The industrial action covers NASUWT members working in England and the union has published instructions and guidance for those taking part, including a list of numerous activities it wants members to refuse.
It is part of the union's campaign for a national contractual limit on teachers’ working time which it says is vital in order to tackle stress and burn-out within the profession.
From Monday, NASUWT members are being instructed to:
- Refuse to undertake inappropriately directed duties outside school session times.
- Refuse to be directed to undertake extra-curricular activities.
- Refuse to be directed to undertake midday supervision of pupils.
- Refuse to be directed to undertake any work-related tasks or activities during their lunch break, on weekends or bank holidays.
- Refuse to undertake any other duties during PPA time.
- Refuse to cover for absence other than in unforeseeable circumstances.
- Refuse to undertake routine admin or clerical tasks.
- Refuse to cooperate with mock inspections.
- Refuse to cooperate with inappropriate planning, marking and data management practices.
According to the government’s own figures, teachers are working 51.9 hours a week on average (Adams et al, 2023) while the NASUWT says its own research puts the figure at 54 hours a week, with 13 of these hours taking place outside of the standard school day.
A record number of teachers also quit the profession last year – 44,000 or 9.7% of the workforce (DfE, 2023).
Writing in our sister magazine SecEd this week, Dr Patrick Roach said that by taking action short of strike action, he hopes his members would send “a clear message to the government that enough is enough”.
In his article, he writes: “The driving issue is workload and working time – which have created a crisis of burn-out, stress and low morale. That why the NASUWT is giving members across the country the right to work to rule to stop excessive workload and working time.”
Dr Roach said that schools also had to accept their share of the responsibility with too many still running “pointless mocksted inspections, bureaucratic lesson planning and deep marking practices that make little if any contribution to improving pupil progress or outcomes”.
He adds: “All teachers really want to do is what they do best: teach, and that is what our action will allow teachers to do commencing September 18.
“We instruct members to refuse inappropriately directed duties such as meetings, working through breaks and rest days, mock inspections, and extra-curricular activities.
“Teachers will no longer exhaust themselves to compensate for years of underfunding or ministers’ blunt disregard for their profession. By focusing on the tasks that matter, our members will ensure the best standards of education for their pupils, and the best working conditions for themselves.”
The NASUWT has dubbed its campaign Time for a Limit and is pushing for a “contractual, enforceable limit” on working hours through a teachers’ contract which includes “clear working time rights and entitlements within the framework of a maximum 35 hour working week”.
- Adams et al: Working lives of teachers and leaders (wave 1), DfE, April 2023: https://tinyurl.com/5n6remw9
- DfE: Reporting year 2022: School workforce in England, June 2023: https://tinyurl.com/2p83ysu4
- NASUWT: For more details on the Time for a Limit campaign, visit www.nasuwt.org.uk/news/campaigns/time-for-a-limit.html