MGMT 3721 Negotiation Skills Newtown School Dispute Student Name: Ana Clara Zimer Silva Student Number:

: z3476592 Work Sheet Profile: Woman, 30 years old, no kids, wants to maintain the reputation of problem solver, wants a political career. The other side: Teachers Union representatives. The union is negotiating for the school board to honour the collective agreement, which had expired a few months ago. Teachers dont want layoffs, nor an increase in workload, nor cuts in salary and benefits. Questions: - What is the most important thing in this negotiation? - What do you want to achieve today? - What are your expectations in terms of reduction of staff, workload, salary, benefits and teacher evaluations? - What is the major point of dissatisfaction? - How do you see the connection between the issues?

Answers - Quality of children education. - Prevent a major strike and balance the projected budget. - Succeed in an agreement where there is a reduction in staff, increase in workload, higher control on evaluation of teachers, a salary agreement that do not compromise the budget and a minimise of expenditure of benefits. - Stresses from the budget and lack of government funding. - All the issues are strongly linked together, but the most connected are the working load and staffing layoffs, as the need of cut of costs is urgent. Not everything is within our control. Certain trade-offs will have to occur as our resources are limited. If we cannot agree on staffing and workload, we will be forced to be less accommodating in other areas.

Plan: Goal: Conclude an agreement with the Union to avoid a strike. Minimise concessions, reduce staffing levels to obtain increases in teachers workloads. Retain control as the board.

 Reduction in Staff Members + Pupil/teacher ratio: Opening Offer Reduce staffing by $2,200,000; Increase class sizes to 40 students per class; Final decisions about layoffs of individual teachers remain with the board; Layoffs effective 20 days from notice; Recall list with cut off of 6 months. Target Point Reduce staffing by $2,000,000; Increase class sizes to 36 students per class; Retain control of layoffs with minimal input from the union regarding laying off and complaints from laid off employees; Layoffs effective 20 days from notice; Recall list with a cut off of 1 year. Resistance Point Reduce staffing by $1,886,962; Increase class sizes to 34 students per class; Retain control of layoffs with a submission process from the union whereby they may make recommendations for the layoff/retention of any particular staff member. Similarly this would also be the case for grievances maid by laid of employees. Layoffs effective 30 days from notice; Recall list with cut off of 1 year.

Workload and productivity Opening Offer 8 hour work day; Prep time eliminated; Duty free time eliminated. Target Point 8 hour work day; Prep time eliminated; Duty free time reduced to 25mins. Resistance Point 8 hour work day; Prep time remains; Duty free time eliminated.

Evaluation of Teachers Opening Offer Establishment of evaluation procedure based on model from other schools; Limited access to evaluations: only given to School Principal, Ass Principal and teachers supervisor; Non-scheduled class visitations to ensure that evaluations are accurate. Target Point Establishment of evaluation procedure with advisory assistance from union; Limited access to evaluations: only given to School Principal, Ass Principal and teachers supervisor; Non-scheduled class visitations to ensure that evaluations are accurate. Resistance Point Establishment of evaluation procedure with advisory assistance from union; Summary feedback given to staff who request it from the school principal; Scheduled class visitations.

Salary

Opening Offer No backdating; Cost of living increase 2.1% of last years increase (only offer across the board salary increases if they agree to cut staff)

Target Point Nominal partial retroactivity, if necessary; Cost of living increase 2.1% of last years increase.

Resistance Point Nominal partial retroactivity, if necessary; Cost of living increase 2.1% of last years increase.

Benefits (Fringe Benefits) Opening Offer 6 days of paid sick leave; No accumulation of sick days; 5 days of carers leave; Maternity leave of up to 6 weeks paid and 4 days paternity both taken from sick leave. Target Point 12 days of paid sick leave; No accumulation of sick days; 5 days of carers leave; Maternity leave of up to 6 weeks paid and 6 days paternity; Resistance Point 12 days of paid sick leave; Accumulation of sick days up to 30% each year ; 5 days of carers leave; Maternity leave 6 weeks paid and 1 week paternity.

Explanation Reduction in staff members + Pupil/teacher ratio Due to increases in the cost of teaching and materials, it is necessary a minimum reduction of $1,886,962, otherwise expenditures will be bigger than income. The issue of staffing and class sizes go hand in hand, as one affects directly the other. So they need to be negotiated together. Layoff will also be negotiated here. It is the point most likely to get the necessary cut. Workload and Productivity We are willing to let teachers keep duty free time, but this will result in loss of prep time we cant sustain the amount of prep time already in place but moving toward a full 8 hour day means that teachers have more flexibility to do prep and ensures the quality of teaching. In order to give more concessions in benefits and salary, this is a necessity. At this point, we should have already agreed on class sizes, so we can discuss the other issues in the area. Evaluation of teachers In order to match other schools in the district and continue to maintain quality teaching in the area and retain and reward good staff, it is necessary that we have effective evaluations. This has been mandated by the government in order that we continue to receive government funding. Access to the evaluations is not possible due to the privacy act, but we agree that it is only fair and useful for staff if they have some feedback regarding their performance. Salary Backdating would blow out the budget and with the actual projected budget the only possible costof-living increase is the one determined by official government figures. Across-the-board increases cannot be affordable, unless the Union sacrifices other issues such as layoffs. Benefits (Fringe Benefits) Accumulation of sick days at its current situation is a very heavy burden on Board finances and do not contribute to education quality. Maternity and paternity leaves are currently over the minimum legal requirements. We do not need to reduce as much as the legal levels but it would represent a significant reduction in costs, and it would be even better if they were taken from the accumulated sick leave.