Government waiting on back back-to-work legislation

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The provincial government is still waiting for a pair of decisions before deciding if it needs to respond to strikes by high school teachers.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board says it won’t make a decision until the middle of next week on whether high school teachers’ strikes in Peel, Durham and the Sudbury area are legal.

The government is also waiting for the Education Relations Commission to decide whether the length of the strikes is putting students’ school years in jeopardy. More than 70,000 students are out of class, some for as long as five weeks.

If the board gives its okay to the walkouts, Premier Kathleen Wynne says she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to gets students back in class as quickly as possible, which may include back to work legislation.

Public high school teachers in Halton & Ottawa began a work-to-rule campaign yesterday, refusing to do administrative tasks like commenting on report cards, but classes and extra-curricular activities there are not affected.