Job Share

1 February each year.

Any permanent or fixed-term teacher who has completed a full year of service with their current employer (or who will have completed a full year by the time the job share starts).

Submit the application at Appendix A from Chapter Eight of circular 54/2019 (PDF) to your school by the 1 February deadline.

Your employer must notify you by 1 March in writing if your application has been approved.

If the application is refused, you should be advised of the basis for the refusal in writing.

Not necessarily.

You can apply for a job share with a partner, who may be colleague in your own school, or a teacher from another school in the case of an interschool job share.

Alternatively, if you have not been able to identify a partner to apply with, you may apply on your own, requesting to reduce your hours by half, and asking your employer to recruit a half-time, fixed-term teacher to work with you.

You can use your own personal and professional contacts to identify a suitable job share partner, and the INTO also hosts a list of teachers interested in job sharing under the Teacher Connect section of the INTO website, here.

The decision of your employer is final and there is no formal appeal process under the job scheme.

If there are exceptional circumstances, you could ask your employer to reconsider their decision, or if you believe they have not adhered to the terms of the circular or policy, you could consider seeking a resolution through the grievance procedures.

Up to 14 April you can withdraw your application for a job share, unless a fixed-term replacement teacher has already been appointed by your school.

After 14 April, it is at the discretion of your employer to allow you to withdraw your application.

Yes. In exceptional circumstances, a school can consider a late application for a job share.

Yes. In exceptional circumstances, a school can approve an application for a Job share to commence after 1 September. The job share will still finish on 31 August.

In exceptional circumstances, up to 1 November, and subject to staffing and contractual arrangements, your employer may allow you to withdraw from a job share arrangement and return to your original teaching post.

An employer may terminate a job share arrangement at any stage if it is not operating in the best interests of the pupils.

In a job share, your gross basic pay will be 50% of your full-time pay, including your academic allowance if you have one.

If you hold a post of responsibility, and you’re able to carry out the full duties of your post while job sharing, you may keep your full allowance.
INTO staff are not qualified to advise members on their taxes.

Anecdotally, job share teachers report keeping a little bit over 60% of their normal take-home pay but this is subject to your personal financial circumstances.

Your school could require you to return on a full-time basis, as the arrangement they approved is no longer going ahead.

However, at their discretion, your school may still facilitate your job share. You may be able to find a suitable partner – a colleague or a teacher in another school – or your employer may agree to recruit a half-time, fixed-term teacher to work with you.

You should contact Cornmarket before commencing your job share arrangement in order to discuss the relevant payment and benefit options for job sharing teachers.

Please call (01) 4084195 or email spsadmin@cornmarket.ie

You have access to the same sick leave scheme as a full-time teacher – up to 183 days in a rolling four year period, or up to 365 days if the Critical Illness Provision is approved.

As a job share teacher, sick leave may be recorded during periods when you are not scheduled to work.

For instance, if you are working a week on/week off job share pattern, and you provide a medical certificate for one month – this will be recorded as the full 28 days of sick leave indicated on your medical certificate, not just the school days when you were scheduled to work.

Please see Chapter One of Circular 54/2019 (PDF) for full details of the sick leave scheme for teachers.

No, the DE will take account of your full-time rate of pay as your “final salary” when calculating your pension.

Your gross salary will be halved while job sharing, so your pension contributions are also halved. The contributions you make during a full year in a job share are equivalent to six months of full-time service.

For teachers on the pre 2004 Teachers Pension Scheme, a year in a job share will count as one full year toward eligibility for early retirement.

To address any shortfall in pension contributions when you return to service, you may wish to consider buying Notional Service or Additional Retirement Benefit through DE Primary Pensions, or contributing to AVCs.

Cornmarket can provide financial planning advice to INTO members.

Yes, you may take up other employment while on a job share, subject to your job share schedule, and with the consent of your employer. Your employer will not approve outside employment where a conflict with your current role exists.

Permanent teacher engaged in a job share

Under the normal terms of the job share scheme, set out in Chapter 8 of circular 54/2019, teachers participating in a job share may not substitute teach.

Information Note TC/IN 0008/2023 (PDF) confirms that this restriction will be temporarily lifted for the 2024/25 school year. Job share teachers may substitute teach, in their own school or another school, subject to working a maximum of 25 hours per week, full-time hours for a teacher. Job share teachers engaging in substitute teaching will receive their personal daily rate. Job sharing teachers may also undertake New Entrant EAL hours which are paid through the OLCS.

Half-time fixed-term replacement teacher

Where someone is recruited as a ‘replacement teacher’, to work with another teacher in a job share, they are employed on a specified purpose (fixed-term) contract, and are not a contracted job sharer. The replacement teacher can apply for any available hours, including substitution, in any school.

