An article about the struggle of the Locally Recruited Teachers to have dignified treatment in the European Schools system and two interviews with Locally Recruited Teachers.
Compiled by: Sanjee Goonetilake, Coordinator School Community Building WG of APEEE
As a new parent to the European School system I first became conscious of the inequality of working conditions of the teachers in our system through my children. It was my son in S1 who told me how much a Locally Recruited Teacher earns because in his L2 class there had been a discussion on wages, wage gap and working conditions about different professions. I was extremely concerned for the pedagogical continuity of these lessons as my son had a dedicated L2 English teacher who was LRT whom we did not wish to lose. But two years later he departed to Luxembourg as there were better working conditions in the Luxembourgish national system.
Then in 2019 as I learned more about the European School system, I read the article of EEB1 student Laszlo Molnarfi from the Hungarian section. He was active in Co Sup- the ES student movement and he wrote an article to the ES student newspaper 13 stars.
The Plea of the Locally Recruited Teachers – A Study on the Failure of Cost-Sharing within the European Schools made awareness of the precarious situation of LRT. His article has been now published in the Research Gate as he was studying at Trinity College Dublin.
It was in many ways inspiring for me to see the future generations of Europeans being empathetic towards the plight of their teachers. It is not only by giving a « cadeau » on 5 October International Teacher Appreciation Day but also by recognising that our teachers have the right to live in a dignified way just like their national counterparts in the country they reside that we can show appreciation.
In March 2022 there was in Brussels a march for the rights of Locally Recruited Teachers. As a parent I participated in this march to support the teachers and was happy to see so many other parents joining us across the 4 Brussels schools.
In the meanwhile, the European Parliament CULT committee report, adopted September 2023 finally there is a reference the LRT.
Resolution 17 addresses the situation of LRT’s Texts adopted – System of European Schools – state of play, challenges and perspectives – Tuesday, 12 September 2023
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2023-0306_EN.html
Resolution 17. Calls on the BoG to urgently resolve ongoing teacher shortages and ensure a stable and fair employment situation for all by retaining staff and reducing turnover, thereby also avoiding a brain drain; calls, in this regard, for additional resources and a strengthened and fair employment package for seconded and locally recruited staff alike, with competitive remuneration, more equal salaries for nursery, primary and secondary teachers, clarity about employment status and stability, a system of continuous professional development (CPD) and further career prospects in and beyond the ESS;
In February 2025, after 3 years of waiting, the Locally Recruited Teachers started pleading for their rights to be heard again.
1. On 4 February all four Brussels schools held a kick off breakfast infront of the school.
2. On 20 February there was a 2 period strike in Period 3 and Period 4 across the four schools.
3. An all morning strike was planned on 19 March. There was a march which started at Schuman to the Office of the Secretary General. Around 500 participants were there.Co Sup (students movement covering the 13 European Schools) supported the march and the students walked in the front with a banner.There were around 400 teachers from the 4 schools and around 150 students. There were also parents. The police said the head count was around 500. The Secretary General Mr Beckmann came out and gave a speech. Then he went inside to talk with the teacher representatives. Mr Beckmann had advised the teachers to contact the Board of Governors. The march was reported by Reuters and Brussels Times. See links at the end of this article.
4. On 1 April an all day strike was planned but was called off after negotiations with the Office of the Secretary General.
It is understood that in the upcoming Board of Governors meeting in Nicosia, Cyprus this issue will be addressed and the teachers will be lobbying the BoG to have their rights heard.
Here is the letter that has been sent by the Belgian trade union representing the locally recruited teachers to the Board of Governors.
Here are some comments from the teachers at the Kick off breakfast on 4 February 2025.
» Here is a picture of the disposable teachers of Woluwe! 80/94 Locally recruited teachers plus a large number of seconded supporters. »
« I don’t even need perfect working conditions—just the assurance that I’ll have the same hours next year to cover my bills. »
« The system of teacher representation, put together by the management of the European Schools, has not succeeded in ending the blatant job inequalities of the last 50 years. We have finally taken the matter into our own hands. »
Concluding on the plea from the Locally Recruited Teachers what I understand as a parent is
💚LRT have no comparable protection or rights in comparison to workers employed under national law.
💚They are subject to “roulette” EVERY year in the “suppression” of posts of the system. Member States can freely decide to second teacher in whatever area or subject they have availability.
💚Once this happen, LRT must go or their hours (and pay) can be significantly reduced, regardless of having fixed- or permanent contract.
💚How would you feel being in a job, where every year you wonder whether you will have enough teaching hours to pay your bills or job at all?
💚Therefore, many LRT proactively search for more stable and secure jobs, rather than being sacked at random. This is one of the reasons there are so many difficulties to find teachers in the European School system.
InterParents, the umbrella organisation of our parent association of 13 European Schools supports the LRT because the ES should attract and retain good teachers for the benefits of our children.
Let’s hope that this series of industrial actions and the awareness they made will become fruitful leading to equality in rights and will have an impact on their wellbeing.
