Excessive workload remains the most concerning issue that most of our members face and, in this context, the Working Time Agreement (WTA) is of great relevance and interest to members, since this is the document that outlines the number of hours that will be granted to various tasks and when in the school year these will be scheduled.
Fundamentally, the overall number of hours in the WTA can never be increased - it will always be a total of 195 hours - five hours per week for each of the 39 weeks of the school working year.
A few of the most common issues which members highlight with the WTA are as follows:
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too much time devoted to whole staff meetings which members do not feel are always relevant or useful to them - this can be particularly frustrating for those with caring commitments;
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not enough time scheduled for forward planning, a bigger issue in the primary sector, or curriculum/course development, a bigger issue in the secondary sector;
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insufficient time to prepare for parents’ meetings;
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insufficient time to prepare for and write reports;
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insufficient time to mark formal assessments, e.g. prelims.
One suggested subheading for WTA hours is 'Flexibility' and negotiators should be wary of this. While it can be useful to have a small number of hours set aside for anything unexpected, where perhaps additional staff meetings are required, this heading should not have more than five to ten hours allocated to it; otherwise, time-pressured headteachers may just repeatedly refer to 'flexibility' when they want any additional task undertaken.
Another recurring issue is that WTAs may try to direct members on extra-curricular activity. This is a very difficult area.
Some members who regularly support extra-curricular activity, e.g. taking a school hockey team every week, may feel that this is a task that should be recognised in the WTA. However, the Union view is that teacher participation in such activities is voluntary, making it difficult to formally recognise these in the WTA.
Furthermore, supervising extra-curricular activities only involves some staff and, depending on the activity, can be sporadic, e.g. supervising school dances/discos, again making it difficult to formally recognise these in the WTA.
The Code of Practice on WTAs can be found at the following SNCT Code of Practice on Working Time Arrangements for Teachers and lists the types of activities which can appear in WTAs (the list is not exhaustive) for which specific time is allocated:
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additional time for preparation and correction - negotiators should recognise that this is the first item on the list and push for some time to be committed to it;
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parents’ meetings;
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staff meetings;
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preparation of reports, records etc;
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forward planning;
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formal assessment;
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professional review and development - the WTA would only deal with setting aside time for teachers to prepare for and undertake meetings with their manager linked to Professional Review and Development (PRD), not for the Professional Learning itself, unless there was a whole-school event relevant to the Professional Learning of all staff and agreed by them;
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curriculum development;
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additional supervised pupil activity - negotiators should be wary of including anything under this heading, given what is said above about extra-curricular activities; and
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Career-Long Professional Learning - given that the actual time for any Professional Learning for individual teachers is dealt with separately from the WTA as it is driven by individual need, this heading is rarely needed, though it can be used for any whole-school Professional Learning events (see also PRD comment above).
It is also worth remembering that the Working Time Agreement should not include anything which is not related to the duties of a teacher: a useful statement from the SNCT Handbook is, ‘Teachers will not be expected to undertake the duties generally undertaken by administrative and support staff.’
Failure to agree
Where there is a failure to agree and no new WTA has been signed off, the status quo applies, i.e. the WTA from the previous year is implemented for the new session until an agreement can be reached or any conciliation process has been concluded.
Failure to agree is covered in the SNCT Handbook in the Appeals Procedure:
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'LNCT FAILURE TO AGREE
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Where a failure to agree occurs on a condition of service matter, the LNCT constitution shall determine what happens in such circumstances.
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It shall be open to either side to refer the failure to agree to the SNCT for conciliation. If the conciliation is unsuccessful the Joint Chairs of the SNCT may recommend further procedures for resolution of the difference. This could include external conciliation, mediation or binding arbitration.
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Before a failure to agree is reached a joint approach can be made to the Joint Secretary (Teachers’ Side) and the Joint Secretary (Employers’ Side) for advice. Such advice is not binding.’
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A failure to agree need only have one teacher trade union refusing to sign the agreement.
Every effort should be made to avoid a formal dispute but, if there is an unreasonable demand by a headteacher and members’ views are strongly and deeply felt on the matter, then a failure to agree is sometimes the only appropriate response.
The precise process and route for addressing a failure to agree at a school should be outlined in a policy passed by the Local Negotiating Committee for Teachers (LNCT).
Typically, any local process to address a failure to agree will be a comparison to the agreements at other schools within the local authority, often those from the same sector and/or of a similar size. For example, if the dispute lies primarily with the membership not wishing to attend any after-school meetings whilst all other schools in the authority have some after-school meetings, the Union is unlikely to be successful in challenging this.
We would not expect any Workplace Representative to independently navigate through a failure to agree process, especially if this was escalated to national level.
We would fully support and advise any Representative in such a situation and would encourage Representatives to make early contact with the Scotland Centre if a failure to agree is anticipated.
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