Teachers may have to work longer hours under the restructured school system.

Bermuda Union of Teachers president Michael Charles yesterday told The Royal Gazette the union had heard rumblings about a change in school hours before the last school year ended.

But when this was put to Chief Education Officer Joseph Christopher at a meeting in July he told them nothing had come across his desk.

Mr. Charles said Dr. Christopher informed the BUT that principals were discussing the idea, but that there was nothing official.

However, Mr. Charles said both Dr. Christopher and a middle school teacher have recently confirmed that some principals were requiring teachers to report to school at 8.15 a.m. to start school at 8.30 a.m..

And the union has heard that the school day may be extended to 4 p.m. for teachers.

While noting that most teachers already worked beyond the required hours, Mr.

Charles said the union had not been consulted about any changes in school hours.

Such a change, he added, would go against the collective agreement between the Ministry and the BUT which states that the contact time (time that teacher is supervising students) cannot exceed 25 and a half hours.

"So if this happens we just want to know what happens to this agreement or what they plan to do to accommodate teachers,'' Mr. Charles said.

"In the past teachers have been reporting to school at 8.30 a.m. for an 8.45 a.m. start. The General Orders for teachers states that school should not start later than 8.45 a.m.

"But different principals evidently are requiring different things of their staff which is creating a problem.

"There are teachers who are parents who have to see their children off to school. And at this late stage this creates a problem for them because now they have to alter whatever they used to do to accommodate this sort of thing, if it is something that is being demanded.'' Mr. Charles also pointed that teachers' pay scale depended on the amount of time they worked.

"So if they increase the time, they will have to increase the pay,'' he said.

"We want to know what's happening.'' The BUT is seeking an audience with the Association of School Principals president Livingston Tuzo and has scheduled a meeting with Dr. Christopher at 2 p.m. tomorrow, two hours before a special general membership meeting.

But Mr. Charles said the problem, like many others, could have been avoided if consultation had taken place.

"It goes back to the same old thing about having some kind of dialogue,'' he said. "We are the people that the teachers come to and we don't know what is happening.

"If they wanted to do something or were thinking about doing it at least some dialogue should have taken place. But again as usual it happens after the fact. And then we have to go through all this to find out what is happening.'' He noted that the BUT had written to Dr. Christopher on the issue in the past.

"We have received no reply,'' Mr. Charles said. "And again it is coming back to plague the whole situation.

"We want this restructured system to start without any problems. There is enough anxiety on teachers' part, other than these things which could have been solved a long time ago.

"Instead of adding to the anxiety, we would like to decrease it. But when these things come up they have to be dealt with.'' Mr. Charles added that if there was a valid reason for the change the union was willing to take it to the membership and let teachers decide on it.

When contacted yesterday, Mr. Tuzo said he did not know about any decision to change school hours.

"I don't know if it was a Ministry thing, if it was a school thing, I really don't know,'' he added. "It does not affect us in the primary schools. And I don't know if it affects the senior school.'' But Mr. Tuzo said he hoped to meet with his executive before the BUT meeting tomorrow and with other principals by Friday.