Teachers getting pension credits for strike time

Ontario high school teachers who staged illegal strikes last spring will still receive pension credits for the time they were off the job.

According to a memo between the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and three school boards, obtained by the Globe and Mail, the teachers’ made a deal with the Ontario government that specifies they will not lose pension credits over the walkouts.

Teachers who tried to make up the days by working extra will be eligible for refunds.

High school teachers from Durham, Sudbury, and Peel region walked off the job in the spring during negotiations between the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation and the province, leaving 74 thousand students out of class.

They were later ordered back to work because the labour board felt the strikes were about provincial, and not local issues.

Normally teachers lose pension credits in the case of an illegal strike.