Seoul Education Office to nullify collective bargaining agreement
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education notified the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo) and other teachers’ unions that it has fully scrapped collective bargaining agreement it signed with the unions in 2004. Tensions began to flare when the union voiced its opposition to the move, calling it an “an attempt to incapacitate unions.”
The KTU:
This illegal and arbitrary decision indicates very clearly that SMOE does not recognize teachers’ organizations as partners in public education, in direct violation of United Nations agreements to which South Korea is party.
SMOE says: Unions can’t 'intervene' in education policy, so policy 'accords' need to be corrected.
CEART would say: if policy affects
1) teachers' freedom or responsibility, orthen teacher organizations must be negotiated with.
2) perceptions of teachers' professional competencies, or
3) the functioning of the education system as a whole, or
4) the ability of teacher organizations to participate meaningfully in dialogue on any of the above,
SMOE, not the KTU, is 'intervening' where it should not!
(And if there is a committee responsible for monitoring the teacher assessment plan, every member should read these 2008 reports very carefully. They could prove to be very effective weapons.)
