With the exception of the pension system that continues to fall under the responsibility of the Federal State, Parliament and Government of the German-speaking Community are responsible for all teaching employment conditions.

Planning Policy

So far, no systematic demand planning has been published in the German-speaking Community which - per school level and per teaching subject - for example records the age structure of the teaching staff in divisions of five or ten years or analyses in more detail the migration of young teachers to other professions or to neighbouring countries.

Entry to the Profession

So far, no systematic demand planning has been published in the German-speaking Community which - per school level and per teaching subject - for example records the age structure of the teaching staff in divisions of five or ten years or analyses in more detail the migration of young teachers to other professions or to neighbouring countries.

Induction

In order to support young people starting out in the teaching profession, measures are taken at various levels in the German-speaking Community. However, these offers either only concern a specific target group or are organised within the school.

For example, the career entry phase at the Autonomous University of Applied Sciences is primarily aimed at beginners in the primary school system. Some schools provide new staff members with experienced colleagues and offer tours or information brochures. At some schools it is possible to sit in on classes or new colleagues are integrated into existing specialist teams.

Whether or not a newcomer or career changer is supported and in what form, therefore, currently still depends largely on the internal organisation of the school and the willingness of the colleagues. There is no structural framework that guarantees a newcomer to the teaching profession in the German-speaking Community support, a contact person or advice, regardless of which school or field he or she works at.

However, there are currently considerations to introduce a comprehensive career entry phase for all newcomers in the future.

Professional Status

Workplace Safety

In Belgium, the teachers of community schools (GUW) have official status. Although this does not in principle apply to teachers employed in the subsidised schools, they too enjoy a comparable status as employees, which gives them equivalent guarantees. In the German-speaking Community, this applies both to the teachers employed in the subsidised public-law schools of the municipalities and to the teachers employed on a contractual basis in the subsidised private-law independent Catholic schools.

The job security of a definitively appointed or contractually employed teacher is relatively high, even if, for example, due to a sharp decline in the number of pupils, lessons or even entire teaching posts have to be cut. The proportion of teachers without a definite appointment (the so-called temporary teachers) is relatively large in almost all schools and the job or lesson cuts always affect them first.

Staff Regulations

The Royal Decree of 22 March 1969 lays down the Staff Regulations for the staff members of the current Community Schools (CCS).

On this basis, the PDG passed a decree - albeit not until 14 December 1998 - laying down the staff regulations for the staff of the free subsidised education system (FSUW) and the free subsidised PMS centres. Likewise, on 29 March 2004, a staff statute for the staff members of the schools of the official subsidised education system (OSUW) was adopted. This latter network includes most of the primary schools in the German-speaking Community and an Institute for Continuing Education, but no secondary school, no special school, no university.

The Staff Regulations lay down the conditions and rules for access to the recruitment, selection and promotion offices, as well as the conditions that must be met in order to be temporarily or definitively appointed or recruited. They contain provisions on basic obligations, major incompatibilities, permanent withdrawal from office, temporary suspension and a disciplinary code. They also provide for the establishment of a Board of Appeal and - in the OSUW and FSUW - a joint commission and define its tasks.

The duties set out in the three staff regulations are very similar:

• - In all circumstances where they exercise their office, the staff members permanently represent the interests of the educational system in which they are active and - in the GUW - also the interests of the German-speaking Community.
• - In the performance of their duties they personally and conscientiously fulfil the obligations imposed on them by law and decree and - in the OSUW and FSUW - by the supplementary provisions of the competent joint commissions.
• - Within the framework of the obligations arising, in the GUW and the OSUW, from the act of designation or appointment and, in the FSUW, from the work regulations and the contract of employment under private law, they shall provide the services necessary for the proper functioning of the schools in which they operate.
• - They may not suspend the performance of their duties without prior authorisation.
• - They are obliged to behave in a completely correct manner, both in their official relations and in their dealings with the public, the school staff, the pupils and the parents of the pupils.
• - They shall assist one another as far as the interests of the educational establishment so require, and shall avoid anything which might prejudice the honour and dignity of their office.
• - They shall not use or expose students to political, commercial and - in the GUW and OSUW - religious, philosophical and ideological propaganda.
• - In the GUW, teachers, in the exercise of their duties, are obliged by Article 24, §1 of the Constitution to observe the principles of neutrality of the state education system.
• - Teachers shall not disclose any matters of a confidential nature which have come to their knowledge as a result of their office.Es ist ihnen untersagt, direkt oder über eine Mittelsperson Zuwendungen, Geschenke, Belohnungen oder irgendwelche Vorteile aufgrund ihres Amtes zu erbitten, zu fordern oder anzunehmen, selbst wenn dies außerhalb ihres Amtes geschieht.

