Teachers in Northern Ireland are providing over £55million worth of unpaid labour every year, according to a survey by a campaign group.
It comes just two weeks after teachers rejected a pay offer of 5.5% for the current academic year, with many saying workload issues have not been addressed despite promises made last year.
Negotiations between unions and management are continuing.
Campaign group think1265 has carried out a new survey of teachers’ workload in Northern Ireland.
On average, teachers reported working over five hours extra each week without pay.
But for many teachers it is well over twice that, with younger teachers and teachers in secondary schools most under pressure.
Three-quarters of teachers said they work at least some days during their holidays, and 30% reported working for more than a week during their unpaid summer break to prepare for returning to school.
While teachers’ contracts include a provision for teachers to plan and mark their daily lessons, unpaid, outside of their contracted hours, the survey shows how a laundry list of other tasks follow teachers home as well.
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Helen Doogan, co-founder of the think1265 campaign, said the workforce is still tied to a teaching contract written almost four decades ago.
“The teachers’ contract was written in 1987 and the world of education has changed dramatically since then,” she said.
“The demands on teachers have been rising for nearly 40 years, and they eat into the time we used to have in school to complete our work.
“It’s obvious that what might have worked in 1990 isn’t working now.
“While teachers have always expected to bring the odd bit of work home now and then, in recent years the workload has been spilling into every evening, weekend and holiday. All of this is unpaid.”
Co-founder of the campaign, Brian Banks, said the main reason the latest pay offer was rejected was the continuing reliance on ‘free labour’.
“One of the main causes of frustration was the decision by management to include the clause in our contract which attempts to justify all this free labour in the pay award.
“Our survey shows that 82% of teachers think this clause is unfair,” he added.
“For every hour paid teachers are expected to do 15, 20 or 30 minutes for free. How many people in other employment would be happy with that?
“The situation with school leaders is even worse,” he added. “Their contracts don’t even pretend to have limits.”
The survey asked teachers to report on the unpaid hours they worked outside of their contracted hours from August through to the start of industrial action, which amounted to over £5.5 million pounds of unpaid labour.
The survey received almost 4,200 responses in just five days, around one fifth of the teaching workforce.
Over the whole year and for the entire teaching workforce, the campaigners estimated the real cost of teachers’ unpaid labour to be over £55 million each year.
“There’s a difference between going the extra mile and being taken for a ride. Teachers are fed up with trying to reconcile achieving excellence for their students while trying to navigate unachievable workloads,“ Mr Banks continued.
“Our survey has over 1,500 detailed comments from teachers about their experiences so far this year, and they make heartbreaking reading.”
Ms Doogan added: “We have terrific teachers and school leaders in this country, but they’re being run ragged by overwork. That’s why workload is always such a touchstone issue when it comes to pay negotiations.
“There’s a real opportunity here for the Minister and the management side to fix this workload crisis once and for all, and we are certain teachers will be receptive to realistic and immediate measures to reduce the pressure on them so they can get on with the vital work of educating the next generation.”
Education Minister Paul Givan has said he understands “workload is an issue” for many teachers.
“I absolutely understand the frustrations that teachers have that they are being bogged down in bureaucracy and being distracted from being able to do what they want to do around education,” said Mr Givan.
“I am up very much for trying to deal with all of that.”
“I would appeal to the trade unions, come forward with how you feel, you need to take this deal away again to your members in order to get a more positive outcome, because what is on the table is significant in terms of pay.”