Baden-Württemberg: Two teachers complain about too much work

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Two teachers each recorded more than 2000 hours of work per year (symbolic image)

Photo: Marijan Murat/dpa

Preparing lessons, correcting tests, talking to parents: A teacher from Baden-Württemberg documented over several years how many hours they work per year - and discovered: they work a lot of overtime. This week, the two sued the Stuttgart administrative court, as the Baden-Württemberg philologists' association, which is supporting the lawsuit, announced.

The aim is to implement working time recording for teachers, explained chairman Ralf Scholl. The association had already announced in September that it wanted to prepare a corresponding lawsuit.

A court spokesman confirmed receipt of the lawsuit. This is directed against the state of Baden-Württemberg. It should determine that the working hours of the two teachers exceed the regular weekly working hours for civil servants.

More than 2,000 working hours per year – instead of a good 1,800

The background to the dispute is a ruling by the Federal Labor Court. It decided in September 2022 that recording working hours was mandatory in Germany. In April last year, the Federal Ministry of Labor presented a draft law according to which working hours should be recorded electronically in the future.

This is not yet the case with teachers, as in many other professional groups. But they also have another problem: a controversial working time model applies to most teachers in Germany. Except in Hamburg, they are generally employed according to the 150-year-old deputation model.

This means: Most federal states regulate part of the working hours to be performed directly through contractually fixed compulsory hours, so-called deputations. These are aimed solely at the teaching hours to be completed; 45 minutes each. All other activities that are to be carried out within the collectively agreed working hours are included, but are not systematically recorded as working hours.

An analysis commissioned by the Telekom Foundation recently came to the conclusion that this model is “unfair, inflexible, inefficient and promotes unseen additional work and burden.” And: Germany is quite alone internationally with the system.

Association head Scholl explained that the two teachers from the Stuttgart district, both at high schools, had precisely recorded their working hours and both worked more than 2,000 hours per year. However, the annual working hours for civil servants are only around 1,800 hours.

The complaining teacher and the complaining teacher are not isolated cases. The vast majority of teachers cannot cope with the total working hours estimated for them, said the chairman of the philologists' association. The long working hours are also one of the reasons why teachers are among the professional groups with the highest burnout rates.

The case from Baden-Württemberg could - depending on what conclusion the judges come to - increase the pressure for a fundamental reform of the teacher working time model. Criticism comes from different directions.

The State Audit Office complains that teachers have too little time for teaching

In Lower Saxony, the State Audit Office (LRH) recently criticized that the shortage of teachers in schools would be significantly smaller if teachers did not have to take on so many extra-curricular tasks. Teachers would, for example, lead working groups such as the English or Games Group all day long or be assigned to supervise the canteen - always taking into account their teaching time, according to the LRH's criticism, as reported by the "News for Teachers" portal.

Teachers should therefore not be used for tasks that have nothing to do with pedagogy. According to the State Audit Office, maintaining the school IT would require the equivalent of 67.5 teachers to work a full number of hours. A further 286 teachers were involved in the administration and processing of school checking accounts – “a classic task for administrative staff”.

According to the State Audit Office, the situation is exacerbating the staff shortage in schools. According to NDR, last year the teaching coverage was only 96.3 percent. “In this tense situation, every opportunity should be used to relieve teachers of tasks that are not related to teaching,” the LRH is quoted as saying.

In an initial reaction, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture said that they were already working on the problems mentioned in many places. “But I definitely warn against suggesting that there is a quick, easy solution or that the problems of a shortage of skilled workers can be solved with measures in schools,” said Education Minister Julia Willie Hamburg (Greens). In Lower Saxony, non-educational staff are already being hired to relieve teachers of administrative tasks.

fok/dpa