The union representing 55,000 non-teaching staff in Ontario schools — janitors, food workers, early childhood educators and others — says some school boards still aren’t giving their members all the benefits won in the latest contract with Queen’s Park.

That raises concerns over the chances for successful bargaining in future.

Fred Hahn, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ontario, said the fact the provincial government is not compelling all school boards to apply the new deal —meaning some workers receive a lower level of long-term sick leave, for example — suggests it is forgetting these lesser-known education workers.

He says these gaps raise doubts about the value of supporting proposed new legislation — Bill 122 — that may determine how negotiations will proceed between the union and the province in future.

“Bill 122 proposes a way forward — but how can we move forward when the government hasn’t made sure boards live up to what we bargained a year ago?” asked Hahn, whose union will hold a press conference Monday morning to spell out its concerns and next steps.

“This hurts the lowest-paid workers in the system, who make an average of $38,000 a year.”

CUPE negotiated a deal a year ago with the provincial government, but about 12 school boards — some 20 per cent of schools across the province — have not implemented the benefits won in that deal, Hahn said.

The majority of those not implementing the new deal are English Catholic boards, including the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

“The boards are saying, because CUPE signed the deal with the province (not them), that the government has to tell them to implement it, but that doesn’t seem to be happening,” said Hahn. “It makes no sense — you should treat everyone the same.”

The Toronto Catholic board did not provide a response Sunday, but a spokesperson for Ontario Education Minister Liz Sandals, Lauren Ramey, said the government is “committed to working with unions and school boards on any implementation concerns with respect to the terms of the memorandums of understanding (agreements).”

“We are optimistic that we will pass Bill 122, the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, that would establish a clear framework for bargaining in the education sector going forward,” she wrote in an email.

However, Hahn said, the fact some English-speaking public and Catholic boards are ignoring the new contract means that school staff may, for example, receive lower pay after using up their 11 days of annual sick leave than the equivalent worker at a school down the street.

“What was agreed to by the government isn’t being fully implemented across the system, but that’s why you bargain centrally — to treat everyone the same,” said Hahn. “That’s not happening, and we need to raise public awareness and apply pressure to the government.”

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Some CUPE members in the Thames Valley District School Board have already held an information picket to inform parents about the disparities.

“We feel we’re being ignored — yet our members are the backbone of the school system,” Hahn said. “They keep it clean and safe. We work with the youngest children — yet sometimes we feel we’re being forgotten.”