Part-Time Teaching

1

PART-TIME TEACHERS:

PAY & CONDITIONS

This NUT guidance is for part-time teachers and for any other teachers considering moving to part-time teaching.

It contains advice on the following areas:

• the advantages of part-time work from both the employee and employer’s point of view;
• pay, conditions of service and pensions and working time obligations of part-time teachers; and
• the implications of new legislation governing part-time working.

In 2006, the School Teachers Review Body began a review into the pay and conditions of part-time teachers. The NUT has played a key role in this process, which, it is hoped, will lead to the pay of part-time teachers more fairly reflecting the actual hours they work. Up-dated information will be published as soon as the outcome of the review is known.

This guidance refers to regular part-time teaching and does not deal with supply teaching or other short notice employment. Separate NUT guidance is available for members on the latter areas.

Separate NUT guidance is also available specifically about job sharing for members seeking job share arrangements or already working on a job share basis.

WHY PART-TIME WORKING?

Who might be interested in working part-time and why?

Many teachers need to combine their teaching career with other, equally demanding, priorities, including family and caring commitments, voluntary or other paid work and full or part-time study. Part-time working provides a means for such teachers to juggle the various facets of their life.

Many teachers, not just those currently working full-time, find the prospect of working part-time to be an attractive alternative to an undesired career break. Part-time working can appeal in particular to the following groups:

-women teachers returning to work after maternity leave;

-teachers who wish to pursue courses of study or work in other types of employment but also retain their involvement in teaching;

-men and women teachers seeking part-time employment to allow them to play an active role in rearing their children or to undertake other caring responsibilities;

-mature teachers who, after an absence of some years from the profession, would like to return to teaching but not initially on a full-time basis; and

-teachers with disabilities or progressive medical conditions who may, with a lightened teaching load, be able to remain in employment.

Why should employers be interested in part-time working?

Part-time working can help employers with recruitment and retention as well as demonstrating their commitment to equal opportunities. In particular, it may encourage more women teachers to remain in teaching after maternity leave or to return to teaching. It can also reduce turnover because teachers with convenient hours of work are more likely to stay in post. It may also reduce teacher stress, tension and illness, enabling teachers to come to the job fresher and more energetic.

Schools then benefit by having more highly motivated teachers who feel that their professional experience and expertise is well rewarded. The results have been demonstrated by OFSTED research which found that the quality of work of part-time teachers was “significantly above the national average” with benefits for the quality of educational provision and pupil progress.

SEEKING PART-TIME WORK

There is no general legal right to move to part-time working from a full time post. The law, however, protects you against unfavourable or discriminatory treatment. If you are employed to teach full-time but wish to request a move to part-time working, it is good practice for employers to consider such requests objectively and in some circumstances employers may be legally obliged to do so.

In some cases teachers are able to rely on local agreements or informal requests for flexible/part time working. Where such requests are not granted teachers with a child under the age of 6 may seek to exercise their statutory right to request flexible working. Further information on this statutory right, which was introduced in April 2003, can be found in the NUT briefing ‘NUT Guidance for Members on the Right to Request Flexible Working’, available on the NUT website at

Applying for and securing a vacant post advertised as part-time due to the particular needs of the school is more straightforward. It is, however, also possible to apply for part-time working in vacant full-time posts on a job-share basis. Again, where you do so, the employer will be obliged to consider this request objectively.

Some local authorities and school governing bodies will be sympathetic to requests for part -time working or a job share agreement. Others may have a number of reservations. Once you have decided to seek part-time work it is helpful to investigate a number of matters.

-Is there a part-time working or job sharing agreement in place in the local authority or school?

-Is there an equal opportunities agreement which refers to part-time working?

-Are there any other teachers in similar posts or circumstances who are working part-time or in a job share?

-If other teachers have been refused such an arrangement, what were the reasons for the refusal?

Having considered these questions, you will be better prepared to put your case.

If there is a job share or part-time working agreement in place, the employer should follow its terms. A refusal to do so could be a breach of contract by the employer.