Failure to comply with these obligations is punishable by disciplinary sanctions.

Replacement Measures

I

In the event of the absence of a teacher, the recruitment of a replacement teacher and his or her Community financing from the first day of absence shall be permitted only if the absence is due either to a sick leave of at least six working days or to a reasoned and approved request for leave, excluding leave for personal or family reasons affecting only one or a few days. When selecting substitute teachers, the statutory priority rules must be taken into account. In so far as it concerns a replacement of at least 15 weeks." Delete the last sentence, please.

In one-class kindergartens and primary schools, a teacher may be replaced by a substitute teacher even if he or she is absent for only one day.

If the period of absence due to illness is less than 6 days, no substitute teacher may be newly appointed or employed. In this case, the headmaster must, in accordance with his or her mandate, find internal solutions to ensure that lessons are given as far as possible. These internal solutions include a redistribution of the individual subjects among the existing teaching staff (rather seldom because of the excessive effort involved)

- the use of several teacher colleagues, who each give some (unpaid) additional lessons, if possible in the subjects that the absent colleague has to give;

- Class mergers, if the classrooms allow this; e.g. two colleagues of the absent teacher take over a part of the pupils each;

- supervised learning.

If they agree, teachers can be appointed or hired to a limited extent (i.e. for a maximum of 1/3 of a complete timetable) and at a very unfavourable hourly rate to take on extra lessons in excess of the number of lessons for which they were previously appointed or hired.

A decree of 25 June 2001 contains a number of special measures which, in the event of a proven shortage of teachers, make it possible that the number of overtime hours is no longer limited to one third of the full timetable as is normally the case, that these overtime hours are paid at the normal hourly rate according to the teacher's salary barma (and not - as is normally the case - at a rate which is usually much lower) and that teachers on leave and young pensioners between 60 and 65 years of age can also be recruited on a voluntary basis as substitute teachers.

Supporting Measures

In addition to the career entry phase offered by the Autonomous University of Applied Sciences, which is, however, primarily aimed at beginners in the primary school system, since 2005 the introduction of part-time work for older employees has also made it possible to be accompanied by an experienced teacher (mentoring). The regulation regarding part-time work for older pupils provides that a teacher aged 55 years and older, with a salary reduced to 80%, still teaches half a timetable (50%) and is available for administrative and/or pedagogical tasks for another 25% of the time at his or her school (e.g. for tutoring and/or for accompanying young teachers = mentoring).

Not only the younger teachers, but also other teachers may encounter difficulties of various kinds in the exercise of their profession, which can only be remedied by the use of special support measures.

In primary and secondary schools, there is the possibility to get advice and help from certain persons.

