The Union of Professional Educators (UPE) has just been officially notified by the PSC that the Post of Head of Department (Inclusion) has been suppressed, meaning that the call has been officially cancelled.
Officials from the PSC informed the Union that the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation will be issuing another call for the Post of Head of Department (Inclusion).
This post may be reissued with altered criteria.
Nonetheless, the call must respect the Sectoral Agreement as stated in our previous article.
The Agreement explicitly limits the 2:1 conversion of supply years to financial computations, not promotion eligibility:
- Part IV, Clause 2.5: “Supply Learning Support Educators […] shall have their years of service […] reckonable for progression between one salary scale to another […] on a ratio of 2:1. For computation of salary purposes.”
- Annex III (Bridging Agreement): “Service as a supply educator […] shall be taken into consideration for salary placement only (on a 2:1 basis) and not for seniority or promotion eligibility.”
- The term ‘Confirmed’ within PART IV, Clause 5.5.1.b refers to the confirmation of Supply LSEs after a six-month probation period, at which point they are considered ‘Confirmed’ for such purposes.
Past calls for HOD positions (Inclusion or otherwise) never excluded supply service years when calculating experience.
Call 7841 eligibility criteria (Clause 4.1iii) states only:
“have not less than thirteen (13) scholastic years performing Learning Support Educator duties.”
It does not specify the exclusion of supply duties.
The Union will await any forthcoming Post of Head of Department (Inclusion) and will react accordingly.
