Due to a recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling (due to be finalised in December) it has been established that holiday pay should also have been accrued on any Additional Work, potentially going back to 1998. Some teachers will be affected by this decision and the Additional Work could include:
(i) supported study, tutor groups, holiday revision groups at rates paid by the Local Authority
(ii) development work paid for on an hourly basis
(iii) additional Music, Drama or PE activities paid at an hourly rate, e.g. a Council wide event.
The effect of the judgment is that there will be an additional 8.3% of the amount paid due to those who have carried out this work. Some authorities have already started applying the 8.3% increase to these payment and some have backdated the payments to a variety of dates.
COSLA are currently trying to negotiate a national settlement with non-teaching unions which proposes this 8.3% uplift on any payment which falls into the category of Additional Work backdated for an agreed period of time. The negotiation is around how long the backdating is applied and what proportion of the sum due will be paid. If an agreement is likely with these other unions, COSLA have indicated that they may wish to negotiate the same settlement with the teacher unions. The advantage of such an agreement is that local authorities would not require any evidence to support the back payment of sums due, they will use their own payroll information, but they will only go back the nationally agreed period of time, possibly a few years. This may suit some members who do not have the necessary evidence for a claim but not others who have retained relevant payslips.
It would be very helpful if we could begin to establish how many of our members may be affected by this judgment, the potential value of each claim per year and confirmation that relevant evidence is available to substantiate any claim. Could I ask that you locate your evidence and complete the information requested on our website, letting us know the amount of pay you have received on which the 8.3% uplift would be due.
Please note that all work done within a teacher’s normal contract already attracts holiday pay as set out in the SNCT Handbook and the rates paid for the Additional Work are not negotiated under the terms of the SNCT Handbook. These are additional voluntary duties.