Latvia: Picket in front of Saeima: It’s time

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On 16 May, more than two thousand teachers and other education personnel from across Latvia gathered in front of the building of Saeima of the Republic of Latvia in a picket organised by LIZDA.

The picketers were holding bells and alarm clocks, reminding members of the Saeima that it was high time to wake up and start respecting the education sector representatives.

Chanting the slogan "it's time", picketers demanded a respectful attitude towards teachers, a balanced workload, and an immediate solution to the growing teacher shortage problem.

Echoing LIZDA’s demands towards the Latvian authorities to:

  • develop and approve the teacher salary schedule for the next five years 2023-2027,
  • ensure a balanced workload for teachers,
  • take into serious account the proposals and objections of LIZDA regarding the draft regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers “Procedures for Calculating and Distributing the State Budget Targeted Grant for Teacher Remuneration in Municipal General Education Institutions and in General Secondary Education Entities of State Higher Education Institutions” for a fair system for financing teachers' salaries,

ETUCE further draws the Latvian government‘s attention to the fact that work responsibilities for teachers have extremely increased in Latvia. The amount of contact hours in the workload of teachers varies, ranging from 67% to 80%, which is intolerable!

Together with LIZDA we urge the Latvian authorities to, among other things, ensure that workload distribution for teachers represents no more than 60% of working time for contact hours and not less than 40% working time for other responsibilities,  such as administration work, preparation and follow-up of class work,  as well as to guarantee the right of teachers as public employees to be informed in advance about the workload and salary terms be ensured in their contracts on time.

According to LIZDA, the meetings with the leadership of the Saeima and the government took place during the picket, without bringing expected results.

“With no firm promise from the politicians to find immediate compromises to issues of critical importance for teachers, LIZDA Council unanimously decided to launch a strike procedure in September 2022. We emphasize that this will not be a warning strike, the action will last until our demands are heard”, stated LIZDA.