• - When personal problems arise due to professional stress - also in dealing with students - which require psychological support, teachers sometimes turn to their headmaster. If the headmaster cannot help or if more specific psychological care seems necessary, he recommends consulting the psychologist at the Centre for the Healthy Development of Children and Adolescents. He will try to find ways to improve the situation with the help of the teacher (and possibly the headmaster): Advice, participation in class councils to better understand and analyse the problems, interventions with the pupils (individually or in groups or classes), contact with the parents of the pupils... These interventions of the Centre for the Healthy Development of Children and Adolescents are part of their normal work in schools. They are free of charge, just like the teacher counselling.
• - The centre of excellence, founded a few years ago at the Centre for Special Needs Education, offers all teachers in primary and secondary schools advice and assistance in questions of special needs education, intercultural education and language development. This may involve individual counselling interviews, class observation, support in the development of individual rules of conduct or materials and in the differentiation between therapeutic and educational support needs. The competence centre is also responsible for the organisation and implementation of measures to expand the support pedagogical competences of staff members in the teaching sector.
• - When primary and secondary school teachers have conflicts involving pupils, they usually turn to the supervisor-educators, the headmaster or - in larger schools - the subdirector of the school. A mediator does not yet exist in the German-speaking Community. They try to solve the problem within the school with the help of colleagues in the class councils, where the problems are analysed and discussed. The PMS team can also be consulted and contact made with the parents of the problem pupils.
• - If they have problems of an educational nature while teaching, it often happens that the teachers try to suppress or hide them, but this will only make the problems worse and make them suffer even more. In such cases, conflict situations are pre-programmed by dissatisfied students, parents, school directors. In order to prevent such developments, it is better to seek advice from colleagues of their confidence and also from the headmaster as soon as the first symptoms or problems appear. However, special 'liaison teachers' are not provided for in the rules. Assistance can also be provided by the time-out facility of the Centre for Special Needs Education, which is aimed at all regular and remedial secondary schools in the German-speaking Community. Pupils between 12 and 18 years of age can be given a temporary break from attending classes and receive both academic and socio-pedagogical support at the Time Out facility. The priority goal is to return the young person to school. The schools, the legal guardians and, if necessary, other specialist services are involved.
• If the problem is of a particularly pedagogical nature, the best solution is for the headmaster to request the visit of a member of the School Inspectorate, which the Ministry has set up since 1995. A pedagogical inspector will advise the teacher as best as possible - and of course free of charge. However, if the problem - especially in secondary school - is more a problem of the content of the lessons, the subject matter, the curriculum, the teaching methodology and didactics specific to the subject, it is more appropriate to consult a subject inspector. Because of the small number of secondary schools (9) in the German-speaking Community, the Ministry has not set up a specialised inspection service of its own, but has concluded a cooperation agreement with the competent Ministry of the French Community, which provides that its specialised inspectors, at the request of the schools and with the agreement of the Ministry, carry out specialised inspections and provide advice to teachers. In the GUW, the school inspectorate also carries out tasks of pedagogical mediation in conflict situations.

Salaries

The German-speaking Community directly pays the salaries of the staff members of all the education networks on a monthly basis. The salaries are calculated according to the same criteria in all networks.

Salaries depend on various factors: the post held, the statutory situation (temporary/definitive), the position, qualifications and the size of the post occupied, family situation and, above all, seniority. Until the fundamental cash reform in 2009, the salary scales for staff members holding a recruitment office were based on a combination of office, title and type of education. Since 2009, however, only the diploma is decisive for determining the salary scale. A distinction is made between 4 diploma levels:  

• • Licence or Master
  • Graduate or Bachelor
  • Abitur
  • Secondary school leaving certificate or no diploma

The salary tables are divided into 11 to 15 levels, each of which is linked to an annual or biennial salary increase until the maximum salary is reached after 22 to 29 years of service. Staff members who reach the age of 59, are in active service and receive the maximum salary in their pay scale are entitled to an additional salary increase equal to the value of the last salary increase in their pay scale.

Salaries for new entrants to education have been progressively increased by a total of 10% between 2009 and 2014

In determining seniority, account shall be taken of

• • all educational services, regardless of the network, in Belgium and in other EU countries;
  • all services in the public sector;
  • a maximum of 3 or 6 years of professional experience outside education (only for certain posts in technical and vocational education);
  • Since 1 September 2003, services provided in Belgium by a non-profit association (NPI) whose objective is to carry out tasks or provide services directly related or directly useful to education in any form are also taken into account. Recognition of these services is not automatic, but must be requested by the staff member and approved by the Minister of Education.

The level of salary depends on the classification in the salary scale (Barema) and on the level of the smoothed health index, to the development of which the salaries in the public sector are linked; as soon as a certain threshold of the smoothed health index (= the average of four monthly health index levels in a row) is reached or exceeded, the salaries are increased by 2% in the second following month.

Teachers receive a net salary after various deductions have been made from gross salary in the Ministry for the pension fund (7.5%), health and long-term care insurance (3.55%), tax deduction.

For temporarily appointed teachers, 13.07% is deducted in favour of the National Social Security Fund (instead of the total of 11.05% for definitively appointed staff members).

