The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board and Unifor Local 2458 have extended a deadline that would have seen support staff on strike as of midnight on Saturday.
The school board and the union agreed Friday night to continue contact talks for custodial, maintenance, office and technical staff, and push the strike deadline to the first week of October.
"It's certainly best for the students, the families and everything else within the system to put off any kind of strike action, or lock-out action, until we have an opportunity to figure out how we can get to an agreement over the next several months," says Bruce Dickie, president of Unifor Local 2458.
Dickie says contract talks have been exceedingly complex due to recent court rulings, specifically on Bill 115, which imposed contracts that froze wages and limited the ability to strike.
He says it has become increasingly difficult for the two parties to agree on where to start bargaining.
"[The union] is saying the agreement that expired in 2012 for us is a starting point, because what was imposed on us was declared unconstitutional," says Dickie. "The school board is saying [we] have an imposed agreement from 2012-2014, and that's the starting point. So clearly from the outset we've had a dispute as to where we even start from."
Five unions took the government to court over Bill 115 and a judge sided with them, ruling that the imposed contracts violated constitutional collective bargaining rights. However, the court left the question of a remedy up to the government and unions to decide.
A second court ruling also found the province overstepped its bounds and were ordered to reinstate retiree benefits.
Catholic board support staff are still currently working under an imposed collective agreement from 2012-2014. However, because of the Bill 115 ruling, Dickie says the union does not recognize the terms of the contract.
"We're saying, what was imposed on us was illegal, therefore it has no effect," he says. "The current terms and conditions of employment will remain. However, neither side is agreeing to what they are."
Earlier this month, office workers voted 97% in favour of a strike mandate, while custodians voted 99% in favour.
-With files from Adelle Loiselle and The Canadian Press