Some full-time substitute teachers who also perform administrative work are only paid for 10 months instead of a full year’s salary, the National Federation of Teachers Unions said yesterday.
Since administrative work continues even during summer and winter holidays, full-time substitute teachers should be offered a full year of employment, federation president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政) told a news conference in Taipei.
While most city and county governments do offer long-term substitute teachers a full year of employment when they also perform administrative tasks, Tainan, and Miaoli and Nantou counties, do not, he said, citing federation data from the current academic year.
Photo: CNA
In New Taipei City, while long-term substitute teachers with administrative duties at schools in remote areas are employed for the whole year, substitute teachers in similar positions in other parts of the city are not, Chang said.
That gives rise to the question of who are doing these administrative tasks during summer vacation, he said, asking if they were being distributed to other administrative staff, thereby increasing their work load.
Most long-term substitute teachers are hired to fill vacancies for full-time positions for which funds have already been budgeted, Chang said.
He called on city and county governments that do not offer long-term substitute teachers a full 12 months’ pay to explain where the extra money was being spent.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the beginning of the spring semester this year was delayed by two weeks, pushing back the start of the summer vacation by two weeks, with the final day of classes being moved from June 30 to July 14, Chang added.
In light of the situation, the federation in February demanded that city and county governments ensure that the employment period of long-term substitute teachers be extended through July 14, he said, adding that to the federation’s knowledge, they have all complied.
He questioned why in the midst of a pandemic, city and county governments could extend substitute teachers’ employment periods immediately, and have the funding to do so, but could not do the same in other times.
There are about 20,000 long-term substitute teachers at elementary, junior-high and senior-high schools across the nation, Chang said.
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