In addition to this salary, all staff members receive holiday pay in May or June and a year-end bonus in December.

Since 2007, the holiday bonus has been equal to a certain percentage of the salary to which the staff member is entitled for the month of March of the current year for full-time employment. This percentage (92%, 85% and 80%) "varies according to the level to which the staff member is placed on the basis of his diploma. The holiday allowance is calculated in proportion to the duration and extent of the services rendered during the previous calendar year. A further 13.07% is added to the gross holiday allowance before payment.

The end-of-year bonus consists of a fixed amount plus a variable supplement equal to 2.5% of the indexed gross annual salary used to calculate the previous October salary. However, social charges are deducted from this amount before payment: 3.85% for definitively appointed teachers and 13.07% for temporarily employed staff members. In addition, an advance professional tax deduction is also made here.

Working Time and Holidays

Each lesson lasts 50 minutes. The lessons are divided into 9 half days each week. The school year is 37 weeks: it must include between 180 and 184 days of lessons.

The Basic Decree of 31 August 1998 deals in its Chapter IX with the mission of the staff in all regular primary and secondary schools organised or subsidised by the German-speaking Community:

Article 94 - The missions of the staff members include the services that are necessarily part of the exercise of the respective office and other tasks that serve to implement the school project.

Article 95 - The school authority or headmaster, after consultation with the staff members concerned, shall define in writing and in a balanced manner the missions for the fulfilment of which they must use all their professional competence.

Articles 96 to 98.3 then list the main tasks of the headmaster, the teaching and educational staff, the paramedical and socio-psychological staff and the administrative staff.

Working Hours in Primary Education

The weekly working time of staff in primary schools is dealt with in the Decree of 26 April 1999 on standard primary education:

Article 72 - The headmaster shall exercise his office during the opening hours of the schools and during the time required to implement the school project.

Article 73 - The working hours of the correspondent bookkeeper and the head secretary are 36th hours at 60 minutes. The chief secretary effectively works at least nine hours at 60 minutes for a school authority.

Article 74 - The services of the teaching staff include the missions set out in article 97 of the decree of 31 August 1998 on the missions of the school authorities and school staff and on the general pedagogical and organisational provisions for mainstream schools.

The services provided by the teaching staff in the school shall not exceed 26 hours at 60 minutes and shall include

• the tuition to be provided within the relevant hourly time frame;
• the supervision service to be provided to the staff member by the school authority within the time frame comprising one quarter of an hour in the morning and one quarter of an hour in the afternoon prior to the start of lessons and one quarter of an hour after the end of lessons;
• the supervision that the staff member performs voluntarily outside the time frame mentioned above under 2. and after consultation with the staff representatives;
• the supervision provided voluntarily by the staff member outside the time frame mentioned in 2. above, during the lunch break, if no financial support granted under Article 30 is paid for this supervision;
• other services provided by the staff member in accordance with Article 97 of the basic decree of 31 August 1998.Artikel 75 - Die Kindergärtnerin erteilt 28 Unterrichtsstunden. Die wöchentliche Arbeitszeit des Kindergartenassistenten beläuft sich bei einer Vollzeitbeschäftigung auf 36 Stunden zu 60 Minuten. Der Kindergartenassistent leistet effektiv mindestens neun Stunden zu 60 Minuten bei einem Schulträger

Article 76 -Primary school teachers have 24 to 26 teaching hours. The specialised teacher for sex education and for religion or non-denomination ethics have 24 to 28 teaching hours.

The primary school teacher gives 24 to 26 lessons. The subject teacher for physical education, the subject teacher of the first foreign language and the teacher of religion or non-denominational moral teachings give 24 to 26 lessons.

The services provided by the remedial teacher in the regular primary school system amount to an average of 38 hours at 60 minutes per week for a full-time job. The average is determined within a reference period of four months. The remedial teacher in the regular primary school system effectively works at least 19 hours and 60 minutes per week for a school authority.

