By Jason Foster, AFL Staff

After a month of work-to-rule and a one-day lockout, teachers in the Calgary Catholic Board successfully landed a deal to clarify work requirements in schools.

The main issue in the conflict was how to define "non-teaching responsibilities", which are mandatory duties which can be assigned to a teacher. Teachers wanted extra-curricular and other activities classified as voluntary.

"We negotiated a clause that says that school staff, including the principal, will determine what will be the extra-curricular activities and that the teacher will choose, based on their interest, experience and skills, what activities they will participate in," said Bernie Harrison of the ATA Calgary Catholic Teachers local.

The teachers also received a 7.2% pay increase over two years.

AFL President Audrey Cormack blamed the dispute on persistent government underfunding of education. "Years of budget cutbacks to our education system has created exhausted, stressed and overworked teachers," said Cormack. "Every school year, they are being asked to teach bigger classes, to supervise more activities, to coordinate a greater range of programming. There comes a point where there is no more blood in the stone."

The lock-out by the school board is a first for Alberta, and sets a dangerous precedent, the ATA points out.

Cormack strongly criticized the School Board for deciding to go ahead with the lock-out. "The teachers do not want to disrupt the students’ education. Their approach has been to minimize the dispute’s effect on the students. Obviously the Board didn’t have a similar commitment."