Treasury threatens to dock teachers’ pay if they refuse to extend school year

The Finance Ministry said Monday it will reduce the salaries of teachers who refuse to teach for nine days in July to make up for lost class time during the weeks-long nationwide pandemic lockdown.

The warning by finance officials comes amid a brewing fight between the Education Ministry and teachers’ unions over the added days during summer break. Education Minister Yoav Gallant has already said he will take the unions to court if they do not comply with an extension of the school year due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The entire education system was shuttered for two months during a lockdown that began in mid-March. As a result, the school year has been extended into July, but union officials for middle school and high school teachers have pushed back on Education Ministry requirements to continue teaching into the summer months.

Whereas the Israel Teachers Union, which represents elementary school staff, has agreed to the plan, the Secondary School Teachers’ Association of middle and high school teachers has not. And the Teachers Union has conditioned its agreement on the Teachers’ Association also signing the deal.

Kobi Bar-Nathan, director of Salary and Employment Agreements at the Finance Ministry, wrote in a letter to Education Ministry Director-General Shmuel Abuav that if teachers of grades 7-10 do not work the additional days, they will not receive full pay for the hours they have already put in giving distance learning classes during the lockdown, Channel 12 reported.

The letter was also sent the heads of local and regional council groups.

Ran Erez, chairman of the Secondary School Teachers’ Association, dismissed the threat as having no legal standing.

“After the Treasury has finished abusing the high school students, it is now trying to abuse the teachers,” he said in a statement. “These are empty threats, with no legal validity.”

Erez went on to say that time spent teaching online is the same as frontal tutoring in a classroom and that since teachers had continued to provide distance learning during the lockdown they “did not miss a single hour of teaching, they have nothing to make up.”

On Sunday, Education Minister Yoav Gallant announced the dates for the end of the school year, adjusted to compensate for the disruption caused by the lockdown.

Gallant told a press briefing that kindergartens and elementary schools (grades 1-6) will remain open until July 13 (instead of June 30). After that, kindergartens and grades 1-4 will continue a summer break school program until August 6.

Middle schools and some high schoolers (grades 7-10) will continue studies until July 1 (instead of June 20). Eleventh and 12th-graders are set to finish formal studies at the end of this week, after which students will enter their matriculation exam periods from June 22 until July 27.

Gallant said the dates were set in coordination with the Finance Ministry and local authorities.

“If anyone acts against the decisions — we have means to force them and we will use them if the time comes,” he said referring to the teachers’ unions.