Opinion & Analysis

Abuse Of Fixed Term Contracts In Some Schools

PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO
 
PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO

The practice is prevalent   in private schools where our investigations  have revealed  that  some teachers have  been teaching for close to two decades on at least  two or one contract year contracts which  have been habitually renewed for decades on the same or similar terms.BOSETU contends that the fact that the same  teacher is hired on a fixed term contract for  more than 10  years shows that  there  is a vacancy and the habitual  renewal only goes to show that  individual employee  is discharging his job diligently.There is no good reason why some employers are abusing short term contracts

 There is no reason why employers should hire employees on temporary basis  to avoid gratuity because the Employment Act has been amended to pro rate terminal benefits. What is disheartening is that the employees are  hired on  short term contracts are unable to access   financial facilities to  access credit to procure houses and other benefits like vehicles because they are not hired on  long term contracts where they can access loans.

Our investigations have further revealed that  most private schools  prohibit teachers to join teacher trade Unions like Bosetu because the owners of the said schools  fear that  once the teachers join Unions they will raise violation of labour rights  which are prevalent in most  private instituions.