Below I have interviewed two locally recruited teachers to have an understanding of what they face. This might give you a glimpse of the challenges they face.
Please see the answers to Question number 6. What can we do as parents? As the Board of Governor meeting comes up next week it’s important to remember that Locally Recruited Teachers of the European Schools have been long neglected and to achieve their goals it is critical for them to have representational rights without fearing repercussions. Let’s support them so our children continue to have motivated teachers.
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A conversation with a Locally Recruited Teacher – A
1. What motivated you to become a teacher in the ES?
Having visited the international schools and an ES on arriving in Brussels the choice was quick and simple. The ES offered the European community I’d chosen to live in. The mix of students and cultures was so appealing. Not as diverse as my last school in UK but very appealing.
2. What are the reason that the Locally Recruited Teachers are striking?
2 main reasons.
Primarily, we are European workers, in Belgium paying Belgian taxes yet we are denied the support of a trade union in negotiation with our employer. Individually we have the right to association but there is no mechanism for collective social dialogue. As the school system has grown the role of the locally recruited teacher has become more formalised, finally resulting in the statute we currently work under. This was written because the system was under pressure as many LRT were challenging their contracts in national courts. The result is that the statute has taken us out of the Belgian legal system and put us into a system where the employer wrote the rules and there is an internal judicial system which judges disputes based on the rules as written. This has resulted in a system where improvements in workers rights and benefits in a country are not being applied for us. Without the protection of a Union we are not able to be vocal in demanding improvement as our Directors have absolute control over our workload and therefore our pay.
Secondly, as the school system has grown the reliance on the LRT has grown with it. EEB2 relies on a huge number of LRT, especially in the large anglophone and francophone sections where most students have their L2 subjects. Many of these teachers have roles identical to seconded teachers, teaching BAC classes, but they have no stability.
Teaching loads for LRT can fluctuate each year depending on demand of class numbers and supply of seconded teachers thus leaving locally recruited teachers in an uncertain position. To the system a fluctuation of 2 teaching periods each year is negligible, to a locally recruited teacher it is the annual family holiday. In cases where a seconded teacher can be found then a locally recruited teacher automatically has their contract terminated. There is no account taken regarding the quality of the teacher or their contribution to school life. LRT end the school year with an indication of number of periods available to them the following school year. Because of the job market they effectivly have to commit to the school for the following year based on this. When signing a contract in September the number of periods can have changed giving the teacher a « take it or leave it » decision. We do not think this is how a valuable professional resource should be treated, especially in a climate where demand for teachers is far greater than supply.
3. What actions have you taken so far?
In 2022 there was a protest in front of the OSG to demand an improvement in our contract stability. These demands were introduced yet dismissed. Since then the CULT committee released it’s report on the ES system with a number of recommendations which were aligned with our demands. As we saw no movement towards really addressing these recommendations we decided to re-introduce our demands. This began with a pamphleting and letter campaign informing our community of the issues. This was followed by a 2-period strike in school and then a half day strike which repeated the protest at the OSG and a re-introduction of our demands to OSG. In a caring profession like teaching a strike action is a very difficult decision to make but it reflects the frustration and fear of the teachers that they are willing to do so. The care for the students was shown by the efforts made, especially in primary, to ensure that the management were well informed about numbers of teachers missing lessons so they could plan accordingly.
The final planned action before the April Board of Governers was to be a whole day strike on April first. Following positive dialogue with OSG and a move to allow our case to be presented to the BoG the decision was taken to postpone this whole day action. The upper secondary was put online that day but no lessons were missed due to industrial action or meetings.
We wait to see the response of the BoG and OSG before deciding on actions later in this academic year.
4. What would you like to accomplish?
Simply a European school system which reflects the values and ideals of the European Union, the values which we are expected to teach and promote yet the values which are denied to us.
5. Despite the challenges, what keeps you going?
A belief that the system could be fairer and that I and my colleagues should be treated as a valued resource to be developed and protected. A belief that the commitment to the school which is expected from us is reciprocated and the school commits to treat us with equality.
A love for the schools, a love of the system. No school system is perfect but ours is very good, it could be so much better. We are many great colleagues who day-to-day do our upmost to support the students we work with.
6.What can we do as parents?
The parents voice is so strong in our system we would greatly value your support.
The working conditions of the teachers are the learning conditions of the teachers. In the overcrowded environment we all exist in we all do our best. Please, whenever possible, highlight the need for stability in the system. Where quality teachers are in place why push to replace them? In an environment where there are too few teachers why isn’t the school trying to keep hold of the ones it has?
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A conversation with a Locally Recruited Teacher – B
1.What motivated you to become a teacher in the ES?
