Hundreds of primary schools stop hiring expensive self-employed people and temporary workers

ANP

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 11:54

Hundreds of primary schools have agreed to no longer hire expensive temporary workers or self-employed people through commercial agencies, the FD reports. In a manifesto, the schools say that they believe the money should go to education and not to those agencies. A total of 350 primary schools are participating.

Many schools are experiencing a teacher shortage. There are thousands of vacancies open and there are problems completing the schedules. If a class is in danger of not being taught, self-employed people and temporary workers are often hired to teach the class. These temporary teachers cost the schools a lot of money, damage education and are at the expense of permanent teachers, according to the schools.

The Aves School Foundation took the initiative earlier this summer and came up with a manifesto. Board chairman Jos Timmermans tells the FD that many schools have the same frustration. According to him, they could not sign the manifesto, “because they are already in the stranglehold of the temporary employment sector” and are dependent on self-employed people.

‘Knowing the whole movie’

Education union AOb says that many teachers have no choice but to be self-employed, for example because employers are not flexible enough. The schools that have signed the manifesto promise, among other things, to better meet the wishes of employees. “We would be better off spending our money on that than on expensive temporary workers,” says Timmermans.

On average, teachers through an employment agency cost more than 60 percent more compared to someone employed. Primary and secondary schools spend almost 4 percent of the personnel budget on people who are not employed. Within this, temporary employment and secondment via commercial agencies is the largest cost item. This is a report from last year from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

The PO Council, the sector association for primary education, tells the newspaper that they see that temporary workers are making additional demands. This does not benefit the workload of permanent employees. It also affects education itself. “It matters whether you take a photo of a student by standing in front of the class, or whether you know the entire film of him or her.”

Cut away

In Amsterdam, public primary schools stopped hiring more expensive teachers a few years ago. All secondary schools in North Brabant followed suit in June of this year. They also immediately stopped hiring temporary agency workers.

According to the school boards, teachers are poached by employment agencies and then offered as substitute workers. That costs the schools a lot more money. By no longer hiring temporary workers, the schools hope that the education employees will return to the labor market so that they can offer them a permanent contract.

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