Problems of Contract Teachers

KOMPAS/KRISTI UTAMI

A teacher guides students as distance learning is carried out online by SMA 3 state senior high school in Brebes, Central Java, Monday (19/10/2020). Children forced to drop out of school due to economic factors are facilitated to resume their education. This activity is a solution for students who want to go to school while still working to help ease the burden on the family\'s financial condition.

Soon, November 25 to be precise, we will commemorate National Teachers Day. Even though contract teachers are not the only teachers who face problems, the sheer number of issues related to the welfare and work status of contract teachers in this Republic will always be a hot topic on every commemoration of National Teachers Day.

It must be admitted that the role of contract teachers in education in Indonesia is very strategic because many regions are still experiencing a shortage of teachers, yet the government does not have the budget to pay or employ all civil servant teachers. In a number of regions, the teacher-student ratio is still below the standard set by the government.

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The emergency solution is to employ teachers on a cyclical contract system and this has been going on for years. Contract teachers can even be employed for a dozen years.

Labor system

This system is actually a system that has been opposed by workers in the industrial world, because in the cyclical contract system, employers do not need to be burdened by the long-term obligation attached to permanent employees. They can terminate the contract when the term is over. Therefore, cases of contract teachers who are laid off by foundations often occur without clear reasons for their dismissal and they only receive 1-3 months of severance pay, which is insignificant since their salary is very small to begin with.

However, when the work contract is carried out by the local government, it is also difficult to solve it using the Manpower Law.

Ironically, this system is even run by the government, where the world of education uses the labor system. As a result, when there is a dispute between teachers and employers, such as foundations, the settlement does not use Law No. 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers, but uses Law No. 13 of 2003 on Manpower. When the teachers’ contracts are unilaterally terminated or they are dismissed, the foundations often do not provide severance pay according to the provisions in the Manpower Law. However, when the work contract is carried out by the local government, it is also difficult to solve it using the Manpower Law.

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A lawsuit against an employer was filed by 116 teachers from the Al Zaytun Islamic Boarding School Education Foundation, Indramayu, West Java. Accompanied by LBH (Legal Aid Institute) Bandung, the teachers managed to win the lawsuit and appeal to the Supreme Court. However, the court\'s ruling ordering the severance pay of the plaintiffs was difficult to execute, and even the Indramayu Regency Religious Affairs Office was unable to act as a mediator, let alone a supervisor, in this massive layoff case.

When the teachers complained, no solution was given. The government also did not have the courage to inform the foundation that the Regional Religious Affairs Office could revoke the permit of educational foundations that violated the law. Furthermore, the teachers did not witness the process play out in accordance with the court verdict.

Educational foundations often bind teachers with a one-sided, unfair work agreement, and the contract teacher candidates are powerless as a result. They can be fired at any time and are paid far below the regional minimum wage because there is no stipulation on the minimum wage standard for a teacher with an undergraduate degree from a private school.

I once had the experience of advocating for a female contract teacher who asked for her salary while on maternity leave. However, instead of receiving the salary, she got a dismissal letter. The employer was of the opinion that the salary was better spent on paying for a substitute teacher, leaving the new mother without a job and without a means to dispute the case.

Also read: Boosting Indonesian Education

Cases like this happen to many contract teachers. The Manpower Law is not strong enough to protect teachers because school founders are different from entrepreneurs. A foundation is a social organization that hopes to be financially supported, while an entrepreneur is a rich person with so much money that they set up a company.

In order to protect teachers, even though they are contracted every year, the management of the foundation must be improved; for example, they could implement a salary discount savings strategy amounting to 5 percent of the monthly salary. Thus, at the end of the year\'s contract, teachers could have savings at the foundation amounting to 60 percent, which would feel like severance pay upon receiving it.

Teachers can also be protected by making new regulations that improve the rules on operational permits and accreditation. The new regulations deal could deal with an obligation for the foundations to write statements of absolute responsibility (SPTJM) on the ability to provide financial compensation. The government can forcibly close a foundation or not give it an operational permit if it violates the law and does not comply with court decisions. In this scenario, the foundation would have to provide compensation to resume operations.

