12th April 2022
INTO entered into an agreement in 2020 with Management Side to manage workload concerns. Each teacher is entitled to an individual Directed Time Budget, and it is the professional duty of principals in all schools to ensure an individual Directed Time Budget is prepared for and gives due regard to, the individual responsibilities of each teacher in their school. Unfortunately, some members have not yet received a suitably agreed individual Directed Time Budget.
In light of this, INTO must advise its members:
- Until agreed individual Directed Time Budgets are in place, no teacher should be directed to work more than 32.4 hours in a single week. Each working day should be counted as 6.5 hours and deducted from the 1,265 hours thereafter. Teachers on amended contracts should adjust on a pro-rata basis.
- All the time that a teacher is required to be on school premises is included in Directed Time. For a full-time teacher, it will not exceed 1,265 hours per year nor apply to more than 195 days. This includes 5 non-teaching “reasonably contiguous” days (Baker Days) and 5 Optional Staff Development Days.
- Time spent off school premises in preparing and marking lessons is not included in a teacher’s Directed Time and therefore, teachers should be discouraged from adopting this practice of working outside of their contracted hours.
- While voluntary after-school activities are not mandatory, where a teacher agrees to take on such an activity, this time should be included in the individual Directed Time Budget.
- If the Principal reasonably directs that a teacher should attend an after-school event, it must be included in the agreed individual Directed Time Budget.
- Where a teacher is required to supervise at morning or afternoon break, or where this is done on a rota basis, this period must be included in the individual Directed Time Budget.
- Where a teacher is in receipt of Teaching Allowances or Special Education Needs Allowances that will have specific duties attached which are additional to teaching, these duties must also be allowed for within the individual Directed Time Budgets of 1,265 hours.
The Pay & Workload Agreement, April 2020, guarantees that a minimum of 10% of a teacher’s Directed Time (i.e. 126.5 hours per annum) is set aside for Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA). School managements should ensure that a teacher’s PPA time is not eroded by demands and should be kept available for teachers to individually prepare, work, plan and mark.
If a teacher is expected to carry out any duty that is deemed reasonable, then it must also be accounted for in the individual Directed Time Budget.
Teachers cannot be directed to take pupils on residential trips.
An individual Directed Time Budget must adequately reflect the allocated time for all tasks and duties.
Contingency time is for unforeseen events and not for known tasks.
Finally, remember that all tasks and duties that a teacher completes must be included in their individual Directed Time Budget.
Download INTO Bulletin 5 (pdf)