PAID FOR TRAINING

February 12, 2023 Debbie Fery

BACKGROUND about PAID TRAINING:

BOLI has ruled that substitute teachers must be paid for their time when trainings are mandatory in order to be called to work. Individual teachers have brought their cases to BOLI and won. Their district then paid for the training. This is four or seven hours of online training that districts require and is easily documented. But BOLI has not informed all districts that they need to be paying their employees for the mandatory training. In HB 4030, temporary reimbursement was granted to substitute teachers and Instructional Assistants. SB-283-3 makes the training payments permanent for substitute teachers.

Write your Representatives!

SUBSTITUTES ARE ENTITLED TO BE PAID FOR TRAININGS, INCLUDING ANNUAL MANDATORY TRAININGS - SAMPLE LETTER ONLY -

Due to complaints from substitute teachers going to BOLI (Bureau of Labor and Industries) over unpaid training pay, the legislature passed a temporary bill that pays substitute teacher for their mandatory trainings). As you know, substitute teachers are not allowed on Frontline until trainings are complete, and therefore cannot work if they have not been marked as completed Substitutes with BOLI wage claims win their claim because unpaid, required time spent completing the trainings is not voluntary. For more information on this guidance see https://www.oregon.gov/boli/workers/Pages/paid-time.aspx. Your analogy, while might seem to fit under the past practice rules is wage theft and BOLI does not support work conditions that steal wages. Requiring teachers to donate their time for free in order to work fits a classic work theft definition because unpaid training is required for work.

THIS IS A SAMPLE LETTER ONLY — REPEAT DO NOT COPY AND PASTE — THIS IS A SAMPLE LETTER ONLY —REWRITE & MAKE IT YOUR OWN — CONTAINS PERSONAL REFERENCES — DO NOT COPY AND PASTE AS IS — CHECK LINKS BEFORE SENDING — — —

The temporary changes created by the state legislature are covered by HB 4030 and subsequent rule making OAR 581-017-790 (ODE’s Substitute Training Cost Reimbursement Grant Rules). My class time for the mandatory training is covered under these rules. The guidance from the ODE website should help you understand the rules.

OAR 581-017-0790 (“(c) Reimbursement for time taken to attend Required Training. Time will be reimbursed at the Substitute Teacher's or Instructional Assistant's current wage rate.”)

Coos Bay School District applied for and was awarded $87,000 in grant money (https://www.oregon.gov/ode/schools-and-districts/grants/Pages/Substitute-Reimbursement-Grants.aspx), which should cover the costs of these trainings. House Bill 4030, Sections 7;1 and 7;2b explicitly mention licensed personnel in high-need positions, like myself who has retained my Preliminary Teaching License from TSPC, be afforded the opportunity to receive their due payment out of said grant money for the purposes of retainment and recruitment.

These rules will cover the just cause for me to insist that I am eligible for reimbursement for the time I donated to your district for this year. I am not requesting costs for previous years even though last year the district paid for my seat time to complete the trainings in the past 2021-22 school year. Additionally, you state that substitute license fees are not paid for by the District, yet the recent Emergency Substitute Teachers are afforded the opportunity to have their licenses paid for by the district. My desire to work in this district is a bonus for Coos Bay School District because you have an experienced licensed teacher available I could have returned to the Portland Metro Area to substitute during the pandemic, and received substantial bonuses for the same efforts I graciously gave to Coos Bay during those risky and difficult times.