German national Helga Bucher went head-to-head in court with the independent school at which she teaches, for fear of being fired.
|||Durban - ‘Sometimes you have to fight for your rights,” said German national Helga Bucher, who went head-to-head in court with the independent school at which she teaches, for fear of being fired.
This week, the Labour Court in Durban granted her interim relief, preventing the Deutsche Schule Durban in Cowies Hill from proceeding with a disciplinary hearing against her.
Bucher said, that despite a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) settlement agreement last month, the Deutsche Schule had issued a notice of suspension to her and informed her of a disciplinary hearing scheduled for April 25.
In the papers, Bucher said she had received this notice three days before she had been expected to return work.
She had taken the school to the CCMA when she received a letter from it in December saying it was cancelling her contract.
According to its website, the Deutsche Schule is affiliated to the Independent Schools Association of South Africa and has about 120 pupils from Grades 00 to 7.
“I was the first teacher in the ‘School partners of the future’ to be sent to Southern Africa,” Bucher’s affidavit read.
The partnership is with the Federal Republic of Germany, and its aim is to promote the German language.
Bucher had applied, in 2008, to the Zentralstelle für das Auslandsschulwesen (ZfA), or Central Agency for Schools Abroad, which had introduced the initiative. She had asked to be placed at the Deutsche Schule Durban and arrived in October, 2008. She signed a temporary contract of employment with the school. This was renewed in 2010 and extended last year to July next year.
In court papers, Bucher detailed the limited and outdated resources at the school and how she had, through the agency, secured materials and equipment. She said she had introduced a new German exam in which the pupils had achieved a 100 percent pass rate since 2009.
A discussion with the school principal, Ruth Bohmer, about there being no need for another ZfA teacher when Bucher’s contract ended, led Bucher to e-mail a letter to the school board, seeking clarity.
She was called to a meeting with the principal and board chairman, Leon Buhr, where she was asked to sign a letter of apology for not sending the letter through the proper channels.
Bucher said she needed time to consider. She then fell ill and was booked off work until January. In December, she received a letter cancelling her contract.
Bohmer said in the papers that it had been understood by all at the CCMA that Bucher was to be reinstated so the school could follow the correct disciplinary procedures against her. According to minutes of Bucher’s meeting with Bohmer and Buhr, attached to Bohmer’s affidavit, the head said there would be no replacement teacher from Germany because the school did not have a high school phase.
Bohmer felt Bucher had broken her trust.
noelene.barbeau@inl.co.za
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