a) A teacher being a member of The Manitoba Teachers' Society Executive or of any branch thereof, or any special committee of the Society or branch thereof, and being authorized by the Executive Committee of the Society to attend a meeting of the Society in a matter of the Society business requiring absence from school, shall have the right to attend such meeting or to act as a representative or delegate and shall be excused from school duties for either purpose or both purposes on not more than a total of five (5) teaching days in any school year except the Association President who shall be allowed not more than a total of thirteen (13) teaching days in any school year. A maximum of thirty-eight (38) days in total may be taken for the purposes mentioned above during any school year by members of the Association inclusive of the President. A substitute teacher will be provided by the Division, and where provided, the cost of the substitute shall be borne by the Society.
b) A teacher being a member of the Provincial Executive of The Manitoba Teachers' Society shall be allowed a total of ten (l0) days leave of absence per school year in addition to the days provided for in 5:01(a). For the additional ten (10) days of leave the Society shall reimburse the Division at the rate of one two hundredth (1/200th) of the teacher's applicable salary for each day of leave.
c) A teacher who serves as President or Vice-President of The Manitoba Teachers' Society shall be guaranteed a leave of absence concurrent with their term of office. Upon return from such leave the teacher shall be assigned the same or comparable position that was held prior to said leave. The Division is to be notified upon a teacher being elected to allow as long a notice period as possible. In the case of a special subject area teacher, a suitable replacement must be available.
a) Each teacher, upon request, shall be allowed compassionate leave without loss of salary, up to but not exceeding five (5) days in any case of death or serious illness of the teacher’s spouse, child or stepchild, mother or father or grandchild.
b) Each teacher, upon request, shall be allowed compassionate leave without loss of salary, up to but not exceeding three (3) days in any case of death or serious illness of the teacher’s sister, brother, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, grandparents, step-father or step-mother.
c) Each teacher, upon request, shall be allowed compassionate leave without loss of salary for the day of the funeral in the event of the death of an aunt or uncle or grandparent-in-law provided the teacher is actually attending the funeral.
d) A teacher may request one day per year to attend to a funeral of a close friend or relative not listed above at the substitute teacher rate deduction. The leave request is to be submitted in writing to the Superintendent. This leave may be taken in a half or full day.
a) Leave for Other Purposes:
Leave for reasons other than illness or those defined in Articles 5:01 and 5:02 may be granted at the discretion of the Division’s Board of Trustees (the “Board”), and salary may be deducted for each day's leave of absence, and the Board will be responsible for the substitute teacher as required.
The deduction of salary shall be a fraction of salary equal to the number of days absent divided by the number of days in the school year as prescribed by the Minister.
b) Personal Leave:
i) A maximum of three (3) days personal leave per school year shall, for reasonable cause, in consultation with the principal, be granted to each teacher. The cost of a substitute will not be deducted from the teacher’s salary for one personal leave day per year. Only one day with no sub costs deducted will be granted in a given school year. Each teacher will be allowed to carry forward to the next school year one (1) day of unused personal leave to a maximum accumulation of four (4) days.
ii) Personal Leave shall not be used on scheduled in-service days, administration days, parent teacher days, or pupil evaluation days.
iii) For extenuating circumstances, the Superintendent may grant, in consultation with the principal, personal leave beyond the parameters outlined in 5:03 b) ii.
A teacher with at least twenty (20) consecutive months of paid teaching service in the division, may apply for a leave of absence at no loss of tenure provided that:
a) Applications are made not later than February 1st of the year leave is required.
b) The Division will attempt to place any teacher returning from such leave in the same or comparable position to that occupied by the teacher prior to the commencement of the leave. However, the Division retains the right to determine the placement of such teacher.
c) A teacher on leave of absence shall notify the Division of his/her intention to return or not to return on staff not later than March 31st of the year the leave of absence expires.
d) The Division will consider each application for leave of absence on its own merit. The Board's decision shall be final.
Where a teacher is sick, he/she shall be entitled to sick leave during his/her sickness and to be paid his/her salary during his/her sickness subject to the following conditions:
a) Each teacher who is continuously employed by the Division shall accumulate entitlement for sick leave at the rate of one (1) day sick leave for every nine (9) days of actual teaching service to maximum of twenty (20) days per year. Where the employment of a teacher is continued for more than one (l) year the unused portion of the sick leave in any year(s) shall be carried forward and accumulated from year to year to a maximum of:
- forty (40) teaching days in the second year
- sixty (60) teaching days in the third year
- eighty (80) teaching days in the fourth year
- one hundred (100) teaching days in the fifth year
- one hundred twenty (120) teaching days in the sixth and subsequent years.
