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The federation representing teachers in Saskatchewan says a 3.5 per cent wage decrease is not part of the proposals its members voted to bring to ongoing contract negotiations with the provincial government.

In March, the government announced it wanted to cut pay for public-sector employees by 3.5 per cent as a way to address the provincial deficit, which was pegged at $684.7 million for the first quarter of 2017-18.

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“We know that we’ve got a set of proposals that has been passed by our membership and it’s quite different than a 3.5 per cent cut,” said Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation president Patrick Maze. The STF represents 13,000 teachers and school-based administrators.

“We are expected to uphold their wishes in the direction that they’ve provided us, so we are doing that at the table,” he said. “Government is asking for us to take a 3.5 per cent decrease that they’ve announced in the public, and our proposals — that our councillors have passed — do not include a 3.5 per cent cut.”