Less stress, higher salaries and justice – three reasons why you need a statement of working time

Salaries, working environment and union struggle. The statement of working time is important both for the individual teacher and to ensure good a working environment at all schools.

D 26. september 2019

af Jesper Fjeldsted, Journalist

1679.8. That is the precise number of hours you were supposed to work in the school year 2018/19, if you worked full-time as a teacher or a leader of the preschool classes at an independent school.

As a teacher or a leader of the preschool classes, you get paid to work for a specific number or hours, and school management must create a statement of working time showing the number of hours you have actually worked in a school year.

If you are one of the people who has not yet received a statement of working time for the school year 2018/2019, contact your union representative and inform her or him that you are entitled to get a statement of your working time. There are at least three good reasons why you should get a statement of working time.

 

Reason #1: The statement of working time may be worth money to you

A survey that was made among a little less than 600 members of the Teachers' Union for Danish Independent Schools (Frie Skolers Lærerforening) showed that almost every other statement of working time revealed that the teacher had worked overtime. The teachers’ overtime has subsequently been compensated for either as monetary payment or as time off in lieu of overtime in the next school year.

 

Reason #2: The statement of working time can reduce stress

If neither you nor the school knows how many hours you work, it is difficult to have a dialogue about the connection between your working time and your tasks. The requirement that the school must create a statement of your working time has been made to protect your working environment, and it is important that you experience that there is a connection between requirements and resources.

 

Reason #3: The statement of working time is a right that you can claim

By means of a legislative intervention in 2013, the teachers’ agreement about working hours was replaced by Law 409 and a number of rules about working hours. Consequently, as the only profession, the teachers’ working hours are regulated by the law and not by a collective agreement between the labour market parties. Both for you as a teacher and for the Teachers' Union for Danish Independent Schools (Frie Skolers Lærerforening), it is crucial that the employers are held responsible for and comply with the few requirements in Law 409 about planning and the statement of working time.

 

Requirements for the statement of working time

School management must create a statement of working time no matter how you have planned the working time at your school. There are no requirements to the design of the statement of working time, but you must be able to see:

  • your daily working time
  • whether or not you have worked overtime
  • whether or not you should get additional teaching supplements
  • whether or not you should get drawback allowance etc.
  • whether or not you have earned the right to time off