Teachers on less than full-time contracts shall have sick leave pro-rated accordingly.
Teachers employed on a Limited Term Teacher General Contract shall be entitled to sick leave on a pro-rata basis.
b) In any school year where a teacher has actually taught for the Division, and has exhausted all previously accumulated sick leave, the Division upon request from such teacher, shall advance up to (20) twenty days sick leave less the accumulated entitlement already taken for that school year. If the employment of such teacher is terminated, or the sick leave paid out is not subsequently earned by the end of the following year, it shall be reimbursed to or recovered by the Division as paid out.
c) There shall be no accumulation of sick leave credited for periods of "Leave of Absence" and/or "Sabbatical Leave".
d) Should the Division be eligible for a reduction in premiums under the Employment Insurance Act, the teachers’ five-twelfths (5/12th) share of the premium reduction shall be remitted to the Association. Remittance shall be made at the end of the spring and fall terms each year.
e) The Board, in its discretion, may in any school year grant a teacher sick leave for any period longer than that required in clause (a).
f) Teachers shall be entitled to use up to five (5) days of sick leave per year to attend to the emergency illness or injury or medical appointment of that teacher’s parent(s), spouse or pre-school or school age children.
Subject to the provisions of the Employment Standards Code (ESC):
a) Every teacher covered by the Collective Agreement shall be entitled to maternity leave and/or parental leave. Under the ESC, an adoptive parent is entitled to parental leave.
b) To request leave, the teacher shall make written application to the Division not later than four (4) weeks before the leave is to commence. For maternity leave, a doctor's certificate giving expected delivery date must accompany the written application.
c) The conditions of leave shall be determined to the mutual satisfaction of the employee and the Division.
d) Following the mutual agreement by the teacher and the Division on the conditions of the leave to be taken, the Division will provide the teacher with a written memorandum of the agreement, including the statement that, upon return from leave, the teacher will be reinstated in the position occupied at the time such leave commenced or in a comparable position with not less than the same wages and benefits.
e) Where no agreement is reached between the teacher and the Division pursuant to (c), then the teacher concerned shall be granted leave according to provisions in current legislation.
f) Nothing in the foregoing shall reduce the right of the employee with respect to leave which is provided in current legislation.
g) Supplementary Employment Benefit (SEB) Plan
After having served a qualifying period of seven (7) consecutive teaching months in the employ of the Division, an eligible teacher taking maternity leave, parental leave or adoptive leave pursuant to this article shall be entitled to receive pay, for a specified period, in the amount of ninety percent (90%) of the gross salary being received at the time leave commenced, this pay to include any benefits received from Human Resources Development Canada to a Supplemental Employment Benefits (SEB) Plan, subject to the following:
i) The relevant provisions of the Employment Insurance Act and Regulations.
ii) The eligible leave period commences on the start date of the two week waiting period for benefits from Human Resources Development Canada.
iii) Payment made in accordance with the SEB Plan will consist of:
A. payment equivalent to 90% per cent of the teacher’s gross salary, for the first two (2) consecutive weeks, provided that the teacher would otherwise be earning pay during that period, and
B. for a teacher taking maternity leave, payment equivalent to the difference between the Employment Insurance benefit the employee is eligible to receive and 90% of the teacher’s gross salary, for up to fifteen (15) additional consecutive weeks, provided that the teacher would otherwise be earning pay during that period, or
C. For a teacher taking adoptive leave or parental leave pursuant to this article shall be entitled to payment equivalent to the difference between the Employment Insurance benefit the employee is eligible to receive and 90% of the teacher’s gross salary, for up to eight (8) additional consecutive weeks, provided that the teacher would otherwise be earning pay during that period.
iv) Where any portion of the leave period referenced in (A), (B), or (C) of iii) above, falls during the summer, Christmas Break, Spring Break, or any other period for when the teacher would not be earning salary, that portion of the leave period does not qualify for SEB Plan benefits pursuant to Article 5.07 g).
h) If a teacher, while away on leave and receiving employer top-up as per 5:07 g) is engaged in employment with another employer, the teacher shall immediately notify the division and the employer paid top-up shall cease. This clause does not apply to situations where the teacher engages in a family business or has a pre-existing employment outside school hours.
Each teacher shall be granted two (2) days leave for the birth of his child; the leave day must be taken on or between the date of birth and the date the mother and child are released from the hospital.
Teachers taking post secondary course(s) leading to improvement of qualifications or directly related to the teacher’s workload or that will permit teacher to broaden teaching experience shall be released for the scheduled exam period plus immediately preceding or following half day, to a maximum of one day per school year. Advance written notice must be provided to the Division.