Fourteen additional teachers risk losing their jobs after protesting against working conditions in Hungary following a day of nationwide strikes after eight educators from a prestigious Budapest school were fired for civil disobedience.
The teachers are from the Fazekas Mihály school in Budapest, considered the top primary and secondary institution in the country. According to the text dated 1 December, teachers have refused to take up work on several occasions without authorisation, EURACTIV’s media partner Telex reported.
“Please be informed that repeated refusal to take up work constitutes, according to the Ministry of the Interior’s principled statement, a deliberate and substantial breach of an essential obligation arising from the employment relationship as a public servant and is grounds for extraordinary dismissal by the employer”, the letter signed by the headmaster reads.
The government has effectively outlawed teachers’ ability to strike by a decree issued on 11 February, which educators argue renders the right to protest meaningless since restrictions mandate hours comparable to normal days.
Since then, hundreds of teachers around the country have continued to participate in “civil disobedience” in violation of the rules.
The government so far has refused to heed the months-long demands by educators of the country’s predominantly public primary and secondary education systems for higher pay and better conditions.
The Interior Minister announced in a Wednesday press statement that a total of eight teachers had been fired effective immediately prompted hundreds of teachers to go on indefinite mass strikes across the country the next day.
Teachers in Hungary strike after colleagues fired for civil disobedience
Hundreds of teachers went on indefinite mass strikes across the country in breach of government regulations on Thursday (1 December) after the Interior Ministry fired eight teachers for participation in civil disobedience actions demanding better working conditions.
The Teachers for Teachers association said in a social media post on Thursday afternoon 634 teachers from 65 schools have joined the action so far, while two high schools in the capital were not able to welcome pupils due to staff shortages caused by walkouts.
Students in several high schools, including Eötvös József Gimnázium and Szilágyi Erzsébet Gimnázium, joined the protests with organised sit-ins in show of support for fired teachers.
The teachers’ advocacy groups announced a protest at 5 pm this Saturday in front of Klebelsberg Központ, the government authority responsible for the management of public education institutions.
Source: euractiv.com
