VO

Unions want a maximum of 22 teaching hours per week in secondary education

AObdirector Jelmer Evers wants clear agreements in this round of negotiations for a new collective labor agreement to limit the high workload. He wants to set a maximum of 22 teaching hours per week in the collective labor agreement: 720 teaching hours per year.

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work pressure collective agreement

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Evers: “It is nice that we as unions are on the same page about this, it will ensure that the basis is in order and that teachers have more time for lesson preparation, professionalization and cooperation. It makes the profession more attractive.”

This afternoon the AOb together with the other unions and the VO-raad, their collective labor agreement commitment. This is the starting point of a new round of negotiations on the collective labor agreement. Work pressure is a major issue in deployment, in addition to wages and arrangements for starters and teaching support staff.

Workload

All unions want to include a clear agreement on the number of teaching hours in the new collective labor agreement. “At the moment that is described too vaguely,” says Evers. “We see in practice that many different bad agreements arise at schools.” It has to be different, also because out de AOb-survey earlier it turned out that 80 percent of colleagues are not satisfied with the number of lessons and the before and after work. And this is according to the AObdriver is just a starting point. “Ultimately, we want to have 20 teaching hours per week and 620 teaching hours per year. We want for this commitment of the employers. Teachers need that perspective.”

There must be a clear agreement about the number of teaching hours. At the moment that is described too vaguely

Colleagues who want to work more teaching hours per week are always allowed to do so. Evers: “To make this more attractive, they must be given an increasingly higher surcharge for each extra lesson hour (above 22 lesson hours) - the time that each teacher gets per lesson hour for preparing, checking and developing lessons. This makes teaching more attractive.”

Another point to make teaching more fun is the full-time bonus. This is not a bonus in money, but in time. Lecturers with a working time factor of 0,8 FTE or more must be entitled to be scheduled for a whole day. Evers: “Many lecturers work fewer hours for such a day off and then do odd jobs that they wouldn't otherwise have time to do. We hope that this agreement will give teachers the opportunity to prepare lessons or do other activities in peace.”

With this commitment, the unions hope to create an attractive profession and to offer prospects. “That makes the profession attractive and it will increase the quality of education. I can't imagine the employers wouldn't want this too."

AObdirector Jelmer Evers: 'Our proposals make the profession more attractive and improve the quality of education. I can't imagine the employers wouldn't want this too'

Loon

Wage is also an important point in every collective bargaining round. For secondary education, the AOb on purchasing power. This time, the wage requirement applies together with primary education. “So there will be one wage demand for basic education,” says Evers. This means that the final joint wage demand from the unions will be announced at the end of this month and that it will then be negotiated with both the school boards from primary and secondary education. For the FNV and the AOb the wage requirement has already been set at 14,3 percent.

De AOb focus on purchasing power

De AOb also wants a study by labor market platform Voion into the job mix and its implementation. “There seems to be a decline in the number of LC and LD functions,” says de AOb-Director. “We want to use the study to see whether school boards comply with the agreements and to have a fundamental discussion about remuneration and job evaluation. That's just not going well right now."

Starters and openers

The negotiators also want to make good agreements for starters and oop'ers. For example, starters must be given 40 hours per year for a personal budget. Trainees in education must receive an internship allowance of 750 euros per month.
For educational assistants, the time for training must be added. “We want this to increase from 40 to 83 hours a year,” says Evers, who hears from all sides that oop'ers need this. For oop'ers who often work on call - such as janitors who close the school or turn off the alarm - the unions want to include in the collective labor agreement that they will be paid at least three hours for every call outside normal working hours.

lung covid

Appropriate insurance to protect the income of colleagues with lung covid is for the AOb an important point in the effort. The union has been asking for appropriate measures for this group of people for some time and therefore wants all secondary education employers to take out disability insurance for the staff so that they do not suffer a loss of income in the event of illness.

Flex

Containing flex contracts remains an unchanged point where the AOb works hard for it. “We want a limited size of the flexible shell and preferably a maximum related to the size of the organization,” says Evers. There is already a draft bill that prohibits entering into a self-employed construction with teachers and limits the duration of a temporary contract. “It has to be written into law, but we ask employers to also record this in the collective labor agreement. They just need to support it.”

Curious about the entire collective labor agreement? You can download through this link. Employers have too shared their commitment.

Do you want more explanation about the bet? Then register for the webinar on Wednesday 15 March about work pressure resources. AObdirector Jelmer Evers also discusses the commitment and answers questions.

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