Proposing a new way to calculate overtime pay for teachers, apply immediately

On May 15, the Ministry of Education and Training announced a draft Circular regulating overtime pay for teachers in public educational institutions to solicit comments.

This draft circular will replace the current Joint Circular No. 07/2013/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV-BTC (Joint Circular No. 07), aiming to overcome difficulties and obstacles in implementing overtime pay regimes for teachers in publiceducational institutions in the past.

The contradiction between Joint Circular No. 07 and some documents of higher legal nature leads to the inability to pay overtime wages to teachers due to the conditions for receiving them, for example, preschool teachers, due to the nature of their work, actual working hours can be up to 9-10 hours; there is no basis for converting between teachers' teaching hours and administrative working hours.

Teachers and students of Phan Van Tri Primary School, District 1, HCMC (Photo: Nam Anh).

The draft has 8 notable new points that teachers need to understand clearly to give comments.

First , adjust the conditions for paying overtime pay. The draft circular removes the provisions on conditions for paying overtime pay for teachers in Clause 6, Article 3 of Joint Circular No. 07, instead only regulating the maximum total number of teaching hours in a school year for which each educational institution is paid overtime pay.

At the same time, add a regulation that the total number of extra teaching hours in a school year of all teachers must not be higher than the maximum total number of extra teaching hours in a school year of the educational institution.

In case there are not enough teachers to teach a subject, and teachers have to teach more than the maximum number of hours paid for a teacher, the head of the educational institution shall report to the competent management agency to pay the teacher extra teaching hours.

This regulation aims to remove difficulties and obstacles for educational institutions, while ensuring that teachers enjoy overtime benefits according to the provisions of the Law on Civil Servants and the Labor Code.

In addition, based on this regulation, school principals must assign tasks to teachers appropriately, ensuring fairness and minimizing the situation in an educational institution where there are teachers who teach overtime and teachers who teach short hours.

Second , adjust the total number of extra teaching hours in a school year for teachers who are paid overtime wages. Joint Circular No. 07 stipulates that the total number of extra teaching hours that are calculated as overtime wages in a school year must not exceed the number of overtime hours as prescribed by law.

The new draft circular details that the total number of hours paid for overtime teaching for preschool teachers must not exceed the number of overtime hours prescribed by labor law; for other teachers, it must not exceed 150 teaching hours.

This regulation ensures that it is consistent with the characteristics of teachers' professional activities. In order to have 1 hour of direct teaching in class, teachers must have time to prepare before class and must have time after class to evaluate and classify students. The regulation also aims to ensure that teachers do not have to work too hard and have time to rest and restore their labor.

Recently, there have been many problems with paying teachers overtime wages (Illustration: Huyen Nguyen).

Third , supplementing regulations on the responsibility for paying overtime wages for teachers teaching in inter-school or on secondment. According to the Draft, overtime wages for teachers sent by competent authorities on secondment shall be paid by the educational institution to which the teacher is seconded.

The overtime pay of teachers sent by competent authorities to teach inter-school shall be paid by the educational institution where the teacher teaches inter-school. In case a teacher is sent to teach inter-school at the same time at 3 or more educational institutions (including the educational institution where the teacher works), the overtime pay of the teacher shall be paid by the educational institutions where the teacher teaches inter-school, and the number of extra teaching hours of the teacher shall be divided equally among these educational institutions.

Fourth , the new draft circular adds a provision that tasks that have been compensated in cash or allowances cannot be converted into teaching hours or have their teaching hours reduced to calculate overtime pay, except in cases where the law provides otherwise, to ensure consistency and synchronization with regulations on the working regime of teachers and lecturers.

Fifth , supplementing regulations on the timing of payment of overtime pay to teachers. The new draft circular stipulates that preschool, general education, continuing education, university preparatory education, specialized schools and vocational education institutions shall pay overtime pay to teachers after the end of the school year.

The Ministry of Education and Training proposed to apply the regulations on overtime pay in this circular in the 2024-2025 school year (Photo: Huyen Nguyen).

Sixth , the new draft Circular adds regulations that universities, colleges, training and fostering institutions of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies, and provincial and centrally-run city political schools shall, based on the provisions of this Circular and the actual conditions of the educational institution, prescribe overtime pay for teachers under their management, not lower than the level prescribed in this Circular to ensure autonomy for educational institutions.

Seventh , supplementing regulations on paying overtime wages for teachers who have not worked for a full school year. The new draft circular stipulates that teachers who retire, take sick leave, or take maternity leave beyond the legal regulations, take unpaid leave, or take other leave not directly involved in teaching are entitled to overtime wages for the actual working time.

This creates a legal corridor for educational institutions to pay overtime wages in the above cases.

Finally , supplement the provisions in the applicable provisions. According to the draft of the new Circular, educational institutions are allowed to apply the regulations on overtime pay in this Circular when paying overtime pay to teachers in the 2024-2025 school year.

This regulation aims to resolve difficulties in paying overtime wages in recent years, and at the same time, to ensure teachers' rights in the 2024-2025 school year.

The draft of the new circular is under construction with the coordination of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/de-xuat-cach-tinh-luong-day-them-gio-moi-cho-giao-vien-ap-dung-ngay-20250515190827835.htm