The INTO has previously advised that such teachers were limited to doing a maximum of two days per week, but Primary Payroll have advised that fixed-term part-time teachers can be paid for up to full-time hours. However, a maximum of two days per week may be recorded through the OLCS, and the school will have to arrange for manual payment of additional days directly with payroll.

You will receive your personal daily rate, reflecting your point on the salary scale. There is more detailed information about substitute rates of pay here.

Unfortunately, school principals are not currently eligible to job share.

Yes, but you will have to temporarily relinquish your post in order to job share, and an acting deputy principal can be appointed in your place.

If you are leaving your own school to participate in an interschool job share, you will temporarily relinquish your post and allowance. This may be filled on an acting basis in your absence, and you will return to it when you return to your school.

If you are job sharing in your own school, and your employer is satisfied that you can do all the duties of your post, you can keep the full post and allowance while job sharing. In this instance, your employer should notify Primary Payroll that you should continue to receive your full allowance while job sharing.

If your employer believes your duties are not compatible with your job sharing role, you will retain half your allowance, for undertaking half your duties, and a colleague may be appointed to act-up for the other half of your allowance. The half-time acting appointment should be notified to the DE using a POR1 Amend Form (PDF).

Under the terms of circular 14/2004 (PDF), all teachers must attend one staff meeting per term, and one parent-teacher meeting per year.

As a job sharer, you must be available for all relevant staff and parent-teacher meetings, in accordance with your school’s policy.

You must complete 18 Croke Park hours during the school year, and how these hours are scheduled will be a matter for your employer.

Each job share partner has an obligation to complete their Croke Park hours on a pro rata basis, so a half-time teacher will have to complete 18 hours in the school year.
How these hours are scheduled will be a matter for your employer.

You must complete 18 Croke Park hours during the school year, and how these hours are scheduled will be a matter for your employer.

It is possible that you may be required to attend a meeting during a week when you are not scheduled to work, if your principal considers it particularly important or relevant.

You should address any concerns about this with your school principal, to see if a compromise can be reached.

No, there is no provision for leave in lieu for job share teachers who aren’t timetabled to work during the week of a public holiday.

There are 182 school days in the school year, so you and your partner should work out your schedule so you are each working 91 school days, and neither of you will be at a disadvantage in respect of public holidays or school closures.

Some teachers do apply to take their parental leave every second week, creating an arrangement akin to a job share.

Further, some teachers have sought to take their parental leave on alternating weeks with a colleague who also has parental leave available, asking to be allocated to the same class as that colleague, on a week on, week-off arrangement.

The substitute who is covering for these two teachers’ absences may then be allocated to another single class, at the discretion of the principal.

It is important to note that if such an arrangement is approved, this does not constitute a job-sharing arrangement but rather two individual teachers availing of statutory parental leave entitlements on alternating weeks.

In a job share, you will be paid at your job sharing rate of pay for the full duration of the job share, from 1 September to 31 August.

When a teacher is approved to take parental leave on alternate weeks, they are a full-time teacher, availing of their parental leave. They will receive their full-time rate of pay during school closures and other periods when they have not applied for parental leave.

Parental Leave is a statutory entitlement, and an eligible teacher may apply for it in line with the rules set out in Chapter 5 of circular 54/2019 (PDF).

However, your employer may limit the number of weeks of parental leave that will be approved. If you apply applied for parental leave for a period of more than six weeks, six weeks is the minimum that must be approved.

Your employer may also postpone the commencement of your parental leave by up to six months, if “granting the leave at that time would have a substantial adverse effect on the operation of the school.”

Yes, you are entitled to parental leave while job sharing, but during your job share, your entitlement to parental leave will be on a pro rata basis.

As a half-time teacher, you will have access to up to 13 weeks of parental leave for each of your children under the age of sixteen. This must be taken in full seven-day blocks, irrespective of your job share schedule.

Yes, you are entitled to the same nine weeks of parent’s leave as a full-time teacher, if your child is under the age of two. Parent’s leave must be taken in full seven-day blocks, irrespective of your job share work schedule.

You are entitled to 26 weeks of paid maternity leave, but this will be at the job share rate of pay until 31 August when your job share ends, assuming you have not applied to job share the following year.

It is possible that you could start your maternity leave on the job share rate of pay, and end it on full-time salary. (For example, if you have a baby in the June of your job share year – you will be on the job share rate for June, July, and August, and the full-time salary for September, October, and November.)

Yes, from 1 September when your job share ends, you will revert to full-time salary, whether you’re attending work or taking your maternity leave.

Chapter Eight of circular 54/2019 (PDF) and on the INTO help and advice page here.