Concierge needs vacation to unwind
Janitors often have to work outside of regular school hours. The rules for overtime are complex. Maybe that's why some schools are a bit messy with it.
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Closing the school after an evening meeting, providing coffee at a parents' evening, letting construction workers in during a school holiday. The concierge is also regularly called upon outside regular school hours. “That's a bit inherent to the job,” says AObsector manager of secondary education Herman Molleman. “There is a culture of 'it is part of it', you don't moan about it if you have a heart for the school,” says Henk Breen, who is a caretaker at a pre-university school in Haarlem. “I started in education ten years ago, before that I worked in healthcare. When my first open house came up and I started talking about compensation, it was like they saw water burn, ”he recalls. While it is of course not surprising that there is something in return for hours worked in your free time, especially if you do not already earn that much. “Teachers sometimes notice that they also work at strange times. But they do earn considerably more. ”
The collective labor agreement for secondary education also includes something about compensation. When a support worker works overtime on Saturday, the overtime hours count 1,5 times as much as regular hours. After six o'clock in the evening even 1,75 times as hard and twice as hard on Sundays. During the week, overtime between six and eight o'clock in the evening counts 2 times as hard, when it comes to half to two clock hours. If it concerns more clock hours, they count 1,25 times as heavy. After eight o'clock, the small hours also count 1,5 times as hard.
After my burnout I said: I won't do it anymore '
Are you still following? If you want to follow the collective labor agreement to the letter, you have to make a long study of it. That is why it is probably also a bit messy in schools. “We arrange it among ourselves with the concierges and that is never complicated,” says Cees Boot, who works at a secondary school in the south of the country. “When we work in an evening or on the weekend, we can compensate those hours, overtime counts more heavily than regular hours. And if we still have hours left at the end of the year, we will be paid for them. ” Boat has no complaints. Fellow concierge Breen does have a side note. For the past two years he has been working during spring school, during the May holidays. “The first time I was paid for it. But that was not possible, I could transfer it directly to the tax authorities. That's why I postponed my vacation last year. That was attractive. ”
Psychological stress
Telephone or on-call services also sometimes limit the concierge's free time. “Here at school we have four janitors who are expected to provide telephone service during the summer holidays,” says Henk Jansen, who works at a school for pre-vocational secondary education and practical education in Ede. “During such a shift, you must always be able to be at school within half an hour. So you cannot drink a beer or a glass of wine. Or a day to Scheveningen. ” Jansen is disappointed with those services. “There is always someone present during the first and last week of the summer holidays. But if you are on duty for the third holiday week, you cannot go on holiday for three consecutive weeks. My son who works in telecom also has telephone services. But not when he's on vacation. And what's more, he is royally rewarded for his telephone services. ”
Jansen's school gives the janitors 8 hours of overtime for a week's telephone service and pays out the hours worked (if the janitor has to come to school) on top of that. That is not in proportion to the 'psychological burden', Jansen thinks. “I need the vacation to unwind. After my burnout, I said: I don't do that service anymore. But that still gives an unpleasant feeling. I now saddle my colleagues with it. I did say: If there is something and I happen to be in the area, I will of course come immediately. ”
Jansen does not have the collective labor agreement on his side. A support worker who works forty hours a week is entitled to a minimum of two consecutive weeks' holiday - which is the case at Jansens school. Compensation must be opposed to on-call services, but this compensation must be mutually agreed, so customization. “If you think that the compensation is disproportionate to the vacation taken away, you can discuss this with the personnel section of the participation council,” advises Molleman of the AOb. “Then go out together with your fellow concierges. Or go to the union. We can also make a difference in that. ”
These on-call services have been arranged very differently. “We have them on weekends and holidays,” says Boot. “But we don't have to stay at home for that. In 98 percent of the cases, you can solve it by telephone. Is that not possible? Then you just call a colleague who is at home. We are not difficult about that among ourselves. ” What about in the heart of the summer holidays, when all the janitors are on the beach? Then they agree that not everyone is unreachable. “I have a colleague who goes on vacation for six weeks in the summer. He then asks first whether we find that objectionable. We don't think so. He then takes on some extra on-call shifts throughout the year, and you don't hear about us. ” The concierge is therefore not the only point of contact at Boot school. “The guards of the school sometimes close the school or close a window that is open. The only thing that really matters to us is when windows are smashed, but that almost never happens. ”
At Breen's school, a former janitor who lives next to the school and is still attached to the school sometimes closes a window. Normally they do not have availability services during the summer holidays, but they do this summer because there was a lot of renovation. “My two colleagues were each on duty for a week. One colleague worked on this for a whole week and was compensated for it. The other colleague was not called up, but had to be around for a whole week for a fee of about XNUMX euros. ”
Molleman of the AOb sighs: “the compensation for these types of services is sometimes arbitrary”.
