The information was communicated to schools by the Institute of Financial Management of Education (IGeFE) in an informative note dated Thursday. The Ministry of Education body explains that the calculation of the value of extraordinary teaching hours should be based on the teaching component of 22 or 25 weekly hours.

In recent years, the trade unions representing teachers have denounced that, due to differing interpretations, the extraordinary teaching hours were being paid based on a 35-hour weekly schedule.

From now on, according to the IGeFE’s informative note, these 35 weekly hours will only be considered in the calculation of the value paid for non-teaching extraordinary service.

This correction of the formula has retroactive effects to the 2018/2019 school year, and each school must identify the retroactive payments related to extraordinary hours that it has paid since that year and proceed with the respective payments.

“The retroactive payments must be processed and paid by the schools that administered the extraordinary work during the aforementioned periods, through the requisition of additional salary funds in the current month of December,” adds the note.

“This outcome demonstrates, once again, that persistence in claiming rights is essential. It was the insistence, rigor, and determination in defending rights that allowed for the correction of a practice that was detrimental to thousands of teachers,” writes the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof) in a statement.

The National Education Federation (FNE) also welcomed the decision, considering it fair and rigorous.