The B.C. government has appointed an industrial relations expert to look into the teachers' contract negotiations, as the on-going job action enters its sixth month.

Trevor Hughes, the assistant deputy minister of industrial relations will spend the next two weeks investigating the likelihood of a negotiated settlement between the B.C. Teachers Federation and the B.C. Public School Employer's Association.

Contract talks between B.C. teachers and school employers have stalled for months. (CBC)

Hughes was appointed to conduct the fact finding mission by the Minister of Labour, Citizens' Services and Open Government Margaret MacDiarmid, at the request of Education Minister George Abbott.

Abbott has said, after 80 bargaining sessions spanning 12 months of negotiations, he believes there is little hope for a negotiated settlement.

The president of the BC Teachers' Federation Susan Lambert says she hopes the next two weeks of talks with Hughes will lead to a negotiated settlement, but suspects the appointment of an assistant deputy minister to examine the situation does not bode well for the teachers.

Lambert says an independent arbitrator would have been preferable and she fears if Hughes finds there is no chance for a settlement, the government will use legislation to order teachers to end their job action.

"It's not really independent for government to walk down the hall and knock on the next office door and ask for an inquirer to ask the two parties, can we settle? I am worried about that," said Lambert.

Room for compromise

Lambert says her side is willing to compromise on its demands, but so far, the government has said its position is not negotiable.

The move comes just days after the Coquitlam School District renewed calls for the B.C. government to impose a contract settlement on the province’s teachers.

The province’s 40,000 teachers have been without a contract since June, and have refused to fill out report cards or to supervise playground activities since September.

Negotiations on the contract began 12 months ago, but there has been little progress reported at the negotiating table.

The government has said it is unwilling to negotiate any new contract that would include wages increases without cuts in other areas, as part of its ongoing net-zero mandate for public sector contracts.

But the teachers are insisting on wage increases to bring their salaries up to levels in other provinces and recently tabled demands for a 15 per cent wage increase over three years.