Education staff wants clear collective labor agreement agreements about work pressure reduction
Education employees in secondary education want to clearly state in the collective labor agreement how the money from the Education Agreement -300 million euros structurally- will be used to reduce work pressure. 97 percent of those surveyed indicate this in a poll. For example, they want clear agreements about how many lessons they give and about the number of task hours.
Picture: Type tank
That leaves the poll of the AOb - which has currently been completed by more than 2100 teaching staff - clearly. Half of the employees experience a very high workload and 43 percent a 'reasonably high' workload. Nearly 80 percent of those who completed the survey work more hours than stated in the contract. One in three even say they do this 'very much' and structurally. Almost 20 percent say they do not work more hours than indicated in the contract.
May 20 announced AOb-driver Jelmer Evers a great action on June 8 in secondary education. About the 300 million euros for workload reduction in secondary education that has become available in the Education agreement the unions have to make good agreements together with the VO council. Only that consultation is not going very well. Evers: 'We will not allow the extra money from the cabinet to reduce the workload to be thrown away by the employers.'
We will not allow the extra money from the cabinet for reducing the workload to be rumbled away by employers
Collective labor agreements
De AOb wants clear agreements to be made in collective labor agreement on reducing work pressure. For example, for each teacher and supporter 60 optional hours per year and a maximum of 24 lessons per week, which will be reduced to 20 in due course. The employers prefer to see the money go to the education teams, who then discuss how to spend it. The AOb does not like that, because the teams at secondary schools are large with different years and disciplines, which means that the overview is lost. Therefore an action on June 8th whereby educational staff are called upon to enter into a dialogue with colleagues, administrators and school leaders.
97 percent of the respondents want concrete agreements in the collective labor agreement
The respondents agree with the union: 97 percent want concrete agreements in the collective labor agreement. English teacher Nakita Ubels of the Newton comprehensive school in Hoorn is one of the respondents to the poll. She knows the high workload. “It is certainly there at peak times. Fortunately, my students have VMBO basic and framework digital tests that are also marked digitally. At the moment I am glad that I am not in the shoes of my colleagues in mathematics and Dutch who have a lot of grading work now. I also often think: I shouldn't get sick or miss a lesson, because then I'll get in trouble.”
Ubels would like to have recorded the number of lessons. For example, if you have a job of 0,8 FTE, you then have 21 lessons and 24 lessons with a full-time job. Smaller classes would also help. “I had a schedule change because my classes didn't physically fit in the classrooms recently. We had to move to another room. There should be no more than 27 students in a class, because then you as a teacher also have everyone's attention.”
Often tasks are also added, Ubels notes. “Then they say, now with the NPO funds, 'Oh, do you add extra lessons'. But that comes at the expense of your own break time. Or we would like to quietly read books with our English team that can be added to the reading list and come up with fun projects, but you often don't get around to that.”
Many colleagues indicate in the survey that they experience a high workload. 'More and more new colleagues #flex, extra pressure from the NPO and task policy is a reality on paper', writes a teacher. Another teacher reports: 'Far too many tasks besides teaching, teaching has become an afterthought. I work 0,8 but I lose at least 6 days a week to get my work done. I experience a lot of stress and fatigue.' Or: 'A lot of hidden work. I hardly know anyone who still works full-time.'
Respondent: 'Far too many tasks besides teaching, teaching has become an afterthought. I work 0,8 but I lose at least 6 days a week to get my work done'
Loon
In addition to work pressure, wages are an important theme in collective bargaining. Bas Penris, ICT employee at the Carmel College in Twente and member of the participation council, thinks this is a way to make the profession more attractive. “I myself am less bothered by the work pressure, because I have a free-market ICT mentality, but the government should always let wages rise in line with inflation,” he says on the phone. “It stands or falls with the salary, especially in the lowest salary scales 1, 2 and 3. Those colleagues really have a lot of month left because of more expensive groceries.” Penris would like to go on strike for a whole month. “And more and more people in the school think that way,” he assures.
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