Specific Purpose contract terms?

petalgumdrops

HI looking for some advice.

I am employed as a teacher on a specific purpose contract covering for two teachers on Job share teaching for 12 hours. I commenced employment in the 2012/2013 academic year. My contract was renewed for the following year 2013/2014 academic year again under a specific purpose contract. I went on career break at the beginning of the 2014/2015 academic year and renewed this career break for the 2015/2016 academic year. I am returning to work in August of this year for the 2016/2017 academic year.
I emailed my manager and asked about my timetable for next year and was told that my hours were being cut from 12 hours to 3 hours and that i would be moved to a different school. I contacted the ETB and asked them why my hours had changed and why i was being moved. I was told that as I am returning from career break my hours aren't guaranteed and that the ETB can move me anywhere they like. I asked if the teachers I was covering for were returning and they said that it didn't matter if the teachers I was covering for returned or not that the ETB could change my hours.

My Contract states;
Nature if position: You are employed on a specific purpose contract covering for two teachers on Job share.

You are employed on a fixed term commencing 1st of September 20** and terminating on the occurrence of any of the following events
-> The permanent staff members return to full time duty
-> reduced demand for this particular course of education
-> Termination of the Permanent teachers employment
-> The appointment of an appropriately qualified and registered teacher to replace an unqualified or unregistered teacher.

My contract also excludes me from the terms of the unfair dismissals act and states that I am also not eligible for CID.

I have spoken to the union who have said that because i don't have a CID that the ETB are within their rights to change my hourMY questions are ...... Can the ETB terminate my contract under any other terms that those specifically stated in my contract?
If my hours and location of work are changed does that constitute a change in the terms of my contract? From my research Section 5 of the employment information acts 1994-2014 states that changes to contractual terms must be agreed by you and your employer.
The teachers I am covering for have not returned to full time duty and the terms of the employemnt information act 1994 requires that employees with a fixed term contract get written notice of the expiry date. Does anyone think I have a case? The union don't seem to be looking at my case in terms of my actual contract and have stated that as I don't have a CID i basically can't do anything.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

seavill

Can't answer all questions but from my experience in ETBs and covering career breaks,

You are employed for a fixed term from 1st Sep 2015 (for example) but the term is stated usually, to 31st August 2016, you haven't mentioned that in your post? is that included?
Based on that, your contract is up on 31st August so your old contract hours are irrelevant. That would be my reading, my expert may tell me I'm wrong.

If it's not stated that is very strange as a career break is year to year so can only be one year contracts.

You say the teachers have not returned to full time duty - have they returned in some part or was there a reason you used this term?

In relation to the ETB location - you are employed by the ETB not the school so teachers being moved around schools within an ETB would be common occurrence so I wouldn't find this strange.

On a side note I never knew you could go on a career break if not permanent/CID thats a new one on me.

What hours was the person replacing you for the last two years on were they on 12 or 3?

rainbowtrout

seavill wrote: »

On a side note I never knew you could go on a career break if not permanent/CID thats a new one on me.

The circular on career breaks, does allow for a break once you have served 12 months with ETB/Dept. Odd really given that the person has no real standing after 12 months and probably won't be CID.

Other than that OP, I don't think you have a leg to stand on. My reading of it is:
You had two year long contracts back to back. You are not eligible for a CID as you are covering job share, and it was written into your contract.

Even if that wasn't the case, you didn't give more than 2 years continuous service to the ETB which would be the eligibility requirement for a CID.

Therefore, the ETB are perfectly within their rights to give you whatever hours they want. Presumably they employed someone else to do the hours when you took the career break.

Like seavill said, the ETB are the employer not the school so you can be moved to another centre. Your contracts were annual contracts, so whatever you had in your last teaching contract (13/14) I would see now as null and void. As your hours are not eligible for CID you are effectively being hired as a contractor so they can change the hours as they see fit.

You queried the fact that the ETB changed the terms of your employment and they are not entitled to do this without agreement form you. I think they have done this legally and you have ended up in quirky loophole situation.

Under the terms of the circular on career breaks you were entitled to take a career break. However under the terms of CID eligibility and the nature of your contract being a job share cover, you are not entitled to any of the security that a CID brings, so you are only hired on a year to year basis, similar to a casual worker. So each previous contract becomes null and void in the following academic year. If at the end of your first year of career break the teachers you were covering had chosen to return to work, you wouldn't have had to apply for a second year of career break, because there wouldn't have been any hours to cover, you would have simply been unemployed.

As an aside, I think you are interpreting the 'termination of contract on the occurrence of the following events' bit incorrectly.

You had/have a one year contract. The contract naturally terminates on August 31st as is the case with all contracts covering career breaks. Termination of contract as you have outlined above refers to early termination of the contract which could happen during the academic year in the reasons that you listed as termination events.

E.g. reduced demand for this particular course of education

You might be employed on Sept 1st to cover a job share for physics. Turns out not enough 5th years want to do the subject and the class doesn't run (same could be far more common for teachers doing PLC courses). Therefore there are no classes for you to teach, contract terminates.

Termination of permanent teachers employment:

Teacher resigns, retires or dies mid year. Job no longer exists in a job share capacity so your contract terminates.

Sorry OP, I know 3 hours is crap, but I don't think you have a case.

petalgumdrops

rainbowtrout wrote: »

seavill wrote: »

On a side note I never knew you could go on a career break if not permanent/CID thats a new one on me.

