Lesson preparation, correcting tests, talking with parents: working as a teacher is much more than “just” teaching. Two education workers are now even suing the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg.

According to German media, the two teachers worked over 200 hours of overtime in one year. Normally they should work 41 hours a week – but that is far from how much they actually worked.

“No annual leave”

“Now you can calculate if you work 250 hours more, that is about six weeks. That means you no longer have annual leave and that is one of the reasons why teachers have the highest burnout rate at work of all professional groups and why the teaching profession is now so unattractive”, say representatives of the Philological Association of Baden-Württemberg, which supports the lawsuit.

Strictly speaking, there is an EU decision and a ruling by the Federal Labor Court on mandatory recording of working hours – but there is still no adapted valid law.

“Ultimately, the European Court of Justice has already decided that this is about protecting employees from overtime work”, explains a labor law attorney to German media.

Recording working hours

The European Court of Justice and the Federal Labor Court agreed that recording working hours can also be to the detriment of workers.

“Recording working hours should not be harmful to the worker, but should protect them”, explains the attorney.

According to German media, recording working hours is mandatory for all employers, even if there is still no adapted law. Employers are also allowed to use applications into which workers can enter their working hours.

Source: fenix-magazin.de