Today, January 12, representatives of the Tartu City Government, the Tartu Education Employees Union and the Tartu County Education Employees Union signed a collective agreement for 2024, according to which the minimum wage of teachers in Tartu will rise to 1,803 euros.
Deputy Mayor of Tartu Lemmit Kaplinski: “I am sincerely happy that, following long negotiations, once again in Tartu we have reached a broad agreement on key issues in the field of education. At this point, I call on the Ministry to have confidence in governments premises for the future and to deal with the substantive definition of educational policy instead of issues within our competence, starting with the development of a career model for teachers which is completely missing.”
The minimum teacher salary of 1,803 euros applies to elementary school teachers, upper secondary school teachers and nursery school teachers with a master’s degree. It also applies to the Tartu College of Applied Sciences, the Education Support Center and, as an important innovation, the City of Tartu also applies to teachers of the schools of interest, which the City of Tartu considers equal to other colleagues, paying teachers with a master’s degree receive the same salary in all institutions. The minimum salary of a support specialist with a higher education working in an educational institution in Tartu is the same.
In the new collective agreement, the minimum salary for a nursery school or hobby school teacher without a master’s degree is 1,623 euros. However, the largest salary increase goes to assistants working in schools and nurseries, teachers’ assistants, babysitters and other employees who help teachers, whose minimum salary will be 1,140 euros from this year. The minimum fee for class management will rise to 230 euros per month. It was also agreed that minimum wages for all education workers will be revised if the state increases the minimum wage for general education school teachers during the contract period.
As of September 2023, the average salary of a teacher at Tartu General Education School was 2,097 euros, which is 115.7% of the country’s average gross salary in the third quarter (1,812 euros). The schools’ salary fund will increase by more than 5%. What will be the average salary of teachers in Tartu in 2024 depends on the salary agreement concluded at the level of the educational institution. Principals establish the principles of salary management in the educational institution and agree on specific tasks and corresponding salaries with each employee.
In addition to wages, the collective agreement also reflects city-wide principles for reconciling work and family life and implementing modern ways of working. The rules relating to the granting of days off for important family events have been revised, just as the principles for granting health days and the duration of holidays have been harmonised. All employees have a minimum of 35 days annual leave. Compared to the law, kindergarten teachers (49 days) and all support specialists (56 days) have longer annual holidays in Tartu.
During this year, all educational institutions in the city of Tartu will integrate their work organization rules based on the principles of the collective agreement.
The collective agreement was signed by deputy mayor Lemmit Kaplinski, representative of the Tartu Educational Workers Union Kalle Kalda and representative of the Tartu County Educational Workers Union Tiiu Laan.
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2024-01-12 15:17:42
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