The circular on career breaks, does allow for a break once you have served 12 months with ETB/Dept. Odd really given that the person has no real standing after 12 months and probably won't be CID.

Other than that OP, I don't think you have a leg to stand on. My reading of it is:
You had two year long contracts back to back. You are not eligible for a CID as you are covering job share, and it was written into your contract.

Even if that wasn't the case, you didn't give more than 2 years continuous service to the ETB which would be the eligibility requirement for a CID.

Therefore, the ETB are perfectly within their rights to give you whatever hours they want. Presumably they employed someone else to do the hours when you took the career break.

Like seavill said, the ETB are the employer not the school so you can be moved to another centre. Your contracts were annual contracts, so whatever you had in your last teaching contract (13/14) I would see now as null and void. As your hours are not eligible for CID you are effectively being hired as a contractor so they can change the hours as they see fit.

You queried the fact that the ETB changed the terms of your employment and they are not entitled to do this without agreement form you. I think they have done this legally and you have ended up in quirky loophole situation.

Under the terms of the circular on career breaks you were entitled to take a career break. However under the terms of CID eligibility and the nature of your contract being a job share cover, you are not entitled to any of the security that a CID brings, so you are only hired on a year to year basis, similar to a casual worker. So each previous contract becomes null and void in the following academic year. If at the end of your first year of career break the teachers you were covering had chosen to return to work, you wouldn't have had to apply for a second year of career break, because there wouldn't have been any hours to cover, you would have simply been unemployed.

As an aside, I think you are interpreting the 'termination of contract on the occurrence of the following events' bit incorrectly.

You had/have a one year contract. The contract naturally terminates on August 31st as is the case with all contracts covering career breaks. Termination of contract as you have outlined above refers to early termination of the contract which could happen during the academic year in the reasons that you listed as termination events.

E.g. reduced demand for this particular course of education

You might be employed on Sept 1st to cover a job share for physics. Turns out not enough 5th years want to do the subject and the class doesn't run (same could be far more common for teachers doing PLC courses). Therefore there are no classes for you to teach, contract terminates.

Termination of permanent teachers employment:

Teacher resigns, retires or dies mid year. Job no longer exists in a job share capacity so your contract terminates.

Sorry OP, I know 3 hours is crap, but I don't think you have a case.

Hi,
Thank you for the reply. I know that I am not entitled to a CID at all. My career break documentation states that I have a career break for the academic year and should the teacher's I am covering for return to full time duty then that would impact the hours available to me if I returned. My specific purpose contract still stood in terms of my career break.
My question is really about the contract and the terms. I am on a 'Specific purpose' contract - meaning that my contract expires once a specific purpose of job is completed( open to correction) rather tahn a specific date. My contract does not state an end date rather it states that it will expire when .... The teacher returns to full time duty etc. I have been told that the teachers I am covering for have not returned to full time duty. Therefore the hours are still 'available'.
Prior to going on career break I had two years continuous service. I complete my probation period of one year and after this my contract was automatically renewed once the ETB had confirmation that the teachers I was covering for were not returning to work. If in February or March the teachers I were covering for had applied to full time duty It is my understanding that the ETB would then need to give me written notice that my specific purpose contract would be ended.
3 hours is not only crap it is also impossible to live on. I am currently working abroad and therefore will not even be available to interview for any jobs. It is depressing that teachers have to leave Ireland to make ends meet without making leaving the teaching profession a real possibility on our return.

rainbowtrout

But in your OP you talked about your contract being renewed. You are only employed from year to year because teachers have to renew their applications for job share/career break from year to year. And while the teacher has not returned to work, the specific purpose contract can only be renewed from year to year, not on an indefinite basis. Each of the specific purpose contracts are individual and as you have no right to a CID, then my reading of it is that you cannot assume that the same number of hours will be granted to you on the specific purpose contract every year.

E.g. if numbers in the school fell this year, so the teacher allocation reduced but there were a number of teachers on CID, their hours would have to be filled first. So if there was a teacher with the same subject on a 22 hour CID but due to the reduction in allocation she fell short by 9 hours, they could use the job share hours to fill her timetable, leaving only 3 hours for you.

petalgumdrops

rainbowtrout wrote: »

But in your OP you talked about your contract being renewed. You are only employed from year to year because teachers have to renew their applications for job share/career break from year to year. And while the teacher has not returned to work, the specific purpose contract can only be renewed from year to year, not on an indefinite basis. Each of the specific purpose contracts are individual and as you have no right to a CID, then my reading of it is that you cannot assume that the same number of hours will be granted to you on the specific purpose contract every year.

E.g. if numbers in the school fell this year, so the teacher allocation reduced but there were a number of teachers on CID, their hours would have to be filled first. So if there was a teacher with the same subject on a 22 hour CID but due to the reduction in allocation she fell short by 9 hours, they could use the job share hours to fill her timetable, leaving only 3 hours for you.

Thanks I have a better understanding of the contract and hours now. It's just so unfortunate that teaching has become so difficult in Ireland.
Thanks for the advice and clarification

Godge

If it was a pro-rata contract, it may have contained a clause allowing for the hours to be varied from year to year. If it did, then the ETB could legally reduce your hours.

Similarly, if the employer was the ETB, and the location said any ETB school or there was a provision that you could be moved to any ETB school, then the ETB acted legally.

While the Terms of Information Act says the employer can't change the terms of the contract, the terms themselves may allow aspects of the employment relationship such as location and working hours to be changed.