Unions accuse government of reneging on promises to teachers

Trade unions Sek and Peo said they will not sit idle while the employment terms of around 5,000 people who teach the education ministry’s afternoon and evening programmes resemble those of the Middle Ages.

The unions accused the government of going back on promises made before the presidential election when, during a meeting at the Presidential Palace last January, there were discussions about teachers of afternoon and evening classes being restored as employees instead of having to work on contracts. They are also asking that their teaching experience is recognised by the education ministry.

These teachers, they said, are faced with a ‘survival problem during the four to five months they are unemployed’.

A committee was appointed by cabinet last January to look into the matter.

The status of these teachers changed in 2013 due to the economic crisis.

“That decision deprived them of their unemployment benefits,” the unions said in a statement.

They added that legal proceedings have been filed by the teachers ‘on the legitimacy of their employment conditions which deprive a worker of all employment benefits’.

But a cabinet decision this week to wait for the upcoming ruling of the administrative court, where the teachers sought legal recourse, before taking any further steps angered the unions.

“It seems that the actions taken in January … were for reasons of expediency,” the statement said.

The education ministry said cabinet had this week decided to fully comply with the ruling of the administrative court, whatever that may be.

It also said that cabinet has authorised the committee it has appointed to hire an expert to give advice on the streamlining of operations of the education ministry’s afternoon and evening programmes. Dialogue will continue on the improvement of these teachers’ employment terms, the ministry said.

The unions said that their members are determined to act in a decisive manner ‘until the unacceptable and unfair employment by purchase of services, which leads to working conditions prevailing in the Middle Ages, is abolished’.

 

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