Teachers to stay at school from 8am to 5pm and work during holidays under radical plan

Teachers would be paid more to work in schools from 8am to 5pm, including school holidays, under a new proposal.

Teachers would stay longer at school so they don’t have to work at home, under a radical pay proposal.

Teachers would be paid 10 per cent more to work in schools from 8am to 5pm, including school holidays, under reforms before a parliamentary committee.

One Nation MLC Mark Latham, who is chairing the NSW inquiry into teacher shortages, is promoting a plan to link pay rises to time spent working in schools on school holidays for lesson planning, marking exams and professional development.

Teachers would be required to stay on school grounds from 8am to 5pm, in line with standard office working hours, in return for a pay rise of at least 10 per cent.

Mr Latham, a former federal Labor leader, said the public wrongly believed teachers worked “cushy’’ hours from 9am to 3pm, with 12 weeks a year of annual leave.

“Obviously teachers are working well outside those parameters, so wouldn’t it be better to formalise an arrangement where teachers get four weeks of holiday a year like everyone else, and the other eight weeks are pupil-free for lesson preparation and the like, and that teachers work eight to five as work hours?’’ he said at an inquiry hearing in Sydney on Tuesday.

“Wouldn’t that build a better public understanding of the workload?

“Haven’t we got to change the formal definition of holiday time and the work day to match up with modern professional standards?”

NSW MP Mark Latham. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Science Teachers Association of NSW president Margaret Shepherd said the eight weeks of paid school holiday time could be redefined as “pupil-free time’’.

“That perception of holiday has to stop,’’ she told the hearing.

“Teachers work during those two weeks off school (between terms).

“The teachers are using this time off for marking and planning … and for PD (professional development) in some cases.’’

Ms Shepherd said work must not be mandated during the eight weeks that teachers were paid during term breaks.

“We don’t want it mandated,’’ she said. “If you have a teacher who is really, really under the pump because they’ve got two or three classes that are really hard going in terms of behaviour management, the end of the term comes and they’re drained.

“They may need some days or a week just to lie on the lounge and get their sense of self back again.’’

Mr Latham said teachers “also have to account for being at work’’.

“You can’t just have rules where for eight weeks of the year notionally, voluntarily, teachers are doing pupil-free work without actually turning up to the workplace and being accounted,’’ he said.

NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said teachers were never paid overtime and should not be forced to stay on school grounds while they worked.

“Teachers are working up to 60 hours a week and they don’t have to be supervised when they’re doing their work,’’ he said.

“Where teachers choose to undertake that work is a professional decision,’’

Mr Latham told The Australian he would support pay rises of at least 10 per cent in return for formalising teaching hours.

He said teachers should not be allowed to “work from home where there’s no supervision’’.

“I’m sure those working hard might feel others are bludging,’’ he said.

A NSW Education Department spokesman said teachers ­received four weeks of annual leave, and “the department makes an effort not to contact any staff during those school ­holidays’’.

“Teachers are paid during the school holidays and have the ­flexibility to determine the hours they need to work during this time,’’ he said.