Contract teachers and election votes

Regional elections (Pilkada) will be held in December 2020. Problems concerning contract teachers often come up when there is a political event or change in leadership, including the presidential election and the election of legislative members. The promise to improve welfare has always surfaced as a magnet to attract the votes of contract teachers, who are larger in numbers than permanent teachers at educational foundations and civil servant teachers at state schools.

However, after a general election ends, their problems largely remain unresolved because local and central governments generally do not have a clear concept of how to tackle these issues.

Teacher employment and placement should be based on this.

In fact, solving the problem of contract teachers is not really a matter of promoting them, or recruiting them as employees. This is a matter of clarifying which schools still need additional teachers, and which schools don’t. Teacher employment and placement should be based on this.

In other words, private or public schools should refer to a systematic and structured plan. There needs to be a plan for accepting certain people based on needs, then the funds for the plan can be budgeted, before the hiring finally takes place. For public schools, for example, the measure of need can refer to civil servant teachers who are expected to retire at the school, which would make teacher recruitment plans more measurable, both in number and in school subject.

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On the issue of school subjects, do not ever let retired teachers who teach, for example, the Indonesian language be replaced by teachers who teach mathematics, as this would result in a lack of Indonesian language teachers but an excessive number of math teachers. If there is an excessive number of civil servant teachers in a school, the ones who will be laid off must be contract teachers.

The recruitment process for contract teachers is often unplanned. As a consequence, there is no standard and orderly mechanism in the recruitment process. There are a number of quality contract teachers, but many lack quality. They are recruited not based on competence, but because they have good relations with the recruiting schools or are an acquaintance of one of the officials at the schools.

Salary below the Regional Minimum Wage

In terms of authority and responsibility, salaries for contract teachers are the responsibility of the regions. However, in reality, over the years the problem of salaries for contract teachers has remained a puzzle that has not yet been solved. To this day, we still find the salaries of contract teachers to be below the regional minimum wage standard, even though one of the requirements to become a teacher is that they must have a minimum education of S-1 or an undergraduate degree. This year there are still many contract teachers whose salaries are far below the regional minimum wage even though they are highly educated.

KOMPAS/ANGGER PUTRANTO

Teachers and Students give a greeting in lieu of a handshake when entering the Santa Maria Catholic Elementary School, Banyuwangi, Monday (9/3/2020). Although there are no specific instructions, this is done as an effort to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Quoting the results of a short survey on the salaries of contract teachers conducted by the Federation of Indonesian Teachers\' Unions (FSGI), the monthly salary received by contract teachers in Indonesia ranges from Rp 600,000 to Rp 4.2 million. The amount is highly dependent on the region and the school. If the Regional Budget (APBD) of a region is large, then the APBD can be allocated to provide decent salaries for contract teachers. For example, contract teachers or KKI at state-owned schools in Jakarta get a salary that is equal to the regional minimum wage, namely Rp 4.2 million per month.

Middle-level private schools in Jakarta are able to pay their contract teachers Rp 3.3 million.

Meanwhile, in other cities/regencies the salary for contract teachers varies widely. In South Tangerang city (Banten), Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara), and Lumajang regency (East Java), for example, the salary for contract teachers is only between Rp 600,000 and Rp 900,000. In Tanimbar Islands regency (Maluku), Jambi city and Bogor regency, the salary for contract teachers is between Rp 1 million and Rp 2 million. The salaries of contract teachers at SMAs (senior high school)/SMKs (vocational school) in Bogor regency, Bogor city, Bandung city and Tasikmalaya regency are recorded at more than Rp 2 million. Middle-level private schools in Jakarta are able to pay their contract teachers Rp 3.3 million.

Paying contract teachers appropriately requires policies across three ministries, namely the Finance Ministry, the Home Ministry, and the Education and Culture Ministry. Furthermore, the relevant ministries will continue to coordinate so that the rights of contract teachers can be upheld. They should be guaranteed state protection that affords them the opportunity to live a decent life with their families should they experience unilateral layoffs.

KOMPAS/PRAYOGI DWI SULISTYO

Retno Listyarti

Retno Listyarti, Chairwoman of the Expert Council of the Federation of Indonesian Teachers Unions