"We give our souls but our wages are ridiculous"
The substitute kindergarten teachers who are employed through the Ministry of Education in municipal kindergartens and are called to report when the permanent kindergarten teachers are absent, go out to fight for their employment conditions. As a first step, a WhatsApp group was opened, which already contains 60 substitute kindergarteners, with the intention of reaching all the substitute kindergarteners, in order to unite and protest until an improvement in conditions is achieved.
doing the same job
"I am from Haifa and I have been working for years as a substitute kindergarten teacher," said Yulia Katz, who founded the group, "the situation right now is very painful for me. I see my friends who work like me as substitute kindergarten teachers, and they are really excellent kindergarten teachers, and they have to leave their jobs because of the conditions. You have to understand that we are doing the The work is just like other kindergarteners, we just don't have a permanent kindergarten. Compared to the kindergarteners who are permanent employees of the Ministry of Education and have relatively good tenure, conditions and salary, we don't have conditions. Our salary is ridiculous, I earn 31 NIS an hour, and that's when I do the same job For the work of permanent kindergarteners, except that my kindergarten is not permanent."
giving the soul
Katz explains that she likes the diversity and the transitions from garden to garden. "You have to understand that I can find a kindergarten, whose permanent kindergarten teacher will be missing for 3 months, and for 3 months I will work in that kindergarten. We have a WhatsApp group, and there I see who is going to be missing, and that's how I decide which kindergarten teacher to replace. The children and the staff love me very much, I really give my soul for the children and the parents, so it is very easy for me to find kindergartens.
The municipal gardens will not manage without us
I feel that if I work so hard and give my soul, then I deserve to receive a normal salary and normal conditions, like other workers in the economy. I also think that the municipal kindergartens could not exist without the substitute kindergarteners, we have seen this especially in the last two years with the corona virus. Many kindergartners were sick, and we the replacement kindergartners came to the kindergartens in order to replace them and maintain the routine in the kindergarten.
With such a salary the favors leave
It is important to me that we, the substitute kindergarteners, will be good and benevolent kindergarteners for the children, but when you pay such a ridiculous price, the quality kindergarteners cannot stay. They find private kindergartens or after-school work and resign. You have to understand that today there is such a shortage of horticulturalists that it is very easy to find a job. If the Ministry of Education wants to keep the substitute kindergarteners with him, and we really want to stay and do a good job, he should improve the terms of employment."
Another claim that comes up from among the substitute kindergarteners is that those who believe in reporting their working hours are the permanent kindergarteners. The substitute kindergarteners often find themselves having to "chase" the regular kindergarteners to make sure that their hours have been reported, and do not understand why they do not have the option to report their hours themselves.
Where did the seniority go?
The substitute kindergarteners are unionizing, as mentioned, and plan to contact the Ministry of Education as one group, demanding to improve their conditions. One of the substitute kindergarteners wrote in the WhatsApp group that the issue of seniority should also be addressed. "I have been working as a substitute kindergarten teacher for 15 years, and still when I look at my slip, I see that I only have 5 years of seniority. When I asked where 10 years of work went, I was told that this is the way they calculate the years of work. It is very important to change that, if I was at work 15 years, I want to be rewarded for it like every other worker in the economy."
The Ministry of Education stated in response that the salary paid to the permanent and substitute kindergarteners is in accordance with the salary agreements.
I very much hope that there will finally be a change in the working conditions of changing kindergarteners
It also has to do with salary
Also for other things that a full-time kindergarten teacher receives and does not receive a substitute
I am a substitute kindergarten teacher with a master's degree
And I don't accept being told to go private
I want to work in the Ministry of Education and receive all the conditions
Dear gardener, we'll see you manage without a change. When you have to stay at home and something is supposed to receive the children in the morning...
Every worker in Medana including my grandmother's Filipino. He has something that takes care of his rights, only we the replacements who work because of our dedication and certainly not because of the poor salary fall between the chairs. It's time to shake the chairs and lift us up
The title of horticulturist belongs to those who studied for a bachelor's degree and a teaching certificate and were trained for that purpose for 4 years!
Gardeners exchange their respect for their place, but they are not gardeners regardless of their dedicated work.
I suggest to the Ministry of Education and the local authorities to understand that if there is not a significant improvement in the wages of the substitute kindergarteners and assistants in the kindergartens, it will soon happen that the principals who receive more than double the salary will have to go down to the kindergartens and start working on their own because with this ridiculous salary and the cost of living that is only going up without adequate wages for the substitute kindergarteners and assistants The day is far from when they will look for jobs that will pay them a more appropriate and respectable salary....
The kindergarteners are right. Remember Shabbat Shalom.
Dear Michal and Dear Nega, Thank you for the great article you published. I really hope that the article will help us fight for our rights. This is a just and fair fight...may we all be successful!
What keeps you there? Go to a private kindergarten..
I am also affected by the aforementioned problem. The salary is meager and meager, does not provide for a family, and humiliates those who invested in hard studies and with all the degrees. Where is the respect for teaching staff??? A feeling of exploitation. Those who work long hours mean that they have not yet found a permanent job, and You are the sheep of the hersh... must change of course for the better
Hello Rav Michal, my name is Benaybegi Ornit and I have been holding a position in the Ministry of Education for almost the third decade. in kindergartens and schools. The Ministry of Education in Haifa, considering the salary, wrote to me in an e-mail when I asked what the terms of my employment were, and replied that I was deprived of any right since I was only acting as a substitute. And I am acting as an old and respected senior! I have no conditions. And the payroll accountant and personnel coordinator do not see me as even the slightest bit entitled to speak!! 31 NIS per hour only with no conditions, except for a meager pension that every employee has the right to receive. There is no one to turn to, there is no answer, no one acknowledges this fact
Come to us a private garden in Haifa
My assistants do not get 31 per hour but more and receive full rights, occasional bonuses and treats
I never understood what keeps you in the Ministry of Education? A training fund that you save for yourselves...??
31 NIS per hour?! In such a challenging job..don't agree! This is an exploitative and shameful wage. And if there is such an agreement, it must be changed immediately!
Disgraceful response from the Ministry of Education. The salary agreements in Who to whom??? Who represents the suits??? Which body exactly??? I would be happy to contact him as soon as possible!!!