Teachers review body rules out 35-hour week

9 May 02
The teaching unions' campaign for a 35-hour working week was dealt a blow on May 8 when the School Teachers' Review Body refused to impose a cap on working hours.

10 May 2002

The review body, which sets terms and conditions for the profession, has instead recommended a target 45-hour week to be met within four school years. It said the call to impose a statutory limit on the hours teachers worked was 'unconvincing on practical grounds and unusual for professional people'.

But it has endorsed union demands for all teachers to be given guaranteed non-contact time, some of it within the timetabled week, to allow planning, marking and paperwork to be done. It does not suggest how much time should be made available, however.

Graham Lane, chair of the Local Government Association's education executive, told Public Finance that the recommendations fell well short of what was needed to solve the recruitment and retention crisis in the teaching profession.

'A 45-hour week is still a long working week, and is not really an attractive proposition. This doesn't seem to be a helpful addition to the debate,' Lane said.

Other recommendations include a contractual limit to the amount of cover each teacher must provide for absent colleagues; the use of more support staff to carry out administrative duties; and an extra five days' professional training annually.

Eamonn O'Kane, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters/ Union of Women Teachers, said of the report: 'It is distinctly underwhelming. But we can build on it with genuine negotiations to achieve significant change.'

He confirmed that the unions would not act on their threat of industrial action while the recommendations were under negotiation.

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the STRB's report was a 'significant advance', but had not gone far enough to address excessive workloads.

'The ball is now in the government's court. Everything depends on [its] willingness to commit itself to positive dialogue with the employers and teacher unions to agree changes to the contract,' he added.

Education Secretary Estelle Morris welcomed the report's rejection of a 'clocking-on, clocking-off' culture. 'This report is an important step in our mission to raise standards further,' she said. 'I welcome the debate that can now be started about the important principles set out in it.'

Consultations with unions and employers should finish by July 3. No timetable has been set for the publication of firm proposals.

PFmay2002

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