| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
|
 Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 8:55 pm Post subject: Contact Hours |
 |
|
A post on the Saudi forum gave me the idea...along with the fact that I've been overbooked by our new co-ordinator, who's not an educator and has no idea that it's not all about filling in every two-hour block availabl in a week.
How many contact hours do you guys think is normal for a week? University settings are most applicable, but whatever it is you do will be interesting.
I'm actually paid for 18 contact hours per week. Currently teaching 36 contact hours. This can't go on  |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
tommchone
Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 108
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 9:45 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Can't go on? SHOULDN'T BE GOING ON!! Definitely none of my business, but.......? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| In Japan, a typical FT uni teacher has about 4-6 90-minute classes per week. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Chris_Crossley
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:26 am Post subject: Re: Contact Hours |
|
|
| spiral78 wrote: |
| I'm actually paid for 18 contact hours per week. Currently teaching 36 contact hours. This can't go on |
Surely your contract specifies maximum contact hours with overtime being paid beyond that maximum at a reasonable rate?
If it doesn't, you're being exploited left, right and centre, and it's something that you ought to have spotted if you had had the opportunity to read it before signing it.
If it does specify the information given above, double the number of contact hours per week should surely only be acceptable on a temporary basis for, say, peak periods, as I have experienced with intensive winter and summer classes with appropriate overtime being paid.
If your co-ordinator is oblivious of, or else impervious to, what is acceptable for teachers, I strongly suggest you look for another job if he or she is unwilling to negotiate better terms. If his/her mentality is "Your ass is mine and you do as you're told" and/or "You're in my country now, not yours", try and use anything from local labour law as a form of leverage in order to speak out against unreasonable hours. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 6:14 am Post subject: |
|
|
Actually, the job is normally quite a decent one - I've been here on and off for 6 years. This is our peak period, when we run our two biggest faculty courses, and due to the economic crisis, we have had to cut teaching staff in general. Further, because my availability isn't limited by children or other demands, I've ended up as the teacher with the majority of the current workload.
I won't be paid in compensation, but I will be able to take time off later on.
Strangely for the Netherlands, there seems to be no upper ceiling on the hours we can be required to teach in any given 9-week period. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Chris_Crossley
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:18 am Post subject: Aren't there E.U. laws regarding excessive working hours? |
|
|
| spiral78 wrote: |
| Strangely for the Netherlands, there seems to be no upper ceiling on the hours we can be required to teach in any given 9-week period. |
I thought that there were E.U. laws related to overtime work, including the right not to undertake any excessively long contact hours no matter what the circumstances until and unless there is some kind of compensation package offered, whether or not it includes extra pay or more time off later (which you mention) or both, that the employee is willing to accept?
If it were me, since I am married with one child and another about to be born (next Monday, in fact!  ), I'd make sure that I'd be properly compensated before agreeing to anything which I'd normally otherwise consider to be excessive hours - otherwise they can just forget it.
It's an employer problem that should not result in the employees being over-burdened just to save their face or profits. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
naturegirl321
Joined: 04 May 2003
Posts: 9041
Location: home sweet home
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| At my first uni I had 22.5. Second one was 18. I agree.. YOu're teaching too much, but are they all different classes or do you just prepare one and teach it again and again? Look at your contract, see what it says about it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:29 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Dear Spiral
I have a large quantity of crimson flags of deepest red gathering dust over here... Perhaps you'd care to fly one? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Actually, we could use a set. I'm not entirely alone here 
Thanks for the offer! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:22 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Well as Acting Chairman of the Steering Commitee for the Moscow EFL Soviet, I will be happy to donate any and all assistance, and can also dispatch some technical advisors.
Comrades, you have only your chain drills to lose! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Justin Trullinger
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:32 pm Post subject: |
|
|
36 is WAY too many. I teach 15-20 when teaching. Honestly, on teacher training courses more like 35. But with comp time after and a hefty salary bonus!
Best,
Justin |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
gaijinalways
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 2279
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:05 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| In Japan, a typical FT uni teacher has about 4-6 90-minute classes per week. |
It depends on what you mean by 'typical'. Some of the recent full time jobs posted have from 8-15 classes a week (12-22.5 hours a week).
I teach 21 classes a week (31.5 hours a week), and it's a strain   . But I'm not full time, so my vacations are quite a bit longer  . |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Chris_Crossley
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:53 am Post subject: Do the maths! |
|
|
| gaijinalways wrote: |
| I teach 21 classes a week (31.5 hours a week), and it's a strain . But I'm not full time, so my vacations are quite a bit longer . |
My full-time timetable is nominally just 16 contact hours per week (though sometimes I am in the classroom for fewer!) and there are only 23 contact hours in total on the entire timetable.
The pre-master's programme that I have been teaching on for the last 4 1/2 years lasts a maximum of 30 teaching weeks plus three separate examination days, making about 150 working days per year if one factors in the occasional one-day national holiday (usually one per term, such as Tomb-Sweeping Day in April and the Dragonboat Festival in late May).
As for the number of fully-paid vacation days I have throughout the rest of the calendar year, you can do the maths! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ariadne
Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 960
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:17 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I'm at a university in China. My contract is for 16 hours a week but this term I'm teaching 20 and getting overtime for the extra hours. I also get an additional amount for having three different courses to prepare.
. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
