'Lowering workload in secondary education is a priority'
If there is no collective labor agreement for secondary education, the Secondary Education Council calls on schools to raise wages themselves. AOb-chief driver Henrik de Moel is surprised by the plan. “We do have the ambition to make the sector healthy and attractive. Then it is both about salary and about tackling the workload. The VO council has been refusing to make agreements on that last point for months.”
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Since October, the unions and the VO Council have been discussing a new collective labor agreement. This is happening very slowly, so slowly that the unions broke off the talks at the end of last month. Thursday called the AOb therefore the members in a newsletter to prepare actions. The first action is on March 29 at the congress of the VO Council in Nieuwegein. In addition, the called AOb education staff to the hashtag: #VOsuppression to indicate that something needs to be done about the workload.
Burn out
De Moel illustrates with figures that something has to be done. One in three young colleagues who start working at a secondary school will stop within five years. A quarter of secondary education staff suffer from burnout. “Reducing work pressure is really the number one priority for our members, we have to make agreements about that.”
Today shouted the VO council the unions to resume talks. If there is no collective bargaining agreement, said employers' chairman Paul Rosenmöller, the council will call on secondary schools to pay a wage increase of 2,35 percent from 1 June. “Apparently the VO council has become a bit nervous about the action plans,” says De Moel.
"Reducing work pressure is really the number one priority for our members, we have to make agreements about that," says AOb- Chief driver Henrik de Moel
Trick
Rosenmöller finds the requirements of the AOb and other unions 'unrealistic' when it comes to work pressure. The AOb wants teachers to spend a maximum of 20 teaching hours per week in front of the class and the wage must be increased by 3,5 percent. AObnegotiator Henrik de Moel thinks the action of the secondary education council is a trick that depends on the 'goodwill' of school boards. The VO council can call on schools to raise wages, but that is not an obligation. Some schools can do that, others can't. “A collective labor agreement ensures that all staff are also entitled to a salary increase.”
De Moel says that the unions have a vision of what should happen in the sector. “Reducing work pressure is important to us. We want to achieve this by reducing the number of teaching hours. Yes, that costs a lot of money, but we would like the VO Council to match this ambition. There are already schools that have arranged it well and program fewer teaching hours than others. In addition, wages must be increased by 3,5 percent. That is fair, especially since there was no structural wage increase last year. It is a pity that the VO council calls this unrealistic.”