The weekly working time may in no case exceed 50 hours


Working Hours in Secondary Education

• Lower secondary education

1. Teachers for general education courses, technical courses and specialised courses: 22 - 24 hours
2. Teachers for language learning classes: 22 - 24 hours
3. Teacher for professional practice or for technical courses and professional practice (1st level): 22 - 24 hours
4. Teacher for technical courses and professional practice (2nd level): 24 - 28 hours
5. Professional practice teacher (2nd level): 30 - 33 hours

• Upper secondary education

1. Teachers for general education courses, technical courses and specialised courses: 20 - 22 hours
2. Teachers of Old Languages/Teachers for Language Learning Classes: 20 - 22 hours
3. Teacher for technical courses and professional practice: 24 - 28 hours
4. Professional practice teacher: 30 - 33 hours
5. Teacher-Mediothekar: 38 hours

Working Hours in Higher Education

The services provided in the Autonomous University, the only university in the German-speaking Community, by the Director, the department heads, the administrative and educational staff and the university teachers (also called "lecturers") amount to an average of 38 hours at 60 minutes per week for a full-time job. The average is calculated within a reference period of 4 months.

These 38 hours per week comprise, in the case of a university lecturer with a teaching assignment, 16 hours of lessons of 60 minutes, as well as other tasks specified in the decree of 27 June 2005, which must be performed on site, unless the school authority decides otherwise.

Special Types of Leave

Leave periods are treated as equivalent to active service. During the leave periods, a full salary or a partial salary can be paid. These periods are taken into account when calculating seniority. Certain forms of leave are not available to temporary staff.

There are many forms of leave and forms of provision. For example, a personnel member can take the following forms:

• occasional leave (death of a family member, relocation, marriage, birth of a child, ...); ;
• exceptional leave for cases of force majeure (illness or accident of a person living in the same home): maximum 5 to 8 days per calendar year;
• maternity leave (birth or preparation for birth): maximum 15 weeks (17 to 19 weeks for multiple births);
• parental leave (maximum duration: 4 months): without pay, but taken into account for the purpose of calculating seniority;

• Leave for adoption or guardianship: maximum 4 weeks (6 weeks if the child is younger than 3 years);
• leave for reduced services for personal reasons: duration: one year at a time; this type of leave may be taken a maximum of 10 times during the career
• leave for reduced services for social or family reasons. Duration: one year at a time; maximum five years (cumulated with the following leave);
• leave for reduced services from the age of 50 or if at least two children under 14 years of age are charged; maximum five years (cumulated with the above-mentioned leave); without salary;
• leave on account of reduced services due to illness and infirmity; a maximum of three 30-day periods per 10 years of service;
• leave for compelling family reasons (e.g. seriously ill person at home); maximum one month per school year; without salary;
• leave on account of an assignment in the interest of education;
• Leave due to illness: full pay as long as sick days are available. One staff member is granted 30 sick days per school year. A maximum of 360 sick days can be accumulated. If the sick days are used up, the temporary staff member is liable to pay the health insurance fund. In the case of a definitive staff member, leave due to illness or infirmity is converted to a leave for illness or infirmity (see penultimate form of leave in this list)".
• Assignment for personal reasons; maximum 5 years; without salary;
• Staff members definitively appointed for personal reasons before retirement; full-time staff members appointed for personal reasons before retirement (= full-time early retirement): for staff members definitively appointed, who are at least 58 years old, have 15 years of service in the education sector and will retire in a maximum of 28 months from the start of their appointment; with a waiting salary corresponding to fifty-fifth of the number of years of service of the staff member;

• Half-time redeployment for personal reasons before retirement (= halftime early retirement): for definitively appointed staff members who are at least 58 years of age, have 15 years of service in the education sector and will retire in a maximum of 28 months from the start of redeployment; with a waiting salary equal to 50% of the last salary for the hours retired (i.e. a total of 75% salary if the staff member is appointed for a full schedule);
• Partial retirement: for definitively appointed staff members who are at least 55 years old and have 10 years of service in the education sector; during this period: 50% teaching and 25% pedagogical-administrative services in the school (e.g. mentoring, support courses, ICT services, use in the school media library, ...); with a waiting salary corresponding to 20% of the last salary for the hours given up (i.e. a total of 80% salary if the staff member is appointed for a full timetable);".

