Teacher union officials are pulling members from after-hours gatherings called by the Gauteng department of education in a campaign to stop meetings being called at the last minute.
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) says members are complaining about poor planning by the provincial education department, which demands teachers attend after-hours meetings at almost no notice.
Earlier this year Sadtu’s Gauteng Central branch asked its 7 000 members to refrain from attending meetings after 3pm. But teachers could face disciplinary action from the department if they do not attend.
Officials from nine of Sadtu’s branches – including Soweto, Alexandra, Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, Ennerdale and Lenasia – have interrupted meetings and have escorted their members out.
According to Graham Mansingh, regional secretary of Sadtu Gauteng Central, union members have been pulled from at least 40 meetings and the region’s campaign “is working”.
“Educators are being told willy nilly to attend workshops and meetings on the eve of weekends without proper notification. This is a disruption to their own private studies and their roles and activities in communities,” Mansingh said.
He said educators had “no problem” attending skills-upgrade workshops or information dissemination meetings, but they should be informed early so that they could plan accordingly.
He said the department “makes veiled threats” about attendance at these meetings, which are compulsory. Failure to attend meetings results in members having to submit a “long letter” of explanation and face disciplinary action.
Mansingh said the union has had high-level meetings with the Gauteng education department about the problem.
Mike Myburgh, chief executive of the National Professional Teachers’ Union of South Africa (Naptosa) in Gauteng, said that although the department could call meetings at “any time”, all unions would object to attending such activities during teaching time.
Myburgh said the national department of education has asked provincial departments to restrict meetings to after hours, but this was not always practical because of the long distances teachers had to travel to a central point.
He said the provincial education department often called teachers to meetings at one day’s notice, which was “unreasonable”. Myburgh said this lack of notice was an ongoing problem, as were the costs teachers incurred travelling to meetings.
The Gauteng department of education said it was investigating the matter.
Where the time goes:
- Educators must work 1 800 hours a year.
- This translates into seven hours of pupil contact time at school and another two hours for information days, which can include sport and culture and event planning. A total of 80 of the 1 800 hours can be for training, which can take place during school holidays.
- Teachers have to receive three-months’ notice of holiday training. – Personnel Administration Measures in terms of the Employment of Educators Act
The following is a letter outlining the Union’s demands:
Comrades!
It further pronounces on and clarifies without any malice our stance on Meetings called by the GDE and districts that are located in our region. This is therefore a clarion call for actions that violate your condition of service. A violent stop must be put to these abuses.
School-based educators are members of Sadtu employed in schools. Office-based educators are members of Sadtu who are employed in offices of education (district) in our region.
Meetings refer to all sittings that demand our members to be physically present outside their scheduled working hours without pay.
Meetings that are called must be within scheduled working hours for both school and office-based educators. The meetings are workshops convened, curriculum sittings, cluster sessions, HIV AIDS programmes, music competitions, gala events, and anything that constitutes a meeting.
All Sadtu members are not allowed to attend meetings on Saturdays. This abuse must immediately come to a stop. No Sadtu member is allowed to attend a meeting that extends beyond 15h00 between Mondays and Fridays. Anytime that extends beyond 15h00 must be overtime. Refer to your provisions on the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) that speaks to overtime.
The moratorium on these meetings scheduled outside working hours apply both to school and office-based members without changing the working hours. Anything that extends beyond the working hours and conditions of service of our members will be a declaration of hostilities.
We are in a state of perpetual readiness as Sadtu to disrupt these meetings and declare war on anyone who is arrogant to disregard this call.
We do not have any agreement with the department of education that allows for meetings outside the scheduled working hours. There is no agreement on the variation of these working hours. There is no Memorandum of Understanding on these violations and abuses of calling educators willy-nilly to meetings on Saturday despite the nobleness of these meetings.
The department of education must enter into agreement of overtime pay to any meeting that demands our members outside scheduled working hours.
This memo has nothing to do with the Black child and has everything to do with the violation of the rights of educators by some and not all power drunk officials.
Ignore this memo at your own peril!
Issued by the Regional Secretariat of Sadtu
Do you think the language used by Sadtu in the letter – a threat to put a “violent stop to abuses” – is acceptable? Do you think the issue raised – that of attending meetings called at short notice and at all hours – is valid? Is there another way? SMS your comments to 083 409 7430.