Delay in drafting worries teachers

Press, 13 June 1986, Page 25

Delay in drafting worries teachers

The Post-Primary Teachers’ Association is worried that regulations to make part-time teaching positions permanent are taking too long to draft. The association’s women’s officer, Ms Helen Watson, said that the Crown Law Office had been drafting the regulations since 1984. “Teachers are really concerned,” she said. “The office does have a lot of work. But if one was

cynical, one could believe that because it mostly applies to women; it is not a matter of priority,” Part-time teachers do not have any job security. Their jobs can be terminated from one week to the next. Schools are not able to employ relieving teachers when part-time teachers are ill.

“That puts pressure on the part-timer to go to school when he or she is not well,” Ms Watson said. Part-time teachers are

also entitled only to six months maternity leave — full-time techers are entitled to one year. Granting permanent status to part-time jobs would mean women could plan their careers with more certainty, she said. The association’s president, Mr Peter Allen, said the P.P.T.A. would approach the Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer, to ask why it was taking so long to draft the regulations.