Problems of teachers' labour rights in regions of Latvia

Anda Grinfelde, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Liga Paula, Ilze Prizevoite
2018 19th International Scientific Conference "Economic Science for Rural Development 2018". Integrated and Sustainable Regional Development Marketing and Sustainable Consumption   unpublished
The authors in the paper present some results of the study on teachers' labour rights, which was carried out in collaboration with the Latvian Trade Union of Education and Science Employees (LIZDA) from August until October 2017. The focus of the paper is on regional disparities regarding teachers' labour rights and the analysis of the teachers' opinions collected in the on-line survey. The aim of the research was to investigate, how teachers assessed their knowledge on the labour rights and
more » ... tection of their rights in educational institutions as well as what are the problems in this field from the perspective of the teaching stuff. Two research questions are addressed in this paper: (1) what problems teachers face in relation to their labour rights in different regions of Latvia, and (2) what are possible solutions at institutional, municipal and the state levels to improve the protection of teachers' labour rights. The mixed method sequential explanatory research design was used in the study: firstly, the focus group discussion was organized with experts from the field of education; secondly, the quantitative survey of the teachers was conducted via web tool visidati.lv (n=2055), and finally the panel discussion was organized to discuss the survey results and to seek proposals how to improve protection of the teachers' labour rights. The results witness about regional disparities and the fact that great part of the respondents does not feel protected when faces violation of their rights. However, many respondents reported on well-established practices in their schools, and support from administration and municipalities. Source: Authors' calculations based LIZDA survey data Fig. 3. Teachers' opinions about the statements (aggregate of choices "strongly agree" and "slightly agree" ( %), n=2055) It should be noted that some proposals seem to be more emotional rather than rational; however, they well reflect teachers' attitudes and needs for particular support in protection their rights.
doi:10.22616/esrd.2018.074 fatcat:6clw7synhferpo5yc2j5cfv7da