The decisions made by the Latvian government on Wednesday, the 26th of April, on allocation of additional funding towards an even greater increase of teachers’ wages have not completely fulfilled the demands presented in the recent strike, said the head of the Latvian Trade Union of Education and Science Workers (LIZDA) Inga Vanaga after the government meeting.
She announced the council of LIZDA will convene for another extraordinary meeting to decide what to do next. She said it is possible the strike may continue.
During the government’s meeting Vanaga invited rejecting the suggestion submitted by the Ministry of Education and Science last week. This time Vanaga objected by saying the trade union cannot confirm balancing of workload for teachers because there are no details available.
She suggested continuing to view the topic of workload-balancing at the next government meeting a week from now. This suggestion was not received well by the government.
According to Vanaga, the trade union has concluded that the funding allocated in January to balance teachers’ workload was transferred from the teachers’ pay increase schedule.
LIZDA can also see that the estimates submitted by the ministry do not provide for wage increase in six municipalities – Augšdaugava, Kuldīga, Līvāni, Rēzekne, Rēzekne County and Preiļi. Vanaga allowed it could be an inaccuracy in calculations on the part of the union. This is why time is needed to clarify the situation.
Vanaga told LTV that LIZDA held a meeting in the evening on Wednesday. It was decided there
that LIZDA and municipalities will take time until the 10th of May to determine if the additional funding from the government is enough to raise wages and balance workload. Once the trade union has discussed this in detail, they will decide on future measures.
The ministry, meanwhile, stresses that municipalities are the ones expecting the allocated funding to be divided in a way to ensure teachers receive bigger wages.
This week Latvia’s government approved amendments suggested by the Ministry of Education and Science, allocating an additional amount of EUR 4 168 067 towards the increase of teachers’ wages in order to satisfy demands of the teachers on strike.
The ministry is confident that with the decisions made on Wednesday the government has fulfilled all demands of the strike.
This amount is allocated from the state budget programme for emergencies. It will be provided in addition to the previously allocated EUR 9.04 million.
To ensure wage increase even for teachers whose wages are already higher than minimal, the ministry has estimated it is necessary to increase education cost by 3.38% per student. Amendments state that average costs per 1st to 6th grade school child will increase from EUR 105.09 to EUR 108.64, the costs per 7th to 9th grade school child will increase to EUR 139.99, and the costs per 10th to 12th school child will increase to EUR 150.43.
Funding will be provided from the state budget programme for emergencies.
On the 21st of April amendments suggested by the Ministry of Education and Science that provide for increasing the lowest hourly rate of all teachers except for pre-school teachers is to reach EUR 8.50 starting with the 1st of September 2023.
The lowest wage rate of pre-school education facilities from the 1st of September onward is planned at EUR 1 240 or 15.8% higher when compared with the previous school year. The wage increase schedule provides for reducing inequality between the lowest wage rates of pre-school and general education facilities that first appeared as a result of different workloads – pre-school teachers’ workload is 40 hours a week, whereas for other teachers the workload will be 36 hours a week starting 1st of September.
Despite this decision from the government, LIZDA commenced a three-day strike on the 24th of April, criticising the government for not complying with demands of the strike. Before the strike LIZDA demanded an increase of teachers wages and change to their workload.
When the strike started, LIZDA and the Ministry of Education had opposing views as to the completion of teachers’ strike demands.
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