'Record a break in the work distribution plan'
At various schools, employers are trying to cut back on teachers' breaks, according to phone calls received from the AOb enter. The union urges employees to properly record the breaks in the work distribution plan.
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'Pause? You can take it when the students have gone home '. Roughly speaking, that is the position that more and more school boards seem to be adopting. Various boards believe that they can simply cancel the break because it is no longer included in the collective labor agreement for primary education.
Conditions
“But the fact that breaks are no longer explicitly mentioned in the collective labor agreement does not mean that you can cancel them,” says AObsector manager Anton Bodegraven. "Because those breaks must be recorded in the work distribution plan, which must be drawn up at every primary school before the summer holidays." In such a plan, a school team itself divides the work and its preconditions. Such as the times when employees are present and the breaks.
Everyone who works longer than 5,5 hours is entitled to a half hour break - or twice a quarter of an hour
The conditions that the breaks must meet - also in the work distribution plan - are again laid down in the Working Hours Act. “According to that law, everyone who works more than 5,5 hours a day is entitled to a half-hour break – or twice XNUMX minutes – break,” says Bodegraven. “And a break should not be at the beginning or end of the day: a break is meant to interrupt working time.”
Walking
The latter means that lunch in class, with the students there, does not legally count as a break. Bodegraven: “As an employee you can take the break in your own way. You should also be able to walk outside for half an hour if you want. So a rule of thumb is: if you cannot go for a walk, for example because you also have to supervise your lunching students during your own lunch, you do not have a break. ”
Continuous schedule
Especially at schools with a continuous schedule, it sometimes takes creativity to have everyone take their break, says Bodegraven. “But it is possible, and it happens. For example, because colleagues take turns taking over work from each other, or through the deployment of auxiliary parents or employees of the BSO. It is certainly not impossible. So: come up with a good system with the team and management, and record it in the work distribution plan. ”