In some circumstances, the refusal of a request for part-time working may be a potential breach of equalities legislation. For example, it may be a breach of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 to refuse a female teacher’s application to job share for childcare reasons if there are no objective reasons to justify the refusal. It is not sufficient for an employer simply to cite “continuity of pupils’ education”, for example, as a reason for refusal. An employment tribunal will investigate whether the request has been considered fully and the NUT has successfully challenged such assertions at tribunal. Furthermore, male teachers in similar situations should also be treated equally.

PAY, CONDITIONS OF SERVICE AND WORKING TIME:

PART-TIME TEACHERS’ ENTITLEMENTS

Part-time teachers can be employed in a variety of different situations which involve different contractual relationships and duties under those contracts.

Some part-time teachers are employed on permanent contracts while others are employed on fixed term contracts. Some are employed on a job-share basis, either permanently or temporarily, sharing a single full-time post. Some supply teachers or home tutors are referred to as part-time teachers, even though their hours of work will vary during any particular period when they may in fact work the same number of hours as full-time colleagues.

As noted above, part-time teachers’ rights and duties will depend upon the precise nature of the contractual relationship with their employer. The following sections consider typical arrangements and the legal rights and responsibilities which apply.

“REGULAR” PART-TIME WORK

Many part-time teachers have contracts which refer to a stated proportion of full-time employment (e.g. 0.4 or 0.6 contracts). These contracts are often referred to as “regular” part-time contracts.

Ensuring Fair Pay

Part-time teachers must, as laid down under the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document, be paid that proportion of the appropriate full-time salary which corresponds to the proportion of the school week they work.

In order to ensure that part-time teachers are paid the proper “rate for the job”, it is therefore essential that the job, both in nature and number of hours, is accurately defined in the contract of employment and that the appropriate fraction of a full-time teacher’s salary is determined by reference to that figure.

Simply stating that the teacher is employed on a “0.4 contract” is unsatisfactory and likely to lead to problems. More detail on this point is set out in the following section on “Working time”.

Working time

Under the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document, full-time teachers must be available for work for 195 days each year and for a maximum of 1265 hours of directed time. In addition, they must work such additional hours as are necessary for the effective discharge of their duties, including in particular marking, preparation and writing reports on pupils.

The provisions of the Document do not, however, satisfactorily define the position of part-time teachers, particularly as far as the relationship between pay and working time is concerned. The working time obligations of full-time teachers under the Document do not apply to part-time teachers. The DfES’s advice is that the working time of part-time teachers should be set out in their contracts.

This is, however, rarely the case. As noted above, most contracts simply provide only that the teacher is employed on, for example, a “0.4 contract”. This refers only to the fraction of the full-time salary which the teacher is paid. It does not of itself specify adequately the working time obligations of the teacher with regard to teaching and non-teaching activities. Failure to define working time obligations properly in teachers’ contract can, in particular, lead firstly to disputes over obligations to participate in non-teaching activities and secondly to part-time teachers not receiving salaries which reflect the full extent of their working time compared to that of full-time teachers.

It is obviously preferable that matters such as working time obligations are resolved at the outset, when part-time employment starts, in order to avoid subsequent difficulties. The NUT believes that every part-time teacher’s contract should, therefore, clearly specify the teacher’s working time obligations in terms of both teaching and non-teaching activities.

Specific provisions should therefore set out part-time teachers’ working time obligations and contractual working hours in each of the following areas:

• the days of the week on which they are expected to work;

• their teaching time obligations, which should include an allocation of non-contact time which is pro rata to that of full time teachers employed at the school (note that part time teachers also now benefit from the 38 hour annual cover limit, calculated on a pro rata basis and, as of 1st September 2005, from the entitlement to planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time equivalent to 10% of their timetabled teaching time);

• their working time obligations in respect of other duties such as registering attendance, supervision of pupils, and attendance at staff meetings, parental consultation evenings and in-service training;

• for those part time teachers with leadership or management responsibilities, a reasonable allocation of time within school sessions to support the discharge of their responsibilities.

By setting out their total contractual working hours in this way, the appropriate salary can be determined accurately as the fraction of the working hours of full-time teachers employed at the school.

Further guidance on this area, including examples of how this approach works in practice and the difference this can make to part-time teachers’ salary entitlements, is set out in the Appendix at the end of this document.

