ArchaicArchetype t1_j8jkuwj wrote
Reply to comment by -Horatio_Alger_Jr- in There’s a push to give teachers (and other public employees) the right to strike in Mass. What to know. by bostondotcom
The common reasoning against striking is that workers can just quit.
However, a teacher for example, is given their summer pay as a lump sum at the end of the year instead of being distributed through their working hours. In practice this means that teachers who leave before the school year's end lose 25% of their yearly pay. This would be similar to if you quit your job, 25% of your pay was held as a punishment. No private employer would get away with this.
This traps teachers financially and forces them to work through the school year. When they do quit, new teachers are unwittingly put into the same unreformed system. The new teachers are not tenured and won't be able to voice any disagreement without fear of repercussion furthering the lack of change.
To the public, no loss of service is immediately noticable. But the system is rotting.
Striking is a tool to break through the necrosis caused by stagnant administration and local government.
niknight_ml t1_j8kssor wrote
>However, a teacher for example, is given their summer pay as a lump sum at the end of the year instead of being distributed through their working hours. In practice this means that teachers who leave before the school year's end lose 25% of their yearly pay. This would be similar to if you quit your job, 25% of your pay was held as a punishment. No private employer would get away with this.
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Umm... not even close. The pay you get is for 185 work days. If you leave during the year, you will be paid for the number of days you worked. If the amount you were paid doesn't cover all of the days you worked, the difference will be added to your last check.
The "summer pay" you speak of is the district paying out the balance owed on your contract if you decided (or the district required) your pay to be split into 26 checks instead of 21. The only reason why it's doled out in a balloon payment is because the year-to-year contracts expire on June 30 (before the start of the next fiscal year on July 1), so they can't have any remaining obligations on their books.
pillbinge t1_j8lcs3s wrote
Teachers only get paid in lump sums at the end if that's how they distribute their paychecks. They still get paid for the days they work, fair and square. You don't lose out on that pay if you quit - that's the same as any other job. It's just chunked up a bit differently.
ShawshankExemption t1_j8km852 wrote
While I’m sure other districts pay teachers like this, not every single one does and many give individual teachers options (out of a set) on how they want to be paid.
Many other jobs/employers also have claw back provisions on compensation so teachers wouldn’t be unique in this regard.
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