Disposition due to illness and infirmity; if leave due to illness and infirmity has been used up to the maximum and the service cannot be commenced; salary: 70%;

Long term absence for family reasons (upbringing of children and adoption or guardianship); maximum: 4 years per child under 5 years of age; if the child is disabled, the duration of this absence may be 6 years, until the child reaches the age of 8 years; without salary

Promotion, Advancement

The teaching career does not offer many opportunities for promotion: there are selection offices and promotion offices.

Selection offices

The following selection offices exist in the education sector:

Selection offices 

• Subdirector or provisional;
• head of department of a special school;
• head of department of a university;
• middle manager of a regular secondary school;
• workshop manager in a technical and vocational secondary school;
• coordinator of a centre for part-time teaching;
• coordinator of a time-out facility;
• coordinator or branch manager in a centre for the healthy development of children and young people; 
• executive secretary;
• educator-administrator;
• executive secretary;
• Educational and learning facilitator of a primary and secondary school;
• Educational consultant in a primary and secondary school;
• Pedagogical coordinator for inclusive schools;
• Paramedical coordinator for inclusive schools."

Transfers offices -Beförderungsämter 

•  
• secondary school teacher or director of an autonomous primary school;
• headmaster or prefect of a regular secondary school;
• director of a remedial secondary school;
• director of a university;
• director of the Centre for the Healthy Development of Children and Adolescents;
• director of an art academy;
• Head of school inspection, school development counselling and school counselling for inclusion and integration;
• school development consultant;
• school inspector;
• Inclusion and Integration Advisor;
• religion inspector;
• boarding school administrator."

Mobility and Transfers

Vacancies that are definitely to be filled are announced in a call for candidates for a transfer and for a definitive appointment in the course of a school year. This notice contains information on the posts to be filled, the conditions to be fulfilled by the applicants and the form and deadline for submitting applications.

- In the GUW, since September 2007, staff members definitively appointed to a post in a Recruitment Office still have the possibility, but no longer as before, of being transferred to another vacant post in the same office in which they are appointed, with priority over candidates who have submitted a request for definitive appointment, which was previously called temporary staff members. A transfer now depends on the decision of the school authority, which can now take greater account than before of the interests of the whole school community and pedagogical continuity, as well as the merits acquired when several candidates apply for a transfer to a particular post

- In the OSUW, which includes most primary schools in the German-speaking Community, staff members are, unlike in the GUW, not definitively appointed in a particular school but in a particular municipality, and therefore, although transfers from one municipality school to another school in the same municipality are always possible, they are not explicitly provided for in the new staff regulations for the OSUW (Decree of 29 April 2003 on the Staff Regulations of the OSUW). March 2004); this is a question of the allocation of staff to the various posts in the municipality, i.e. an internal matter for the responsible body (i.e. the municipal council, whose decisions must be confirmed by the municipal council within a period of three months). However, the decree on the staff regulations for the OSUW probably provides for the transfer within the school network from one school authority (i.e. from one municipality) to another school authority (to another municipality). Such a transfer can be requested in any office.

- Since September 2007, the FSUW has in principle the same general transfer conditions as the other two school networks (GUW and OSUW). However, there is one difference: objective selection criteria, which must be taken into account in the transfer procedure in the GUW and the OSUW (both school networks in the public sector) and which are also laid down in the respective decree, are not provided for in the Staff Regulations of the FSUW, because the school authorities in the FSUW are groups of persons or bodies under private law.

- All three Staff Regulations (GUW, FSUW, OSUW) also provide for the possibility of being transferred across networks (i.e. from a school in one school network to a school in another school network)

Dismissal

The various staff regulations specify the circumstances which may lead to the dismissal of a staff member, termination of the designation or appointment (in the GUW and OSUW) or termination of the contract of employment (in the FSUW).

