Temporary teachers in Zurich have to wait months for pay

In the canton of Zurich, the number of temporary teachers has increased enormously in the last two school years. The Zurich primary education authority registered nearly 30,000 so-called vicariates, i.e. temporary assignments by teachers for hourly wages, in the past school year – twice as many as before the corona pandemic.

Consequence: the canton can no longer keep up with the continued payment of wages. As the “Tages-Anzeiger” reports, some temporary teachers have been waiting for the money for months. The newspaper is aware of the case of a student who helped out at a school in June and July – only to be paid in November, after the school intervened. Another teacher is still waiting for May’s salary.

Catching up effect after Corona

At the request of the “Tages-Anzeiger”, the Zurich primary school authority said these were isolated cases. The authorities had already announced in August that the many temporary jobs were overloaded and that not all wages could be paid on time. The reason is a shortage of personnel.

One of the reasons that the number of vicariates has almost exploded is the corona pandemic, said Myriam Ziegler, head of primary education. Many teachers would have taken a break or made up for a trip. In addition, a substitute was needed if a teacher had to be quarantined. The main reason, however, is that schools struggle to find substitute teachers and then have to resort to hourly wage teachers.

Ten teachers replace one

The main reason, however, is that many school leaders cannot find replacement teachers during their absence and have to fill the gaps with part-time staff, who then give individual lessons on an hourly basis. It happens that for a teacher’s absence of two weeks ten or even more ministers have to be hired.

The whole thing is complicated by the fact that the payroll administration is not yet fully digitized. A headmistress speaks of an “incredible paperwork”, which also means a lot of work for the schools. (lha)