Victoria
Challenges of 2020 deliver registration flexibility
In these unprecedented times, IEU members in Victoria expressed anxiety about the possibility of not being able to meet key requirements for registration due to disrupted employment and/or remote learning constraints over the period of students learning remotely. As Victorian registered teachers would be aware, the requirements for annual renewal for fully registered teachers include 20 days of practice and 20 hours of professional learning activity over the 12 month period from 1 October 2019 until 30 September 2020. With a registration renewal date earlier than most other states, disruptions covering months can have a negative impact.
For Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) Provisionally Registered Teachers who are granted this initial form of registration for two years, the disruptions due to COVID-19 could mean that a significant number may not have completed either the required 80 days of teaching and/or the evidence-based process necessary for applying for full registration. A substantial number of provisionally registered teachers work as casual/emergency teachers in their first and sometimes second year, so they can be particularly impacted by disrupted work.
The IEU has raised these issues with the VIT, and reassuringly, registered teachers recently received an update from the Institute explaining how all of the above registration issues can be accommodated. In essence, this year no teacher will be precluded from being able to renew their register or having their provisional registration period extended due to these COVID-19 related challenges.
Tasmanian
COVID-19 causes pause
The Tasmanian Department of Education advised all Tasmanian schools in April of postponement to the Years 9 to 12 Curriculum Framework project, the draft Vocational Learning in Tasmanian Schools Framework and draft Requirements and Guidelines on the delivery of VET in schools.
The Years 9 to 12 Project Steering Committee met in late March and discussed ways forward given the change in priorities, resources and staffing associated with COVID-19. The Department determined that the health and wellbeing of students and staff was felt to be a key priority at this time, which has led the Steering Committee to decide to pause external consultation for the Years 9 to 12 Project until further notice.
The Department advised that the key implication of this pause is to provide new courses using the Years 9 to 12 Curriculum Framework. It outlined that:
the priority is to ensure a full curriculum for Years 11 and 12 in 2021Australian Curriculum offerings for Years 9 and 10 will remain unchangednew courses using the Years 9 to 12 Curriculum Framework will not be developed and delivered in 2021a consideration of when new courses may be developed will need to occur, but noting the dynamic nature of the COVID-19 situation, this will need to be assessed and determined as the situation unfolds.
Northern Territory
Employer application dismissed by FWC
An employer application to terminate the existing Kormilda College collective agreement has been dismissed by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) after opposition from our union.
Kormilda College has been operating as Haileybury Rendall School (HRS) since 2018, following the sale of the school.
The existing Kormilda College collective agreement continues to provide coverage for former Kormilda staff employed by HRS.
Prior to the employer’s application to terminate the agreement, IEUA-QNT members in the Darwin school had been negotiating with the employer to replace the agreement.
Before negotiations were halted by the application from HRS to the commission, employees remained concerned about key employer claims, including:
- an expectation to work additional ‘reasonable hours’ without defining what ‘reasonable hours’ are
- compulsory participation in extracurricular activities for up to 40 hours per year
- payment of wages and salaries monthly rather than fortnightly
- the exclusion of some employees who have previously been covered by the agreement.
IEUA-QNT Organiser Jengis Osman said the decision was a welcome outcome for members and should allow bargaining with the employer to resume shortly. Osman said members had displayed resilience and persistence in challenging circumstances. Our union is seeking urgent resumption of negotiations with the employer to reach an in-principle agreement that can be put to ballot.
Queensland
Union committed to new and updated agreements
Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 in schools, our union remains committed to developing new and updated collective agreements.
While COVID-19 health and educational issues have led to delays in recent bargaining timeframes, current uncertainties mean we need collective agreement protections of our wages and conditions now more than ever.
Throughout early Term 2, the IEUA-QNT provided assistance to Catholic employers with the drafting of text for an agreement to go to ballot. At the time of writing, employers had committed to meeting with our union to progress the finalisation of the agreement.
IEUA-QNT also sought the urgent resumption of negotiations with Queensland Lutheran Education in May.
