Even after meeting with Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš Latvian Trade Union of Education and Science Employees (LIZDA) and the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) still have different opinions about the implementation of demands from the last teachers’ strike.
The head of LIZDA Inga Vanaga told LETA that not all strike demands have been met, because IZM’s mistakes in estimates range between “0.2 to 3 million”, but the financing calculated for different education sectors differs by up to 50% of what the government had previously approved.
Vanaga also accused the ministry of not fully engaging in discussions organised by the trade union about the balancing of workloads.
Minister Anda Čakša is of a different opinion, stressing that what is happening now with the improvement of the quality of education can be called “splitting hairs”.
She explained that microdata analysis used data that was provided by each individual school to the National Education Information System, adding that the data that was provided was “of varied quality”.
The ministry used in its estimates data for the 1st of January to find out if the new funding is enough to sufficiently raise teachers’ wages.
According to her, the main topic sides cannot agree is who the employer of teachers actually is, stressing again the importance of municipalities in distribution of grants. Čakša pointed towards the different interpretations from employers in regards to the size of wages for teachers even though grants are provided to all municipalities equally.
“Municipalities play a very important role in maintaining the quality of education,” stressed the minister.
On Friday, the 7th of July, LIZDA will call an extraordinary meeting to decide on future actions. The trade union is committed to demanding quality from the ministry “the same way it is demanded from education sector workers”.
“This will be a unique practice in Europe, when after more than half a year of disputes sides are unable to reach a clear solution,” Vanaga said.
On the 21st of April the Latvian government approved amendments from IZM to requirements of the Cabinet of Ministers. These amendments provide for setting the minimal hourly rate for all teachers except kindergarten teachers at EUR 8.50 starting with the 1st of September 2023.
For kindergarten teachers the lowest hourly rate starting with the 1st of September is planned to be set at EUR 1 240 or 15.8% more when compared with the year prior. The wage increase schedule provides for reducing the inequality between wages paid to kindergarten and general education teachers, which originally surfaced as a result of different workloads – kindergarten teachers’ workload is 40 hours a week, whereas all other teachers will have a 36-hour work week starting with the 1st of September.
To ensure an increase of the lowest hourly rates, it was decided to allocate EUR 9 039 833 from the state budget for emergencies towards this.
Despite this decision from the government, LIZDA commenced a three-day strike on the 24th of April, accusing the government of failing to implement all requirements of the strike and making the final decision later than promised. Before the strike LIZDA demanded the government to increase teachers’ wages and change workloads.
On the 26th of April the government decided to allocate an additional EUR 4 168 067 towards teachers’ wages in order to implement all demands from the teachers’ strike.
Amendments to regulations passed by the government state that the average costs of 1st to 6th graders have increased from EUR 105.09 to EUR 108.64, the average costs of 7th to 9th graders have increased from EUR 135.41 to EUR 139.99, whereas the average costs of 10th to 12th graders have increased from EUR 145.51 to EUR 150.43.
Čakša’s advisor for analytical affairs Jānis Salmiņš is confident –
the government has allocated EUR 1 976 776 more than would have been necessary to implement demands of the strike. This is confirmed by the estimates performed by the ministry.
The allocated financing, according to IZM representatives, will be enough for new teachers’ wages, as the estimates also took into account vacant teaching positions.
At the beginning of June, LIZDA requested amendments to be added to all Cabinet of Ministers regulations that govern financing in kindergartens, primary, secondary, vocational and special education teachers by the 30th of June.
The ministry did propose adding amendments after the 15th of August, to which the trade union categorically objected, because municipalities have to know in advance if there is enough financing to know what wages to offer teachers.
Because no amendments were implemented, LIZDA demanded dismissal for Čakša. The minister rejected this demand, saying there is no justification behind it because all strike demands have been implemented.
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