To refuse to stay at work late?

[Onlyyours]

I’m a teacher. Due to strikes a parents evening has been rearranged, but I had plans for that evening.

Am I within my rights to refuse to do it, given the circumstances?

And you'd miss a booked and paid for concert to do that?

I have worked plenty of weekends, and plenty more evenings and early mornings. I have dialled into phone calls from France when I couldn't find a time to rearrange them to. I have answered my phone on holiday. I have even cancelled plans for work.

So I am not some kind of shirker, and frankly I probably should have enforced better boundaries for some of the examples above. But I have never missed a booked and paid for event and I don't think I know anyone else who has either tbh.

I would explain you are unable to attend OP and offer to call parents another time.

Those who are effectively saying “it’s been and gone so tough luck you don’t get to talk to your child’s teacher this year” (and yes I understand that is probably the legal position) - are you ok with the postal unions just burning that day’s mail if there’s a postal strike or do you expect it to be delivered later? If you have an operation cancelled because of a nurse’s strike are you ok with being told your hip replacement or cancer surgery is gone forever or would you expect it to be rearranged?

(OP I think in your circumstances it’s entirely reasonable to not attend.)

I agree completely with this. It's thoroughly reasonable for OP to say that she has a commitment on evening X, but could do evening Y or Z - especially as she wasn't on strike the original evening; but then the strikes will impact fellow staff just as they impact parents and children.

However, anybody saying that a significant once-in-a-year event can't ever go ahead, because the unions called a strike on the original day, is being plain nasty. Strikes are meant to be disruptive to the job in hand, but not to prevent vital parts of it from ever being done. The only sensible solution is that the essential things are rearranged to another day at the expense of 'nice to have' things whose place in the timetable they then take.

How would the teachers feel if the people who ran their payroll went on strike for whatever reason on the day of the payment run - and the results weren't just that they were paid a day or two late (difficult to have to deal with, but within the bounds of the disruptive intentions of a strike), but that they would never be paid at all for that month - because to process the month's payroll at any time would 'not be in the spirit of the strike'?

Unfortunately, I think that, once you start claiming that key parts of your job can just be scrapped and never done at all, all you're doing is weakening your hand as to the outside perception of how important your job actually is in the first place.

What do you think "It is poor that you were not told before it was arranged" means, if not consultation was supposed to be in place

OP isn't being unreasonable!
But lots of people have evening meetings dropped on them with less than 4 weeks notice

"Unfortunately, I think that, once you start claiming that key parts of your job can just be scrapped and never done at all, all you're doing is weakening your hand as to the outside perception of how important your job actually is in the first place."

Quite a lot of the job could be dumped in my opinion. But you're surely not suggesting that the job of of a teacher is not important?

The last school, a High school, in which I worked always had Parents' Evenings on a Thursday so we knew not to make arrangements for Thursdays. However the local football team were playing in a big European match on a Thursday which was to be on TV and the Head decided to reschedule the Parents' Evening because for many parents this was more important than their child's education and they wouldn't turn up. I said I would be available on the scheduled night but no other and I offered no explanation.

She's asking about her situation, not some hypothetical one in the real world

Don't be so bloody daft, ffs! It's reasonable notice. It doesn't happen to suit op, but that doesn't make it unreasonable.

It's not in keeping with the fact that the calendar should be published at the beginning of the academic year.

Quite a lot of the job could be dumped in my opinion. But you're surely not suggesting that the job of of a teacher is not important?

No, I most definitely am not - it's an extremely important job and I greatly admire the people who do it (except for the few bad apples, like you find in every job).

All I'm saying is that, by effectively stating that any key aspect of it can be dumped/left undone without consequence, you're playing right into the hands of those who might seek to capitalise on that and downgrade or even eliminate your role - and maybe give them cause to look for other aspects that they may be able to try to justify away.

I'm pretty sure the strike wasn't scheduled in the calendar at the beginning of the year either.

It's not in keeping with the fact that the calendar should be published at the beginning of the academic year.

But how do the unions justify it if they expect all of their members to be given a fixed calendar for the whole year that the school/LEA isn't allowed to alter, but that they are - by calling strikes on long-agreed standard working days?

X-posted with ReadersD1gest

The OP should not be expected to forego tickets and plans she paid for in good faith.

She's also mentioned that she only found out that the parents ' evening had been rearranged when the letter went out to parents. Therefore they high handedly expected staff to alter any plans they had and make themselves available. In my opinion that's unacceptable.

😆😆😆 you've missed the point of the strike entirely. And no OP you should email ASAP and attach the receipt to show when it was booked. 4 weeks notice is not enough when our hours and dates are set a year in advance. Maybe for some jobs where this can be expected but we don't have the luxury of booking time off whenever we want, there's no option for you to use holiday is there ? And we aren't a role that works shifts. Explain you are happy to email, then offer an after school appointment to all parents if they want one.

Right, so we are agreed that the teacher's job is very important. Therefore it's not going to be eliminated so it's a moot point.

Sorry, been taking DD to dance.

‘The real world’ is deliberately provocative. Teachers are given a calendar in September because there is little to no flexibility within term time. Other roles don’t. Both are equally real.

My husband frequently has to work away at short notice: he booked this particular day off because he can do that. I can’t. It really is as simple as that.

Show the HT your booking made before the strike and see what they suggest. Tell them you're going unless they refund you (if that's what you want).
I've been to many parents' evening and there's always at least one teacher absent.

The problem with that @Rainmakerof69 is a suggestion won’t be made: an order will! That’s why I needed the official position, so thanks for that.

I suspect this headteacher won't be understanding of the fact that the OP has other commitments, and she's concerned that s/he will target her if she hasn't been able to establish a clear legal position

What does a teaching contract say? That you have to work to meet the demands of the role, or is there more nuance such as you have to work to fulfil parents evening as well - and does it say anything about being given plenty of notice for such commitments?

Go back to basics and look at the contract.

Solicitors being notoriously badly paid of course and frequently forced to strike to improve their client's conditions....

I like the slightly bizzare idea that work scheduled for strike days shouldn't be rescheduled.

So all the cancelled operations due to junior doctor/ nurse strikes can now just never happen.

Back on topic. I'm sure parents evenings happen in the absence of staff on occasions (due to sickness or emergencies) and there must be plans for how to manage that. It seems reasonable to apologise to the head and say due to the rearranged dates you can't be available.

So all the cancelled operations due to junior doctor/ nurse strikes can now just never happen.

This is like rescheduling the operation to a random Saturday and then telling the surgeon that she has to turn up on the Saturday (which she is not down to work and has major plans for) to do it, without checking with her first.

That’s a totally different argument though @VerityUnreasonble

The bulk of my work isn’t parents evenings. It is teaching. It just so happens that this particular parents evening was scheduled for the strike day, and was changed due to lack of staff.

A better example would be that train drivers don’t have to make double the journeys because they were striking that day. They just do the ones they were scheduled to do.

@nonoblegiraffe I wasn't suggesting the OP should be just expected to show up whenever with no notice and acknowledged that it was reasonable for her to say actually she couldn't be there under the circumstances, only that suggesting that any work that was intended to be carried out on strike days was just gone and tough luck and that is the point of strikes was maybe not exactly the point.

Even if parents evening is rescheduled a day of teaching has been lost with all the associated inconvenience that strikes should bring.

Some things from strike days don't need rescheduling (like the train journeys and no one is going to be teaching two classes at once to make up for the missed ones) some things do (like the operations or perhaps specific lessons or parents evenings).