Members in Queensland Lutheran schools sent a clear message to their employer at the end of Term 1: “Return to the bargaining table without the agenda to cut, control and constrain conditions.”
A number of significant employee claims including workload interventions, school officer conditions, updated PAR arrangements and wage outcomes were outstanding.
IEUA-QNT chapters in Queensland Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association (PMSA) schools finalised their bargaining claims in mid-May.
It is anticipated that initial bargaining meetings will be held with PMSA employer representatives later this term.
In the face of major disruption to the education sector, our union continues to fight for members’ rights while also supporting them through a period of substantial challenges.
South Australia
Stand downs: too early, too deep and too brutal
Leading into Easter, many SA Catholic schools gave staff letters of full or partial stand down. The IEU is in dispute with the employers over the legitimacy of the stand downs, the lack of consultation over this major workplace change and the lack of recognition of notice and representation rights under the enterprise agreement. In essence, the Catholic employers have cut too early, too deeply and too brutally.
The schools had not suffered a “stoppage of work”; they simply feared a decrease of income due mainly to fee remissions. There was no genuine exploration of other ways to deploy affected staff. Generally, the imparting of news was not handled sensitively. Employees’ fates were in a sealed envelope handed to them just before the holidays. This has unsettled many members who have become distressed and anxious. Many see this as a rejection of their many years of dedicated service when they were simply told that their work is “not essential”.
With the high return rates for students in Term 2, most stand downs are being reversed quickly. This does not undo the psychological and financial damage done to employees.
Australian Capital Territory
Members take action as employers stall
During Ramadan, the teachers at the Islamic School of Canberra took protected industrial action, stopping work for one hour, from 8.50 to 9.50am on 30 April to protest a protracted enterprise bargaining process.
Since 2016, the IEU and the School Board of the Islamic School of Canberra have been engaged in negotiations with no end in sight. This is the second time teachers at the school have applied to the Fair Work Commission to take protected industrial action.
Patient with their employer, teachers persevered through the school’s many challenges, including threatened deregistration, ongoing funding issues and a change of ownership. Until April 2019, teachers at the school had not received a pay rise in more than five years. They are now more than $10,000 a year behind colleagues in other NSW and ACT schools – a gap that is only growing.
“Staff employed at the school are an extremely dedicated group who have stuck it out for their students, the school and the wider community during a tough time,” said IEU Organiser Lyn Caton. “They are not making any ambit claims but merely trying to preserve their rights and entitlements and align their conditions with teachers throughout the ACT.”
These teachers are also experiencing diminution of their employment conditions. “The members have confirmed their concern and dissatisfaction by returning unanimous support for industrial action,” Caton said.
New South Wales
Standing up to stand downs; pressing for pay rises
The rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation necessitated IEU members responding in creative and resilient ways, including meeting the challenges of remote teaching and learning. Union members in all non government education sectors stepped up to provide education and care to students and support to families whose lives and work had been severely disrupted. Principals, teachers in early childhood, primary and secondary schools and post secondary settings, counsellors, and support staff in many diverse roles, adapted to the challenges of working from home and/or their workplaces.
While negotiating for a safe return to school in Term 2, the IEU has focused on the health, safety and wellbeing of members, at the same time protecting their industrial rights under current agreements. The union successfully resisted stand downs and advocated for the interests of casual staff. It continues to insist teachers only teach via one mode of delivery at any one time.
While dealing with COVID-19 issues and implications, the union has also been advocating, via the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations (CCER) and the Association of Independent Schools (AIS), for Catholic and independent sector employers to continue negotiations for enterprise agreements. Unlike their government school colleagues, members in NSW Catholic systemic and Catholic independent schools are yet to receive a pay rise for 2020.
IEU members have been holding chapter meetings by phone or video conference and finding creative ways to engage collectively to ensure that their voices are heard.
Members have acted in solidarity to protect working conditions and promote safety at work. “We need to work flexibly and creatively and not throw out our hard-won protections – there has never been a better time to join the union,” one union member said.