New working time agreement for teachers

Tekna has entered into a new agreement with KS regarding working hours for teachers.

The new agreement will enter into force on August 1, 2022. The union is pleased that the new agreement enhances the flexibility of teachers, that it is clear in the new agreement that teaching is the primary task in the school and that the new agreement facilitates more local room for maneuver. Local parties can let tasks decide where and when work is done.

Strengthens flexibility

The new agreement enhances teachers’ flexibility. Experiences from the pandemic show teachers are working well from home, and Tekna is pleased that the new agreement provides for greater confidence and flexibility in terms of job performance. The new agreement allows for more flexible working time arrangements locally. Concepts such as school hours have been replaced by scheduled work hours, and there is room for local room to maneuver regarding time associated with school as a workplace, and can be replaced by time available to students, employers, and colleagues. Local parties can let tasks decide where and when work is done. Thus the employment contract was changed to be more in line with the changes we would otherwise see in society. The new agreement facilitates more domestic room for maneuver. Tekna is very pleased with this.

The new agreement stipulates that schools will have six planning days.

It is no longer mandatory to negotiate locally about school hours. However, there is still a full opportunity to negotiate local solutions when the parties wish to do so. The agreement also states that locally the parties can agree to more flexible working time arrangements. Tekna recommends that the local store hosts require negotiations on the school’s opening hours scheme as soon as possible, so that the employer can include negotiations in this year’s planning. Negotiations should take place in the spring. The new agreement has a more flexible system, where you can negotiate as many possible working time arrangements.

In addition, the new agreement states that the content of planning days will be discussed with store agents.

Teaching is the most important

The new agreement also makes it clear that teaching is the primary task at the school. Tekna is satisfied with the focus on student education, and it was emphasized in the new agreement that teachers should have the time and space to prepare teaching, both individually and collectively. The protection of the independent work of teachers is maintained, and the work can be carried out in the appropriate place.

An increasing source of teacher communication is provided to primary school teachers who perform teacher services to connect with more than 20 students. The agreement states that the resource is provided in the form of an additional reduction to the annual framework of teaching, but the parties locally can agree that the increased resource is distributed in a different way. Tekna is disappointed that teacher contact resources for secondary school teachers have not increased, because we did not reach negotiations in this round.

However, the time resource area for secondary schools has also been increased, by 15 minutes per student. A formula was included in the agreement specifying that the time resource pool would, as a rule, be used to give the teacher, including the communication teacher, more time for their tasks. The agreement thus emphasizes that the place of time resources can also be used to contact tutors. As a rule, this is done by reducing the number of teaching hours as before. What is new in the agreement is that the burden of individual teaching can also be reduced by increasing the density of teachers, and this party agreement is not required.

The working time agreement was last negotiated in 2019, but in both 2017 and 2019, the agreement was extended without changes. The new agreement will run for two years, until 31.12.2023.

Joint training will be conducted in the new working time agreement.