The reduction in teacher sick days from 20 a year down to 10 in the province’s new education legislation, Bill 115, seems to have had an effect on how many days local teachers are booking off this fall.
And this is reducing the amount of work available for substitute teachers, which is causing some worry, says Martha Rogers, director of education at the Upper Grand District School Board.
“I know people are very concerned if they only have 10 days,” and they’ve seemed to be reluctant to book off sick because they might need the days off later in the school year, Rogers said Friday.
There are “lots of germs flying around” in classrooms, especially classes containing younger children, Rogers said. And, she said, she has seen teachers in schools this fall “hacking and sniffing and coughing and red-eyed, who would not normally be there.”
Aside from concerns about this leading to diseases being spread to their students and colleagues, there are worries about the impact on the board’s substitute teachers of having less work because regular teachers are going to school while sick, Rogers said in an interview.
“The worry is that occasional teachers, if they are not able to make even a minimum amount of money, will drop out” and seek employment in another line of work, she said. “And then when you need them, they are not there.”
The board has separate lists of occasional teachers for its elementary and its high schools, where two different teachers’ unions operate. The board discusses the substitute-teacher lists with the unions, and it’s not uncommon for the board by this time of the school year to have advertised for more occasional teachers to apply to be added to the lists, Rogers said.
This hasn’t happened this fall, though, because fewer regular teachers have been booking off sick, she said.
However, Rogers that the situation could change when peak times for sickness do hit.