At least a couple of thousand people could participate in the teachers’ picket on May 21. A series of uncertainties for the union

At least 2,000 people could participate in the teachers’ picket, which will take place on May 21 at 11 a.m. in front of the government building, said Inga Vanaga, the chairwoman of the Latvian Education and Science Workers’ Union (LIZDA), to the LETA agency. She admits that the real number of participants could be higher.

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The Hawk confirmed that the union had submitted an application for picketing. LIZDA maintains the claim that the protest action can be prevented by amendments to the regulatory acts on the balancing of teachers’ workloads, reducing the number of contact hours and leaving more time for other duties.

The amendments should be adopted by mid-June at the latest. If the union’s demand is not met, Vanaga does not rule out a repeated strike by teachers or a request for the resignation of the minister of education. The LIZDA board will decide on possible actions in case of non-fulfilment today at 4 p.m.

LETA already announced that Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (JV) has tasked the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) and LIZDA with calculations to prove by the middle of the month whether the ministry’s proposal for balancing the workload of pedagogues will improve working conditions for teachers or not.

LIZDA maintains the demand for amendments to the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, which provide for continuing work on balancing the workload of pedagogues for all groups of pedagogues. This means that the number of contact hours for educators would be reduced, allowing more time for other duties. The desired load distribution differs for each group of educators. For example, general education teachers should have a “60:40” workload split.

Although the trade union is ready for compromises, it “categorically disagrees” with the proposal of the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) to switch to a 40-hour week as the full workload of teachers. Vaanga explains this position with the experience so far, when teachers’ income has decreased by increasing the number of hours per week. Therefore, the union encourages to stick to the 36-hour work week.

The union is worried that if the methodology is changed, the pedagogue will either not be paid for work in the interim, or most duties will not be paid. In turn, this will contribute to an even greater shortage of pedagogues, Vanaga is convinced.

The union is also concerned about a possible reduction in the hourly rate. Hawk refers to the previous school semester, when the lowest salary rate was used in the calculations of balanced hours. Therefore, in several municipalities, the allocated grant was not enough to ensure an increase in the teacher’s salary and introduce load balancing.

LIZDA still does not agree with the proposal of the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) regarding the future balancing of the workload of pedagogues. Therefore, the trade union has decided in favor of the teachers’ picket and to go to court.

On the other hand, a uniform workload ratio would not be determined for several groups of pedagogues, such as support staff. The procedure for determining the composition of the workload would be discussed at the level of the municipality or the educational institution individually, based on needs.

LIZDA and the Ministry of Education and Culture have long had different views on balancing the workload of educators. In the opinion of the Ministry’s management, the conflict arose because of a different vision of the future work to be done. The Ministry of the Interior is convinced that several solutions are possible, moreover, the vision of several parties, not only the Ministry of the Interior and LIZDA, must be taken into account.

The Ministry of Education and Culture also plans to update the guidelines on load balancing to clearly state which obligations must be paid.

LETA already announced that LIZDA and the Ministry of Interior had to agree on the load balancing model already in May of last year.

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