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The following is a comprehensive overview of contracts.
Contracts/Written Statements
Pro rata contracts/Fixed term contracts
Non-casual part time teaching contract
Casual part time teaching contract
Contracts of indefinite duration
Contracts/Written Statements
- Permanent members in the VEC sector are employed under memo V7.
- Permanent wholetime teachers in the Community and Comprehensive sector do not have a written contract but are employed under terms no less favourable than memo V7
- By definition, a permanent wholetime teacher is deemed to be fully qualified
Pro Rata Contracts/Fixed Term Contracts
- Teachers on fixed term pro rata contracts are employed for the full year, meaning they are paid a regular salary until August 31st. They are also paid during holidays.
- If you are a fully qualified part-time teacher (i.e. with fewer than 22 teaching hours per week) and have been engaged to teach for a specified number of hours per week over the course of the full school year with a start date not later than the first day of term following the mid-term break) you are entitled to a pro-rata contract.
- A fixed term contract is a contract of employment for a specified period – usually 1st September to 31st August – and must be signed by both the employer and the employee.
- You are entitled to a fixed term contract in written form.
- The standard contract is appended to Circular Letters PPT 19/03 (Community and Comprehensive schools) and PPT 20/03 (VECs).
- To be entitled to a pro-rata contract you must have been appointed following a formal selection process. This process involves advertisement of the position in the national press and competitive interview by a properly constituted interview board.
- If you otherwise satisfy the conditions for award of a pro-rata contract (i.e. if you are qualified and have specified hours over the course of the school year) but have not been appointed following a formal selection process, you should contact your TUI Workplace Representative and, assisted by her/him, ask your employer to advertise the position and make an appointment following a formal selection process. There is a risk in this that you might not be appointed but the cost to you of not pursuing the matter is considerable.
- Do not sign any contract without consulting your Workplace Representative
- Keep a copy of each contract your receive and all related documentation/correspondence
- If, before the first day of term following the mid–term break, additional teaching hours are added to your weekly timetable – as sometimes happens after the commencement of the school year when a school’s timetable eventually “settles” - your contract is augmented to take account of those hours
- Any further hours – undertaken on an occasional basis - that are worked by a pro-rata contracted teacher during the school year will be paid at an hourly rate calculated by dividing the sum of your point on the CBS and your qualifications allowances by 735 (i.e. the number of teaching hours in the school year of a permanent whole time teacher)
- If you have a fixed term pro-rata contract your salary for the school year is based on your weekly hours as a proportion of the weekly wholetime hours (22). To calculate your annual salary, you apply that proportion to the sum of your point of the CBS plus your qualifications allowances.
Full salary details are available on the TUI website or in the relevant section of the TUI diary/handbook.
Non-casual Part-time Teaching contract
- A fully qualified part-time teacher who is employed to teach for a period in excess of 150 hours during the school year but for less than the course of a full school year is classified as a “non-casual part-time teacher” and is entitled to a non-casual part-time teaching contract. Also, a fully qualified part-time teacher who is employed to teach for a period of at least 22 successive weeks during the school year but for less than the course of a full school year is also classified as a non-casual part time teacher, even if the sum of the hours to be worked in that period does not exceed 150.
- As such a teacher, you will be paid at an hourly rate calculated by dividing the sum of your point on the CBS and your qualifications allowances by 735 (i.e. the number of teaching hours in the school year).
- If you are employed to replace a teacher on maternity leave or extended sick leave you may fall within this category.
Casual part-time teaching contract
- If it is anticipated that a teacher will work no more than 150 hours and/or for fewer than 22 weeks in the course of the school year, the hours worked, to a maximum of 150, will be paid at a fixed hourly rate.
- If, as such a teacher, you work for more than 150 hours in the school year each additional hour in excess of 150 will be paid at an hourly rate calculated by dividing the sum of your point on the CBS and your qualifications allowances by 735 (i.e. the number of teaching hours in the school year).
- This type of contract applies in cases in which the work arises only on an intermittent basis and where the employer may reasonably expect that the hours worked will not exceed 150 in the course of the school year. (Please note that if you are employed to work specified hours for 22 weeks or more you are entitled to a non-casual part-time contract as opposed to a casual part time contract).
Contracts of Indefinite Duration
Following vigorous campaigning by TUI and the other teacher unions, ‘expert groups’ were established as part of the Haddington Road Agreement to investigate and tackle the crisis of casualisation in teaching and lecturing. At second level, the expert group reported in September 2014 – the Ward report – and details on the implementation of its seven key recommendations are set out in circular letter 24/2015, published in March 2015.
This circular letter applies to all TUI members contracted as teachers in settings including post-primary schools, colleges of further education, Youthreach and adult education settings.
Click here to download a detailed guide to circular letter 24/2015
Key Points under circular letter 24/2015 (effective from start of school year 2015/16)
- A teacher will qualify for a Contract of Indefinite Duration (CID) after a period of continuous employment in excess of two years – ie upon commencement of a third year of continuous employment, subject to certain conditions. This is significantly better than the statutory provision and improves the initial position negotiated under the HRA. (Under fixed-term worker legislation the qualifying period is four years and under the HRA it had been 3 years for teachers).
- Hours held by a fixed-term teacher who is covering for a teacher on career break or for a teacher on secondment will now be counted towards their CID. The teacher will be placed on a redeployment panel immediately prior to the return of the teacher on career break / secondment. In such circumstances the teacher will remain in receipt of his/her income/salary.
- The hours of the CID will be the hours worked in the full school year prior to the issuing of the CID (i.e. the qualifying year), regardless of the source of the hours.
- A teacher who has qualified for a CID after two years will be liable for redeployment if their subjects become surplus to the curricular requirements of their school.
- Where a qualified teacher holds a part-time CID and is working additional hours under a separate fixed-term contract, they will receive a CID for these hours after a continuous period of employment (in the hours) in excess of one year, if the hours continue to be viable and available under the allocation.
- All teachers on their first fixed-term contract will have their positions terminated at the end of year 1. The position will automatically be re-advertised and a new recruitment process undertaken. Therefore, the teacher will need to apply for and interview for the position at the end of year 1.
Entitlement to a CID - for all or some of the hours worked - does not accrue in circumstances where there are legitimate ‘objective grounds’ for the fixed term contract. Under circular letter 24/15, covering for a teacher on career break or secondment is no longer considered to be an objective ground for not awarding a CID.
In addition, if a teacher holds a CID for at least 18 hours per week and agrees in writing to be timetabled up to 22 hours per week, s/he will then be timetabled and paid for 22 hours per week. (See CL 11/09)
If a teacher is of the view that s/he has an entitlement to a CID, in view of the above information, and has been refused a CID by management, there is right of appeal to the Adjudicator under the terms of CL 50/06 . There is also a right of appeal to the Adjudicator if you have received a lesser number of hours in your CID than the number of hours held in the third year. There is a four week period from the date of refusal/receipt of the CID to appeal to the Adjudicator. All appeals should be processed through TUI Head Office. There is also an option of having refusal of a CID dealt with by a Rights Commissioner who will consider whether the legal entitlement to a CID under the terms of the Protection of Employees (Fixed Term) Act 2003 has been denied. There is a six month time frame for lodging such complaints. These complaints should be processed through TUI Head Office. It should be noted that under the Act entitlement to a CID arises on the fourth anniversary of appointment.