The Oregon Employment Relations Board (ERB) recently ruled in favor of the Portland Association of Teachers and against PPS. The case definitively established that substitute teachers are entitled to sick leave under the same law as regular contracted educators represented by the PAT. PPS must now withdraw all illegal contract proposals, including one that offers less sick leave than mandated by law. 

We assumed that the issue was concluded, and that PPS would simply accept what your PAT bargaining team has proposed as appropriate and fair from day one of bargaining.  Unfortunately, the District informed us in our last substitute teacher bargaining session that they plan to file a challenge to the ERB award.  Amazingly, PPS would rather pay a law firm hundreds of dollars per hour to try and deny substitutes their rights under Oregon law instead of simply accepting an award and reaching a final agreement in substitute bargaining.

Sick leave is the final sticking point in negotiations over our substitute contract, and unfortunately the District has decided to ignore the needs of students, educators, and PPS families, opting instead for another financial windfall to the law firms it works with.