JNC 21st March 2023 WTA and parents meetings and contracts
Renfrewshire Council · 21 March 2023
Back to Renfrewshire Council Joint Negotiating Committee for Teaching Staff — 21 March 2023 and its agenda
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Renfrewshire Joint Negotiating Committee for Teachers To: Renfrewshire Joint Negotiating Committee for Teachers On: 21st March 2023 Working Time Agreements: the allocation of hours and Teachers’ Contracts Report by Joint Secretary (Teachers’ Side) Background Teachers are currently contractually obliged to attend up to 6 parents’ meetings for a maximum of 30 hours. It has come to the attention of the Teachers’ side that the number of parents’ meetings in some schools is exceeding teachers’ contractual maxima and that additional evenings have been incorporated into some school’s Working Time Agreements (WTA). JNC 3 also states the agreed position in respect of WTAs – it is the extant JNC agreement and, although it is clear that the agreement may need to be reviewed and updated, it outlines the allocation of time relative to teacher workload in each of the sectors in the appendixes to that agreement. Members of JNC should be made aware that JNC 3 was updated in 2006/7 and a JNC sub-group made recommendations on updates to the time allocations for respective duties- that information was disseminated to schools at the time and is now integrated into schools’ WTAs. For those members of JNC who were not party to discussions in 2006/7 it was at this point, at phase 3 of the implementation of McCrone Agreement, that class contact time was reduced to 22.5 hrs and there was a consequential increase in collegiate time to be allocated to other activities. Consequently, the number of hours allocated to parents’ meetings increased from 30 to 40 hours although the number of meetings remained the same. The effect was to increase the duration of parents’ meetings. Notwithstanding that JNC 3 may need to be reviewed in light of current practice, it is the parameters within which school WTAs should be formulated. It should also be noted that JNC 3 stipulates that in the secondary sector:
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Any time block(s) left over from the parents’ meetings allocation, will be available to the teacher for additional preparation and correction or formal assessment and the preparation of reports It is also already established that an ‘Open evening’ which is a feature of some schools’ agreements is not a parents’ meeting for the purpose of the time allocation, and that attendance at such events is voluntary, unless agreement has been reached with the school’s negotiating committee and it is incorporated into the WTA as an additional event. The time allocation for this should not be taken from the 40 hours allocation. Moreover, it has also become apparent that the teachers’ Particulars of Employment does not reflect the agreement that increased hours in specific sectors. This is a matter that needs investigation, clarification and further discussion. Action • That all school WTAs will be made available to both joint secretaries to enable oversight in line with the requirement for scrutiny and to avoid any potential breaches. • That all parties involved in school negotiating committees are reminded that the contractual maxima in relation to parents’ meetings may not be exceeded. • That further clarity will be provided to the teachers’ side around the teachers’ particulars of employment, especially in relation to contractual obligations around parents’ meetings and that contracts will be updated where necessary. Enc – picture of 2006/7 sub group report and recommendation.
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