The director of the boarding school put the teacher on the brink of survival: “The conflict arose from personal hostility”

“I feel such personal hostility that I can’t even eat” – a phrase from “Mimino” could become the motto of this story. The director of a correctional boarding school for blind and visually impaired children, as well as with other forms of disabilities, Olga Fedorova is an excellent business executive, a “strong leader,” at least that’s how her parents characterize her. Indeed, a school for special children, also with accommodation, is “complex machinery.”

Here children not only receive knowledge, but also eat, sleep, and socialize. The students are visually impaired, autistic, developmentally delayed, and have mild forms of cerebral palsy. Therefore, the school has lifts and ramps, small classes, sports for special children, exercise therapy… There are network cultural programs, even one Russian-Finnish project. In general, people strive to get into the “twenty-third” not only from Karelia, but also from St. Petersburg. But in terms of personnel, management professes the principle of “I do what I want.”

The director did not like the English teacher Khrushkova. There is a suspicion that it is due to excessive activity. Either she will take part in a wall newspaper competition without asking, or she will show up at a teacher’s review, and even be “active” in the trade union committee…

“Yes, the conflict arose due to personal hostility,” Nadezhda Khrushkova confirms to MK. “I don’t see any other interpretation.” Director Olga Fedorova refused to explain anything to the newspaper: “I will not comment.”

So, in the new school year, Khrushkova was given 0.8 times the minimum teacher pay – 15 hours. At first they even wanted to set it to 12.5, but they were afraid that with such hours the labor inspectorate would get attached. The school motivated the reduction of the workload by “distributing the curriculum.”

It is puzzling that given the shortage of teachers – and according to the Legislative Assembly of Karelia there are now 257 vacant teaching positions in the republic – this is what they do to a teacher who wants and can work. Moreover, in a correctional school, where not every teacher can cope with the contingent. And Khrushkova has not only a main subject, but also a second specialization for working with children with disabilities – conducting correctional and developmental classes.

0.8 of the minimum wage from the minimum wage for teachers is less than 20 thousand rubles in hand (with the average teacher wage in Petrozavodsk being 26,500 rubles). A mother of two children simply cannot survive on that kind of money. Therefore, not caring about all the statutory and non-statutory relations at school and sidelong glances, Khrushkova went to court.

Nadezhda claims that recently the administration has made efforts to fire her under the article. For example, individual consultations were scheduled, of which she was not notified. “The director provoked me to break the law in order to fire me under the article for failure to fulfill job duties,” she says.

Now all communication between the teacher and the director of the boarding school takes place in writing. No professional motivations are put forward – “the director has the right.” “I think the reason is that I am constantly looking for justice,” says the teacher. Interestingly, according to MK, last year Khrushkova was not only a member of the trade union committee, but also the treasurer of the school.

Online teacher communities are filled with similar stories of directors who “punish with the ruble.” For many things: refusal of class management or conducting “extended hours”, an imposed schedule with inconvenient “windows”, reluctance to take online courses in the summer, pregnancy and maternity leave, “non-participation in the life of the school”… Somewhere incentives and bonuses are being cut off, in in other cases, hours and workload, as in Petrozavodsk. But teachers tolerate almost everything – they say, you can’t prove anything to anyone and you won’t be able to work at school anymore.

One of the few court cases on a similar topic happened last year. Music teacher Olga Babentsova from Penza won the case against the administration of school No. 28, where, according to the contract, she had a salary, but in fact they paid less than half the amount. Teacher Babentsova won the case, but she no longer works at the school.

“Slaves and slaves”—MK recently wrote about this self-characterization of teachers. Studying public pages where teachers anonymously communicate with each other, a clear picture of lack of rights emerges. Particularly depressing in the Year of the Teacher and Mentor, declared in Russia. In addition to underpayments “for bad behavior,” another bad trend is that teachers are not shown a contract when they are hired. Fresh “from the wall”: “Situation: when applying for a job, I was not allowed to sign an agreement (as they say, there is none), there is no decree. But there is an entry in the work book that I am employed. I demand documents, but they don’t give me…”

“As I understand it, the teacher from Petrozavodsk has an indefinite employment contract,” says lawyer Stanislav Popov. — But if they don’t hand over the contract, then this is not only a violation of the employee’s rights, but also an attempt to hide that the contract was concluded for a certain period, most likely… I can give one piece of advice: if you decide to wash dirty linen in public, you must first write a complaint to the Department of Education. It is useful for the court to have such a letter. Of course, the amount of workload must be specified in the employment contract. If the workload was cut without the employee’s desire, this is a reason to contact the Labor Inspectorate or other supervisory bodies of Rostrud and the court. There are nuances – the workload may decrease if the number of children is reduced, the curriculum is revised and the hours are reduced… But in life, as we know, most teachers work at 1.5 or even two rates. So reducing the hours is seen as an attempt to put pressure.

Without the notification and consent of the teacher, the director cannot: reduce or increase the load, give or take away class management, change the teacher’s position, change the first shift to the second (third) and vice versa, teach new subjects, conduct extra-curricular and extracurricular activities, etc. Effective directors make mistakes.