On Monday, the 13th of March, Latvia’s ruling coalition conceptually agreed to increase the lowest hourly rate for teachers from the 1st of September onward, as confirmed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs and leader of Saeima faction of Combined List party Edgars Tavars after a meeting of government parties.
The new rates will become known once the government approves the proposal submitted by the Ministry of Education and Science. According to provisional estimates, after the changes pre-school teachers’ lowest hourly rate will be at EUR 7.75 and EUR 8.5 on all other levels.
Discussions regarding specific financial topics will continue. This includes the pay of teachers working for the Ministry of Culture, explained Rinkēvičs.
As previously reported, the trade union promised to start a new strike if the government didn’t keep their promises and divert funding towards teachers’ wages, as well as balance their workload. The trade union promised to organise a nation-wide strike.
Minister of Education and Science Anda Čakša mentioned in a previous interview to LTV programme Rīta panorāma that the schedule for teachers’ wage and workload balancing requested by LIZDA would be approved at the 14th of March meeting of the government.
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