Bluewater Occasional Teachers' Local

As of September 2025, our daily rate of pay is $294.71, which includes vacation (4%) and statutory holiday pay (2.5%).

In our OT Collective Agreement, it states:

“Remuneration for the short-term occasional teacher shall be calculated to the nearest tenth (rounded up) based on the instructional day of 300 minutes. No less than .4 shall be paid. It is understood that supervision is in addition to the instructional time.

Paid Amount Instructional Equivalent
.4 120 minutes
.5 150 minutes
.6 180 minutes
.7 210 minutes
.8 240 minutes
.9 270 minutes
1.0 300 minutes

Example: The occasional teacher is employed to instruct for 185 minutes. The paid amount would be equivalent to .7 FTE.”

It is important to note we are only paid for instructional time. Here is an example:

Sunshine Community School opens at 8:50 and has a nutrition break from 11:10 to 11:50, a second nutrition break from 1:10 to 1:50 and dismissal at 3:10.

If you are booked at this school from 8:50 to 12:00, that is 190 minutes of your time, but you would need to subtract the nutrition break of 40 minutes = 150 minutes. 150 minutes of instructional time / 300 instructional minutes in a day = 0.5 FTE pay. If you ended up having supervision duty over the nutrition break as part of the regular teacher’s schedule or not, it is not included in the 300 instructional minutes per day, and the rate of pay is the same.

If you were booked at this school from 8:50 to 12:10, that is 200 minutes of time, minus the 40-minute break = 160 minutes / 300 instructional minutes in a day = 0.53. Our pay is calculated to the nearest tenth (rounded up), so you would get 0.6 FTE pay for this assignment.

If you were booked at this school from 1:50 to 3:10, that is 80 minutes of instructional time / 300 instructional minutes in day = 0.26. Since no less than .4 shall be paid, you would get .4 pay for this assignment.

If you find yourself teaching for the same regular classroom teacher for 10 consecutive days, you are entitled to be paid at the grid rate retroactively to the first day of that assignment. On the 10th day, contact your administrator, who must complete an electronic form in the EIL system to ensure you are paid as an LTO Teacher. This situation highlights the importance of keeping your QECO rating and experience letters updated with the Board. If your QECO rating and experience letters are already on file, you’ll be paid correctly from the start of any LTO assignment, without delays.

A QECO rating is essential for determining your pay rate on the Board’s salary grid. Without it, you will not be paid your proper rate. It’s crucial to submit your QECO Rating Statement to the Board before your first day of employment to avoid being paid the Short Term Occasional Rate. QECO’s processing time can take several months. It’s best to start the process early to ensure your rating is on file with the Board by the time you begin working.

If your QECO rating isn’t on file, you’ll be paid the Short-Term Occasional Rate until your rating is submitted. Once received, your pay will be adjusted retroactively to the first day of your first LTO. For subsequent LTOs, your pay will only be adjusted to the first of the month when the QECO Rating Statement is submitted.

If you have teaching experience from another Board, request a Statement of Experience letter from your previous employer. This letter should include your start and end dates, FTE (full-time equivalent), and whether it was elementary or secondary. Submit this to Payroll immediately for experience calculation, which affects your grid step placement.

Your pay is adjusted based on your years of experience. However, your experience pay will only be retroactively adjusted to the first of the month once the Statement of Experience letter is received by Payroll.

When you receive your LTO Pay Calculation (usually around the time of your first paycheck), carefully verify that your Category matches your QECO rating and that your Grid Step accurately reflects your teaching experience, including work in other Boards, daily Bluewater OT assignments, and secondary positions. If anything seems incorrect, contact the person who prepared the LTO Pay Calculation (their name is listed at the top of the document). If your LTO size changes, you should receive a new calculation.

If you don’t receive the LTO Pay Calculation by your first pay cheque, email the Local President to find out the current Payroll contact. You can also check your Grid Placement and QECO rating in the Payroll portal under the Salary tab, though this information may not be available before your LTO begins.

Note: We refer to the Permanent Teacher’s collective agreement to see our grid, which includes 6.5% consisting of 4% vacation and 2.5% statutory holiday pay in the numbers listed in the chart. However, for Long-Term Occasional Teachers (LTOs), this 6.5% is subtracted from the annual salary calculations but added back in for each day worked.

LTOs are paid each day at your Full Time Equivalent (FTE). If you are a 0.2 LTO who only works Tuesday, you will be paid 0.2 each day, all week long, including PA Days but not statutory holidays. This means that in weeks where there is a statutory holiday, you will only be paid 0.8 for the week. This equalizes over time due to switch days. At some point, Tuesday will run on a Monday or Friday schedule. You would not attend that week, but you would still receive the 0.2 pay each day of the week. LTOs are paid two weeks behind and only for the days worked as per the Occasional Teacher Pay Schedule. Permanent teachers have a different pay schedule. LTOs are not paid during summer, March, or winter breaks. Plan your budget accordingly!