayed In our schools for all to see and abide by.

Finally, a safe workplace includes the right to a workplace free of sexual harassment. District leadership has run afoul of this basic element of professional respect in recent years. The culture of any organization is set by the behaviour that its leadership tolerates, let alone takes part in. School staff work hard to create safe and inclusive working and learning conditions. Adherence to these conditions, again, must be a universal behaviour expectation for all, from front-line staff to superintendents and trustees.