If Latvian teachers’ demands are not taken into account, Latvian Trade Union of Educational and Scientific Workers (LIZDA) will organise protests in September, as confirmed by LIZDA public relations department.
LIZDA reports that problems are not being resolved effectively, which is indicated by the large number of vacant jobs, teachers’ increased workload and high burn-out rates among teachers. This is why the trade union explains that failure to resolve the problem of large workloads and increase wages will have a major impact on the quality and accessibility of education, as well as generate additional costs for the state social insurance special budget and healthcare sector’s budget.
LIZDA made multiple attempts to convince the Ministry of Education and Science, Latvia’s government and the Saeima to balance teachers’ workload and increase wages.
The organisation also stresses that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Council had previously outlined the problem with excessive workload in their reports. This is confirmed by the topics discussed by LIZDA, Latvian Association of Local Governments, University of Latvia, Saeima’s Education, Culture and Science Committee.
Considering the topic of wage raise for teachers and balancing workloads, LIZDA decided to present four demands.
The first demand is compliance with Part 3 of Section 53 of the Education Law, which dictates that the work salary for one full-time workload for a teacher shall be not less than the work salary specified in the schedule for increase in work remuneration of teachers approved by the Cabinet in the relevant period of time, as well as the development and approval of a schedule for teachers’ wages for the next five-year period, starting with 2023.
The second demand is balancing the workload for teachers and ensuring distribution of workload in proportion no more than 60% of work time for contact lessons and no less than 40% for other duties.
The third demand is balancing the workload for kindergarten teachers, ensuring no more than 30 hours of a 40-hour work week to be dedicated to contact lessons and no less than 10 hours a week to other duties.
The fourth demand it timely notifying teachers of their planned workload and wage amounts.