Inflation, work pressure and task policy spearheads when deploying collective labor agreements
Tackling the workload and raising wages due to inflation: these are for AObmembers set the spearheads in the negotiations for the collective labor agreement for secondary education.
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In the supermarket and at the gas pump it has been noticeable for months: inflation is high. “We've been hearing for a long time that current inflation would be a temporary phenomenon,” says AObdirector Jelmer Evers. “But it seems to be a fairly lengthy affair. The cost of living continues to rise, and it is high time for wages to rise with it. Also in secondary education.”
I predict that a wage gap that is too small will soon become a breaking point in the collective labor agreement negotiations
A substantial increase in wages will therefore be one of the spearheads in the negotiations for the collective labor agreement for secondary education. “It is still unknown what wage margin will become available from the government,” says Evers. “There will be more clarity about this in March. But I predict that a wage margin that is too small will soon become a breaking point in the collective labor agreement negotiations.”
Workload
The second important point in the collective labor agreement negotiations will be tackling work pressure and task policy, according to a recent report poll among teaching staff of the joint associations. In total, almost eight thousand people responded, more than half of whom are members of the AOb.
Class size
“The poll clearly shows the desire to tackle three structural causes of work pressure: class size, the number of lessons and the amount of tasks,” says Evers. “Class size is something that we can only arrange in the collective labor agreement with the employers to a limited extent. We would like to make a start, but a government delta plan is really needed for a significant reduction in class sizes. We need to discuss this with Minister Wiersma.”
Job Policy
The discussion during the collective labor agreement negotiations will therefore focus on teaching time, more room for individual development and the number of tasks. In short: the task policy.
The employers would like to leave the task policy entirely to the teams, but there are the AObmembers not in favor of. “In secondary education, the teams are often large, with different departments and years', says Evers. “If those large teams have to arrange the task policy themselves, people or groups quickly get lost in the snow.”
On paper, the task policy is correct, but there is no relationship to the actual time you spend on the tasks
AOb-members also indicate in the survey that there is often no 'professional consultation culture' in too many schools. Evers: “Too often there is still a lack of a safe climate for these kinds of negotiations at the schools themselves. That is why frameworks and procedural agreements are needed that everyone can rely on.”
With regard to these frameworks, there are two possibilities. Some of the teachers indicate that these should simply be laid down in the collective labor agreement. The reduction of the teaching task is often mentioned. A majority, however, is in favor of some sort of menu system from which choices can be made.
Choice menu
“There will then be a number of options from which teams can choose,” says Evers. “For example, reducing the lesson task, increasing the storage factor, more development time, more free space or a limited size of the classes.”
In any case, the vast majority of teachers want to be involved in the discussion about the task policy at school. Evers: “A huge majority of members indicate that the task policy is currently a reality on paper. On paper, the annual tasks are correct, but there is no relationship with the actual time you spend on those tasks. That really has to change.”
silently
The current collective labor agreement is tacitly renewed so that the staff continues to fall under the collective agreement. Evers hopes to arrive at a negotiator's result before mid-March. “From April and May, the new school year will be set up, with formation and tasks. The agreements in a new collective labor agreement must therefore be clear before that time in order to have an effect for the new school year. But whether we can reach a collective labor agreement will partly depend on the wage margin, inflation and the plans of the cabinet.”