I was a teacher in state education in my home country for over 20 years. In 2018, I decided to take a sabbatical and accepted a job in a language school in Brussels. There I was required to work as an independent. The hours were long and the pay wasn’t viable. I heard about a job going teaching at one of the European schools, in Brussels, and interviewed for it. I had lived in Brussels many years ago, and knew a number of former European school students from Uccle and Woluwe, so I knew the schools’ excellent reputation. What I enjoyed was the multilingual environment, and the high expectations of students and staff. After being replaced by a detaché at very short notice, one June, and with no possibility of finding a teaching job in a Belgian school at that time of year, I was faced with the stark choice of working as a freelance teacher again, or returning to my home country. It had been very difficult establishing my life in Brussels: during the first year, on a lamentable wage and unable to secure a proper lease, I moved flat 9 times. Now, I was faced, once again, with an uncertain future in Belgium. I was fortunate to get a job at the last minute, at another European school, the following October.
2. What are the reason that the Locally Recruited Teachers are striking?
I woke up to the fact that I was working under unstable conditions when my contract at EURSC was terminated with no notice. I began to understand the implications of this more fully after a few months at the next European school. Colleagues told me that the Schools’ management didn’t recognise trade unions and would not negotiate with them. There was not even a framework for this to be possible, whether at the level of individual school management, General Secretariat, or Board of Governors. Worse still, no one could explain why the schools flout the basic rights accorded to other European workers. I learnt that LRTs are not counted as teachers; we are considered « office workers with education duties ». Under the Belgian tax régime, the extra time LRTs spend planning, marking, writing schemes of work, taking students on trips, etc. do no count, so our pensions and social security payments are inadequate. The LRTs’ struggle to get these issues addressed has dragged on for over a decade, with no significant progress, despite vague promises from the General Secretary. We finally organised a march to their offices in 2022 but nothing came of it. We still had no voice. The Management just repeated the same tired argument that we are represented by the school appointed representatives, something we all know to be false. This year, in January, a group of representatives from LRTs in some the Brussels Schools met at the offices of the union CSC/PULS to discuss our course of action for 2025. They decided that the time for waiting for the General Secretary’s office to take our case forward was over. We wanted our unions recognised so that we could begin to negotiate collectively for better contracts, better working conditions. We planned a series of actions and strikes, to bring Mr Beckman and the other managing bodies of the European Schools to the negotiating table. When they came back to our schools with the proposals for industrial action, they met a groundswell of support from LRTs and even seconded teachers.
3. What actions have you taken so far?
For the first time, Mr Beckman, EU Commissioners, and members of the Board of Governors are now openly engaging with LRTs and our unions. We barely believed this was possible a year ago. Mr Beckman has agreed to take our case to the Board of Governors meeting in Nicosia this month. We’ll wait to see what he comes back with before planning our next move. It’s clear to everyone that it’s the strike action that has brought us to this point. Union recognition is now possible, maybe inevitable. Then can begin the process of building a real future for the European Schools that takes all the stakeholders into account.
4. What would you like to accomplish?
What I want to accomplish with these strikes and other industrial action, is a complete overhaul of the way teachers are employed and consulted by the school. I want our basic rights as European Union citizens to be recognised, for us to be able to collectively bargain with the schools’ management through our unions, and for a real dialogue to begin about how our contracts and working conditions are arranged.
5. Despite the challenges, what keeps you going?
I know this may be the beginning of a long battle, but we have a momentum now that will be difficult to hold back. The genie has escaped its bottle. This is what keeps me going, the solidarity of my LRT and seconded colleagues.
6. What can we do as parents?
Parents can help us with their understanding and patience through the industrial action. When we have established genuine dialogue between management and staff, the school and your children will benefit from having contented, stable teaching and ancillary staff. Your support is vital to us in our struggle.
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Media on the plight of Locally Recruited Teachers actions
1.Brussels Times article on Tuesday 18 March https://www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/1491147/teachers-at-european-schools-in-brussels-to-strike-on-wednesday
2. Belga News agency on Tuesday 18 March https://www.belganewsagency.eu/teachers-at-european-schools-protest-for-union-representation
3.Reuters article on Wednesday 19 March https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-school-teachers-strike-equal-rights-union-protection-2025-03-19/
4. Brussels Times article on Wednesday 19 March This comparison to Uber drivers is powerful. Treated like Uber drivers’: Why European school teachers are striking » « People can lose their hours, or even their entire job, from one year to the next. That is a major problem for people who have bought a house, for example »
5. A Reuters article from 2022 when there was another march from Schuman to OSGES 30 March 2022 https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-schools-teachers-demand-eu-employment-rights-brussels-protest-2022-03-30
6. « The Plea of the Locally Recruited Teachers – A Study on the Failure of Cost-Sharing within the European Schools » by Laszlo Molnarfi ,a student of EEB1 who made awareness of the precarious situation of LRT by writing this article in 2019 in the Co Sup newsletter (Co Sup is the equivalent of InterParents for students). His article has been now published in the Research Gate as he was studying at Trinity College Dublin. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346556756_The_Plea_of_the_Locally_Recruited_Teachers_-_A_Study_on_the_Failure_of_Cost-Sharing_within_the_European_Schools
