Estonian teachers demand lower workloads alongside pay rise

About 15,000 education workers from more than 400 institutions took part in a warning strike in Estonia, calling for both higher pay and reduced workloads, ERR reported. The next round of talks on the minimum salary for teachers will take place on Wednesday.

At Tõnismäe State Gymnasium, the school was quiet during the one-hour warning strike. Twenty-one teachers, about a quarter of the staff, took part. Students whose first lesson was cancelled either studied independently or arrived for their second lesson.

Strike leader Helerin Paeoja said excessive workload was a key concern.

“In my view, it is wrong that teachers’ workload is calculated based on contact lessons. In many schools, full-time work means 22 45-minute lessons. If preparing for each lesson takes 30 minutes to an hour, the 35-hour working week is already exceeded. All the other tasks are done in the teacher’s free time,” Paeoja said.

At Tallinn Open School, a municipal school, 26 of the 70 employees took part in the strike. The participating teachers and students remained at the school, and some lessons were replaced.

“The strike at the school looked like this: at 9 a.m., the computers were switched off, worksheets were put away, and we were told not to talk about work. Instead, we discussed other topics,” said project-based learning teacher Anneli Hallap.

School head Sandra Järv said she supported the teachers’ strike, although cancelled lessons created inconvenience.

“The aim is to create some inconvenience for a moment, to show how many teachers there are in Estonia, how important it is that they can stand up for their rights, and that the promises made are kept,” Järv said.

Reemo Voltri, chairman of the Estonian Education Personnel Union, said the union would enter Wednesday’s pay talks hoping the government would fulfil its promise to set the minimum teacher salary at the level of the national average wage.

“Since the last parliamentary elections, teachers’ salaries have actually fallen compared with the national average, rather than risen as promised. We expect this trend to change and that next year teachers’ pay will not continue to decline relative to the average,” Voltri said.

The forecast average wage for next year is more than 2,300 euros, while the current minimum salary for teachers is 1,970 euros.

Education Minister Kristina Kallas was unable to give an interview to the “Aktuaalne kaamera” programme because of health problems. In a written statement, she said raising teachers’ salaries was a priority for her in the state budget negotiations.

Kallas is due to meet representatives of the Education Personnel Union and local governments on Wednesday. The government is expected to reach final agreements on the state budget on Thursday.

Regarding the reduction of teachers’ workloads, Kallas said the state, as an employer of schools, had signed a collective agreement guaranteeing a fair workload for teachers at state schools. She also encouraged other school owners to sign collective agreements with their teachers.

Teachers at Paide Gymnasium, a state-owned school, also took part in the warning strike. They said that instead of discussing the size of teachers’ salaries, it should be stated honestly that teachers are expected to do too much work for their current pay.