Concerned about the tendency of signing short-term employement agreements with teachers, ESFTUG officially addressed the Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Andria Urushadze to take necessary measures against the existing trend.
“We are highly concerned about the issue that public school directors force teachers to agree on terminating old, long-term or permanent labour agreements, and instead sign short-term agreements. Following the verbal order of the Ministry, directors threaten teachers with dismissal unless they agree upon agreement time frames. According to article 11(2) Essential conditions of a labour agreement may only be changed by agreement of the parties. We consider that changing agreement time frames that puts teachers in tougher labour conditions than before, represents an “essential condition of a labour agreement” and requires employees’ consent and not a choice resulted from growing pressure.
We believe that short-term employment agreement cannot ensure healthy atmosphere at school, but instead it will hinder teaching process and negatively affect education quality by putting teachers in stressful condition where they feel insecure and unstable.
Furthermore, we think that there is no need and no legal foundation that would prompt directors to favor short-term agreements. Moreover the article 91 of the order #959 (“On Approving the Obligatory Terms of Labour Agreements between Public School Director and Teacher”) of the Ministry recommends 3-5-year-long labour agreements”.