2024-01-23 05:38:23
– Towards a week of strike at the Orientation Cycle?
Members of the Orientation Cycle teachers’ union have voted for a one-week strike notice. They are protesting once morest a possible extension of teaching hours.
Published today at 6:38 a.m.
The Cycle of Large Communes (illustrative image).
PASCAL FRAUTSCHI
A week-long strike might take place soon in the Geneva Orientation Cycles (CO). This is what emerges from a letter from the Federation of Masters of the Orientation Cycle (Famco) sent to the Council of State on January 19, which announces the filing of a strike notice from Monday February 5 to Friday 9 February, i.e. during Evacom review week.
Why this fever? In November, the Council of State submitted its financial plan for the years 2024-2027. Among the saving measures, a “revision of the teaching load at the CO” to limit the significant increase in positions necessary to accommodate the increase in the number of students. Concretely, this revision involves increasing the teaching hours by two hours for teachers active in CO, a branch which welcomes around 14,000 students.
If Famco toughens its tone, it is because despite a letter sent on November 30 to the department and a meeting with the magistrate in office, PLR Anne Hiltpold, nothing is moving. For the union, it is clear: “The Department of Public Education has not given the slightest thought to the consequences in the work of almost 2,000 teachers of the increase of two weekly periods of working time .”
Negotiations possible
Tension rises, but is the strike certain? No. Famco seems to hope that its approach will provoke a reaction. But the Council of State will have to do its part: “The notice will be lifted, explains the union, as soon as the freezing of this measure (editor’s note: the increase in teaching hours) may be confirmed in an agreement signed between the Council of State and Famco.”
That’s not all, Famco is also demanding a commitment from the DIP “to oppose, to the extent of its possibilities, political projects moving in the direction of a major deterioration of working conditions during the Orientation Cycle.”
Joined by RTS on Monday, Anne Hiltpold said she was surprised by the union decision. For her part, she would remain “open to continuing discussions”, even if she maintains her position and believes that a suspension of the increase in teaching hours “is difficult to envisage in the short term”.
Adding two weekly teaching periods would be a lesser evil, she believes. In comparison with French-speaking Switzerland, the specifications for Geneva secondary school teachers are those with the fewest hours of lessons.
Marc Bretton is a journalist at the Tribune de Genève. He worked in the national section and has followed political and economic issues for the Geneva section since 2004.More info@BrettonMarc
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