Problems over Working Time Obligations

Any part-time teacher or prospective part-time teacher who needs advice about their contract of employment, including on any of the issues addressed below, should contact the relevant NUT regional office or, in Wales, the NUT Wales Office, NUT Cymru, for assistance.

Part-time teachers often experience problems in relation to attendance at activities outside the classroom, such as staff meetings and INSET, on days when they do not normally work. Many part-time teachers find that their headteacher expects them to attend all staff and parents’ meetings and all INSET days. As noted above, where this is not taken into account in the terms of their contracts then part-time teachers are likely to find that that their salaries do not reflect the actual time which they work in comparison to full-time teachers.

It may, of course, be the case that, due to other commitments, part-time teachers are genuinely unable to work on those days when they do not teach. Where this is the case, the NUT believes that headteachers should respect this position. Headteachers may not, on any case, direct teachers to work in circumstances where such a direction would be unreasonable.

Part-time teachers should be offered the opportunity to attend all INSET days, including those which take place on days when they do not normally teach, for professional development reasons and should be properly paid for doing so. Failure to allow part-time employees the opportunity to attend training available to full-time employees is now unlawful.

The NUT supports part-time teachers’ right to have access to the full extent of professional development opportunities available to their full-time colleagues. In such circumstances, payment should be made by including this time in their contractual working hours as outlined above. Where it has not been so included, part-time teachers should be paid on a supply basis for attending INSET on days when they do not normally teach.

Other Salaries Matters

With regard to other matters affecting pay, the rules of incremental progression on the pay scale operate in the same way for part-time teachers as full time teachers. Part-time teachers are entitled to an incremental spine point if they have worked during at least 26 weeks of the previous school year. There is no requirement to be employed to work the full week. Periods of time taken up on sick leave, maternity leave or parental leave are counted for incremental purposes.

The same is true of access to the post-threshold pay scale and progression on that pay scale. Part-time teachers are entitled to apply to cross the threshold in the same way as full time teachers when they reach the maximum point of the incremental pay scale.

Finally, the rules governing placement on the leadership group pay scale are also the same for part-time teachers as for full-time teachers.

Conditions of service

Part-time teachers have equality of entitlement in relation to contractual conditions of service such as sickness and maternity benefits. Entitlements to sick pay, sick leave and maternity pay are pro rata on the same basis as salary entitlements. The length of service requirements for these benefits, however, and also the length of maternity leave, are the same as for full-time teachers and are not calculated on a pro rata basis.

Pensions

Part-time teachers are fully entitled to membership of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS). Until 2007, part time teachers were requiredto decide positively to opt into membership of the TPS.This sometimes created problems for teachers who did not realise that they had to opt intothe TPS and consequently lost service in the scheme.From 1 January 2007, however, the rules of the TPS have changed. Part-time contracts commencing on or after that date are automatically pensionable unless you elect to opt out of the TPS. However, if you have a part-time contract already in existence at that date, it does not become automatically pensionable and you will not become a TPS member until you make an election or a new contract comes into effect.

Moving from full-time to part-time teaching will affect pension entitlement. Your length of pensionable service will be reduced because only the days on which you work will count towards pensionable service. Also, although pension is calculated on the basis of the full-time equivalent salary, moving to a part-time post at a lower salary grade may affect the “final salary” against which your pension is calculated.

There are, however, provisions in the TPS which will give some protection, including various arrangements for buying additional pension benefits and arrangements to protect “final salary” for those close to retirement. Teachers who work part-time or are interested in doing so can obtain specific guidance on the pensions implications of part-time work from the relevant NUT Regional Office or, in Wales, NUT Cymru.

Other entitlements

For statutory protection relating to job security, the length of service necessary for entitlement to protection from unfair dismissal and to redundancy payments is the same whether the teacher is part-time or full time.

JOB SHARERS

Job sharing is an arrangement whereby two teachers share one single full-time post between them. As such, job sharing is a form of part-time work.

Teachers working in job share arrangements are in the same position as teachers in “regular” part-time work with regard to their contractual entitlements. They will, however, have particular obligations with regard to co-ordination of working arrangements between job share partners and, usually, there will be specific arrangements for dealing with situations when one job sharer leaves.