Draft new regulations on overtime pay for teachers

The Ministry of Education and Training announced a draft Circular regulating overtime pay for teachers in public educational institutions.

This Circular will replace Joint Circular No. 07/2013/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV-BTC (Joint Circular No. 07). The purpose is to overcome difficulties and obstacles in implementing the overtime pay regime for teachers in publiceducational institutions in the past, such as:

Contradictory to some documents of higher legal status; unable to pay overtime wages to teachers due to eligibility conditions (for example, for preschool teachers, actual working hours can be up to 9-10 hours); no basis for converting between teachers' teaching hours and administrative working hours.

Adjustment of overtime payment conditions

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, it only stipulates 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: 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 paid hours, the head of the educational institution shall report to the competent management agency to pay teachers overtime wages.

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.

Adjust the total number of extra teaching hours in a school year for teachers who are paid extra teaching hours

Joint Circular No. 07 stipulates that the total number of extra teaching hours for which overtime pay is calculated in a school year must not exceed the number of overtime hours prescribed by law.

However, the new Draft Circular stipulates in detail the total number of hours paid for overtime teaching as follows: For preschool teachers, it does not exceed the number of overtime hours prescribed by labor law; for other teachers, it does not exceed 150 teaching hours.

This regulation ensures that it is consistent with the specific professional activities of teachers. 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.

Supplementing regulations on responsibility for paying overtime wages for teachers teaching in inter-school or on secondment

According to the Draft Circular, the overtime salary of teachers sent on secondment by competent authorities shall be paid by the educational institution to which the teacher is sent.

The overtime salary of teachers sent by competent authorities to teach inter-school is paid by the educational institution where the teacher teaches inter-school.

In case a teacher is assigned to teach at three or more educational institutions simultaneously (including the educational institution where the teacher works), the teacher's overtime salary will be paid by the educational institutions where the teacher teaches at the same school. The teacher's overtime teaching hours will be divided equally among these educational institutions.

Some other notable new points

The draft Circular also adds a provision: 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, unless otherwise provided by law. This is to ensure consistency and synchronization with regulations on the working regime of teachers and lecturers (Circular No. 20/2020/TT-BGDDT; Circular No. 36/2020/TT-BGDDT; Circular No. 05/2025/TT/BGDDT).

Supplementing regulations on the timing of payment of overtime pay to teachers. The 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.

Universities, colleges, training and fostering establishments of Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies, provincial and municipal Political Schools shall, based on the provisions of this Circular and the actual conditions of the educational establishments, prescribe overtime pay for teachers under their management, not lower than the level prescribed in this Circular to ensure the delegation of autonomy to educational establishments.

The draft also adds provisions on paying overtime wages to teachers who have not worked for a full school year. Teachers who retire, take sick leave, take maternity leave beyond the legal limit, take unpaid leave, or take other leave not directly involved in teaching are entitled to overtime wages for the actual time worked.

This creates a legal corridor for educational institutions to pay overtime wages to teachers who retire, take sick leave, take maternity leave beyond the provisions of the law, take unpaid leave, or take other leave cases that do not directly involve teaching.

In addition, the draft adds provisions to the applicable provisions. Accordingly, 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 the rights of teachers in the 2024-2025 school year.

Cam Giang (According to giaoducthoidai)

Source: http://baovinhphuc.com.vn/Multimedia/Images/Id/128665/Du-thao-quy-dinh-moi-ve-che-do-tra-luong-day-them-gio-doi-voi-nha-giao