Although the shortage of teachers has worsened recently, young teachers continue to only get insecure chain contracts when they start their careers, criticize the teachers’ union and NEOS. Newcomers have to wait up to five years before they get a fixed contract instead of a fixed-term annual contract. On Tuesday, the teachers’ union called for faster fixed contracts for young professionals, and JUNOS – Young Liberal Students – the abolition of chain contracts for young teachers.
According to the Contract Servants Act and the State Teachers’ Service Law Act, young professionals may work on fixed-term contracts for a maximum of five years. At the federal schools (AHS, BMHS), however, the education departments are required by the Ministry of Education not to exhaust the maximum limit and to limit contracts to a maximum of four years, reported AHS trade unionist Hebert Weiß (FCG) in an interview with the APA. Fixed-term contracts after the introductory year (induction phase) are also only permissible if someone does not hold a single secured hour, but is used exclusively as a substitute for parental leave, in free subjects, in afternoon care or in the teacher reserve. However, young teachers often come to a school as substitutes and then take on fixed hours because they have proven themselves.
“As soon as you have taken on even a fixed hour, the contract would have to be changed immediately – then there is no waiting period of five years,” emphasized Weiß. Unfortunately, that will not be implemented. “This is blatant breaking of the law.” This has been criticized by the union for years.
The situation in compulsory schools (above all primary and secondary schools) is similar. Here, too, contracts can be limited to a maximum of five years. In practice, however, fixed contracts are sometimes switched much earlier, said the top teacher representative Paul Kimberger (FCG) to the APA. In Upper Austria, for example – depending on previous service periods – this is the case after three years at the latest. He “cannot understand at all that the legal deadline is exhausted in times of teacher shortages. From my point of view, you should switch to an open-ended contract very quickly”. In a further step, one could then consider whether to abolish the fixed-term service contracts at all.
In the Ministry of Education, the APA refers to a decree from 2015, according to which young teachers with secure employment after successfully completing the induction phase should be given a permanent contract, “unless special circumstances of the individual case speak against it as an exception”. It is his concern that there are always enough qualified teachers in the classrooms, said Minister of Education Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) in a written statement. As part of the departmental strategy “Class Job” against the shortage of teachers, the ministry is working intensively with the education departments to ensure that young teachers arrive well at school. “The current legal situation is clear and fixed-term contracts should not be the rule.”
Lukas Schobesberger, JUNOS chairman and top candidate in the upcoming elections to the Austrian Students’ Union (ÖH), called for the abolition of the chain contract rule in a broadcast on Tuesday. After all, chain contracts would mean a lot of uncertainty for young teachers and make them dependent on the directors. The bachelor’s degree in teacher training already lasts a year longer than in all other studies. “And after graduation, you can expect chain contracts that take away any planning security for the future. This shows once again how little importance Minister Polaschek attaches to education.”