Skagafjörður Municipality Sentenced for Violating Music Teacher

The municipality was ordered to pay ISK 2.7 million to one teacher, ISK 2.1 million to a second music teacher, ISK 1.9 million to a third teacher, and ISK 900,000 in legal fees for all cases.

The dispute in both cases concerned whether teachers were entitled to overtime pay for time spent travelling between the music school locations (Sauðárkrók, Hólar, Hjaltadal, Hofsós and Varmahlíð).

There was a dispute over the interpretation of the collective agreement, which the judgment said had lasted a long time. The teachers had been music teachers for a long time, and the city wanted to say that they had shown negligence in collecting the claims. However, the judge in the case did not accept this argument.

“The court concluded that the plaintiff had provided sufficient evidence to prove that she had completed the required annual working hours, but that driving between workplaces was not covered by this. The defendant-employee’s instructions to the principal that the principal should arrange the school work in such a way that driving was covered within the annual work obligation did not change this. If the principal did not follow the instructions of his superiors and these instructions were fully feasible within the scope of the collective agreement, the plaintiff is not liable in this regard.” The concluding part of the judgment states, but then you can find here.