Mr Koprivnikar and Mr Štrukelj, the government and union negotiator, have only one goal: teachers' salaries. The government says "we have nowhere to take it" and the union says "you owe us". In a healthy market economy, wages and work are closely linked. The Ministry of Education and Science has adopted the Regulation on norms and standards for the implementation of ..., which was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No 62/10, 99/10 and 47/17. Article 5, which defines the teaching obligation, states:
Therefore, 20 teaching hours of instruction by secondary school teachers represent 4 teaching hours, or 3 hours per day. The upper limit of the weekly commitment is 25 teaching hours. In this case, the daily teaching commitment is less than 4 hours. The difference up to 8 hours is paid by the State. Since we still have a 40-hour weekly obligation, the state pays the other 20 hours. A simple calculation shows that they do 15 to 20 hours of teaching per week. Of course, they have other commitments, but these do not in any way cover the required weekly commitment.
And there is this. Every two months there is a week of paid holidays: autumn, New Year, winter, May Day. And to round it off, the main holidays.
I know that I am going to be attacked by secondary school teachers. You will defend yourselves with all sorts of unsavoury adjectives. However, this is the real situation. The Norms and Standards Regulations were written by the government and approved by you, the teachers.
The two gentlemen negotiators probably know nothing about this, they are only talking about whether there will be more money or not. Elections are at the door. I just find it strange that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia is so silent, because it usually has a lot to say about taxes and labour costs.
I suggest to the Government that it immediately revise the Regulations on Norms and Standards for the Implementation of Educational Programmes and Educational Curricula in the Field of Secondary Education, so that teachers will also be comparable in terms of work to similar professions.