The termination of a temporary designation (in GUW and OSUW) or a temporary contractual appointment (in FSUW) is ex officio:

- at the end of a substitution, when the substituted person resumes his or her post;

- at the time when all or part of the post is transferred to another staff member:

○ by application of the provisions on availability for service due to lack of posts and reassignment,

○ following a transfer,

○ following a definitive appointment (GUW, OSUW) or recruitment (FSUW);

- at the time when the post occupied by the temporary staff member can no longer be fully or partially subsidised for reasons independent of the institution;

- at the latest on the last school day of the school year during which the appointment was made;

Likewise, ex officio and without notice, the termination of a temporary appointment or definitive appointment (in the GUW and the OSUW) and of the contract of temporary or definitive recruitment (in the FSUW ) shall be effected if the staff member no longer meets any of the following conditions:

○ be Belgian or a citizen of the European Union, subject to any derogation granted by the government

○ have civil and political rights;

○ comply with the militia laws;

- fail to resume their duties after an authorised absence without good reason and remain absent for an uninterrupted period of more than ten days;

- leave their post without good reason and remain absent for a continuous period of more than ten days;

- are in cases where the application of civil and criminal law entails their removal from office;

- are in a situation of permanent incapacity for work recognised by law or regulation which prevents them from performing their duties fully;

- refuse, without valid reason, to take up the post assigned to them by the education authority after having been recalled to active service;

- continue to refuse to put an end to an incompatibility after having exhausted the possibility of appeal provided for (in the FSUW, this applies only to definitively recruited staff members);

are irregularly designated or appointed (in the GUW and OSUW) or contractually employed (in the FSUW), where the irregularity is the result of deception on the part of the staff member and is so serious that the designation or appointment or contractual employment must be considered non-existent (in the FSUW only applies to definitively employed staff members)

A definitive appointment (in the GUW and OSUW) or a contract concluded with a definitively recruited staff member (in the FSUW) also ends ex officio:

if the staff member voluntarily leaves office (notice period: 15 days);

• by retirement due to reaching the age limit (65 years);
• by dismissal ex officio (in GUW and OSUW) or due to a serious error (in FSUW);

if the evaluation reports conclude within two consecutive years with the remark "insufficient".

The termination of a temporary appointment or contractual suspension may be made on the basis of a reasoned early dismissal by the school authority, on the proposal of the headmaster. The notice period is 15 days. Possibilities for appeal are provided for.

The Staff Regulations also provide for the possibility of dismissal without notice of a temporarily designated or contractually hired staff member due to a serious error. A serious error is any error that makes any professional collaboration between the staff member and the school authority immediately and definitely impossible. A hearing must take place before dismissal. The dismissal must state the reasons that the school authority considers to be serious.

A staff member who has been temporarily appointed or contracted may unilaterally terminate the appointment or contract, subject to 8 days' notice.

However, in addition to giving up the service (termination), staff members may also request a career break. These forms of leave can be used to pursue a new career in a completely different area.

Retirement and Pensions

Pension regulation remains a national competence. In the civil service, it is based on the Law of 21 July 1844, which was subsequently amended and supplemented several times, and was initially reserved for civil servants in the ministries, but it gradually became applicable to other institutions, including educational staff. The so-called Uniform Law of 14 February 1961 introduced an organic uniform regime for all those who took up their duties after 1 January 1961 and were definitively appointed.

Entitlement to a state pension does not normally begin until the age of 65, but is now also granted to persons aged 60 and over on request, provided they have the required number of years of service. Most sixty-year-old teachers do so, even though they may not reach the maximum pensionable amount. Every teacher retires at the age of 65 at the latest.

An early retirement scheme allows staff members who are at least 58 years old, have 15 years of service in education and can retire in 28 months at the latest. In the meantime, they will receive a waiting salary at the expense of the Community of x/55th of the last salary, where x is the number of years of actual service. These years of early retirement will be counted as normal years of service for later pension calculations.

In addition to this full-time withdrawal from active working life, a half-time and partial early retirement scheme is also possible. In addition, a new form of early retirement from the age of 55 has been introduced since 2005: the so-called educational quarterly early retirement. In this scheme, the staff member - with 80% salary - has to teach part-time and take on an additional job for a quarter of an hour (administrative or educational services, short replacements of up to five days, remedial teaching, supervision of young teachers = mentoring, ...).

The amount of the pension, which may never exceed 75% of salary, is calculated on the basis of the average salary over the last five years of service. This average salary is multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which represents the recognised years of service and the denominator of which is a value laid down by law, which may still vary according to the office concerned, but which is generally 55 in the case of education.