Two Unrelated Employment Queries

RealJohn

Hi folks,

Two questions I haven't been able to find clear answers for, which I'd appreciate some help on (preferably with sources to back them up).

1. How much notice do you have to give when quitting a permanent secondary teaching position, held for over ten years? The ASTI website says it's three months, but I haven't found anything from the TUI, and I've been two by two separate people (one of whom is the principal of the school in question) that it's only one month. School is an ETB school and the person looking to resign is a TUI member.
2. If a woman is on maternity leave, she is obviously still entitled to apply for full time positions, even though she'll be on maternity leave at the start of the contract. Is she also allowed to apply for cover positions (for the sake of argument, covering someone else's maternity leave) and then go on maternity leave herself at the start of (or indeed, for the duration of) that maternity cover? It seems like the sort of thing that probably ought not be allowed, but that being said, it also seems like something that would be discriminating against women who've recently given birth, which is illegal (I think).

I'd appreciate any help any of you could provide.

mtoutlemonde

Re query 1, we had this discussion one night after branch meeting. We concluded that management/post holders was three months and the regular Joe Soap teacher is one month. A look at CID/contract will give the answer. However, I remember talking about this with union rep - not resigning but if I signed a contract for part time hours and got a job with more hours in another school - I was told to start new job although breaking my contract - she couldn't recall anyone being sued. This was a good few years ago though.

Re query 2, is the person who was covering another maternity on her own maternity leave or a sub? I don't think if you're on maternity leave, you can do someone elses. If you're subbing I'd say it's ok as once you feel well to work, it's your responsibility. Things have changed re career break but I don't think the same could happen on maternity leave. I hope I understand the query correctly and answer makes sense,

RealJohn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119445224#Comment_119445224

Thanks for that.

I think you didn't quite catch my meaning on the second question though. What I meant was can someone who's just had a baby apply to take a job, covering maternity leave, and if they're given the job, then turn around and say "I'm also going to be on maternity leave, so you're going to have to get someone else to cover me"?

Like I said, it seems like a scenario where it would make sense that a school can just say "we're not hiring you to do a job you won't actually be doing because you're going to be on maternity leave for the entire time", but at the same time, given that it would be discriminating against someone for being on maternity leave, essentially, I was wondering if it's actually the case that the school can't legally refuse to hire them on the grounds that they wouldn't actually be able to do the job they're being hired to do.

In case I'm not being clear, let's say we have two teachers, A and B, both pregnant, both due to give birth within days of each other.

Teacher A has a permanent job and is entitled to have her maternity leave covered.

Teacher B has no contract and is looking for a job.

Teacher B sees Teacher A's maternity cover advertised. Can Teacher B apply for that job, and then, if they interview successfully and are offered the job, can they then say "grand, I'll take the job, but I'm going to be on maternity leave too, so you'd better find someone else to cover me"?

Or is it the case that you're not actually entitled to maternity leave if you haven't been in the school a minimum amount of time, or that subs covering maternity leave are not entitled to maternity leave as a sub?

Sorry if the whole thing is a bit confusing.

mtoutlemonde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119445400#Comment_119445400

It's getting clearer :)

A maternity leave is essentially a substitute position so the sub wouldn't be entitled to maternity leave other than state benefits I assume. It would be a whole different story if it were a RPT/fixed term. In your situation, Teacher B would be going through an interview process for nothing really. Now a school can't discriminate or gender so pregnancy can't be taken as the reason for not hiring someone.

Random sample

As above, there would be no point in getting the subbing contract, as you wouldn’t be paid for your own maternity leave if you got the job.

As for the first enquiry, it depends on the contract, 3 months was the norm for permanent contracts, 1 for cids.

mtoutlemonde

According to https://www.asti.ie/your-employment/terms-and-conditions/resignation/#:~:text=Temporary%2FPart%20Time%20Teachers,applies%20to%20part%2Dtime%20teachers.

Resignation is 3 months voluntary school and one month for all other schools.

RealJohn

That's great, folks. Thank you.