Teachers seek right to disconnect as out-of-hours contact becomes 'constant'

The pandemic world of digital learning has 'set up a structure where pupils and parents contact teachers at any time', the INTO Congress heard. File Picture.

Teachers have called for a right to disconnect with legal weight, as they told the INTO that out-of-hours contact from parents and staff has become “constant” since the pandemic.

INTO members deplored the erosion of switch-off time for principals and teachers, which has lingered even after the return to in-person teaching.

Tuam delegate and principal Siobhán Lynskey, proposing the motion, said  there needed to be a “legal code of practice on the right to disconnect” for teachers and principals.

She highlighted she feels she has “no choice” but to be contactable from 6.30am to 11pm, and that “out-of-hours contact that’s going on cannot continue in the way it has evolved”.

She emphasised the pandemic world of digital learning has blurred the lines of traditional teaching hours and “set up a structure where pupils and parents contact teachers at any time”.

A code of practice on the right to disconnect introduced by Government last year gives employees the right to switch off from work outside of normal working hours, including the right to not respond immediately to emails, telephone calls, or other messages.

When responding to Education Minister Norma Foley’s address to the conference on Tuesday, INTO general secretary John Boyle said “principals and teachers have the right to disconnect too”, using the example of a staffing circular sent to principals on the first day of the Easter holidays as a “new low” that “must never be repeated”.

Education Minister Norma Foley addressing delegates at the Irish National Teachers' Organisation annual congress in Killarney. Picture: Moya Nolan

Passing a motion at Congress on Wednesday, INTO members have called on the central executive committee to work with the Department of Education and other relevant bodies to introduce a legally admissible code of practice on the right to disconnect for teachers and principals.