Australian Capital Territory
Union takes Brindabella Christian College to task over super
The IEU took Brindabella Christian College to the Fair Work Commission on Friday 17 May over the school’s handling of superannuation payments.
Brindabella had failed to pay super to staff from April 2023 to February 2024 and had already been required to pay compulsory super contributions to the Australian Taxation Office for disbursement to staff accounts.
However, the IEU had no evidence that salary-sacrificed amounts for 2023 had been paid – teachers who salary sacrificed 1% or more of their salary were also entitled to an extra 1% contribution from their employer under the multi-enterprise agreements for ACT Christian school staff.
After an unsuccessful attempt to have the matter postponed for two weeks, Brindabella said at the Fair Work Commission that unpaid salary-sacrificed super and additional contributions had now been paid, with a 10% interest penalty. The IEU is seeking evidence of these payments.
Brindabella has also given an undertaking, at the IEU’s request, to pay super fortnightly from 1 July 2024 to ensure it is paid on time. The Fair Work Commission has kept the matter open for a report back on 19 June.
“Our members love working at Brindabella, and they’ve been very patient,” said IEUA NSW/ACT Branch Deputy Secretary David Towson. “It’s high time for Brindabella to make good on both their word and their legal obligations – and thereby restore confidence in the school’s governance.”
New South Wales
Now’s the time for pay rises in independent schools
The IEU is in bargaining meetings with the Association of Independent Schools in May and June for new multi-enterprise agreements for teachers and professional, administrative and operational staff.
Many independent schools now pay teachers less than NSW government schools and Catholic systemic schools, and others only just above.
The IEU is calling for employers to:
- restore the pay premium for teachers in independent schools (5% to 7%)
- provide a fair deal for professional, administrative and operational staff
- address teacher workloads
- improve paid parental leave in line with industry standards and pay super on paid parental leave
- guarantee fair processes for dispute resolution.
As IE went to press, organisers were visiting schools, holding meetings and returning motions to endorse the claim. Now’s the time to stand together for real change.
Northern Territory
NT government accepts review recommendations
The Northern Territory government has accepted all the recommendations from a recent Review of Secondary Education in the Territory (the Review).
The NT government will move away from the current policy, set out through the Indigenous Education Strategy (2015-24), which relied on boarding as the primary means for students in remote and very remote communities to access senior secondary education, in favour of more choice of secondary education pathways for students and families.
Our union supports schooling opportunities in students’ home communities and not requiring them to relocate to larger centres, outlined in our submission to a previous House of Representatives inquiry.
NT-based members have raised concerns regarding boarding schools, given low retention rates of students from rural and remote areas and significant problems arising upon return to home communities, including disengagement from education.
More information and key review findings:bit.ly/3JKDEPa
Queensland
School officers use powerful new provisions
Non-teaching staff in Queensland Catholic schools are making the most of important new provisions achieved during the recent round of collective bargaining. Staff will transition to the Alternative School Officer Classification Structure (ASOCS) during the operation of the agreement.
IEU-QNT Branch Secretary Terry Burke said the new ASOCS reflects the nuances and complexities of working in a contemporary school environment. “The previous School Officer classification matrix was archaic, simplistic and failed to capture the realities of work in a modern school,” Mr Burke said.
“It was based on a 30-year-old system which relied on an outdated School Officers Non-Government Schools Award and that in turn relied on a clerical and administrative award.”
Our union will continue running workshops to assist school officer members in understanding the ASOCS so they can evaluate their own position descriptions to ensure they are appropriate and their positions are classified at the correct level.
To register:ieuqnt.org.au/events/
South Australia
Solidarity with non-teaching staff at Westminster School
In 2023, three schools from the independent education sector cut and ran from enterprise agreement negotiations in an attempt to push through EAs without the endorsement of the IEU(SA). Those attempts failed spectacularly.
Despite this, Westminster School has put an EA to the vote – a vote that the IEU refused to endorse. The union mounted a ‘Vote No’ campaign and staff overwhelmingly rejected the proposed EA by 137 to 51.
Despite salary offers of 12% across three years for teachers and school assistants, both groups rejected the offer because the school’s current school assistant classification structure and accompanying salary schedule are inadequate.
Even with months of negotiations providing ample opportunity to address the issue, the employers simply reiterated their position: there were no issues with the classification structure and school assistants were being remunerated in line with peers in the industry.
We congratulate Westminster teachers for showing such solidarity with their non-teaching colleagues – and look forward to the employer returning to the bargaining table.
Tasmania
Industrial action on the cards
The IEU is considering industrial action after negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement covering staff in Tasmanian Catholic schools dragged into May, two years after the log of claims was lodged.
Employer representatives still haven’t matched measures delivered long ago in government schools, including payments for lower-income staff and improvements to salary progression for teachers without the full TRB registration.
Employers are still resisting union claims for workload parity for primary school teachers. In effect, they want full-time teachers to teach an extra hour a week, and for part-time teachers to earn 4.5% less an hour than their government school colleagues.
Employers are also persisting with unreasonable claims for the right to relocate employees and lengthen the school year.
And they’ve brought a new claim – the right to fill vacant positions using graduates from their own Thomas Aquinas teaching program without advertising these roles. This would mean that existing staff would not get a look-in on some job opportunities, and graduates from other teaching courses would be at an unfair disadvantage.
The IEU is now escalating its ‘Two Years Too Long’ campaign, after members turned out in force at events on the last day of Term 1 to demonstrate their frustration at the continued delay in reaching a deal.
Victoria
Member safety in our sights
The Victoria Tasmania Branch is making member safety in schools a key focus, having heard too many stories about the health and safety of staff being threatened or taken for granted.
The antiquated and dangerous attitude that abuse and harassment from students is ‘part of the job’ needs to be extinguished. It’s time for potential dangers in schools to be assessed in the same way they are on a construction site – as urgent occupational, health and safety issues.
Dangerous student behaviour is a workplace hazard and must be assessed as such through properly maintained and disseminated behavioural management plans. Employers who ignore this are reminded that new psychosocial regulations coming into force to protect the wellbeing of workers require employers to take steps before dangerous incidents occur.
When staff who are the victims of threatening behaviour or physical violence end up on reportable conduct charges; when violence against staff is not met with immediate, firm action and made as important as the rights of children with serious behavioural issues; and when staff are improperly informed about what issues their students face because of flawed reporting systems – things need to change.
Western Australia
Holding employers to account
Term 2 is as busy as ever for the WA Branch. Earlier this year, the WA Catholic Teachers’ Agreement was approved, but not without the IEU successfully arguing for some improvements in provisions for part-time teachers and the consultation clause.
Bargaining for Catholic school support staff has finally commenced. It’s been nine years since the registration of their last agreement, and delays by the Catholic employers have not helped. The IEU bargaining team is pushing for long overdue improvements in conditions and classifications.
Meanwhile, bargaining continues with the Anglican Schools Commission. This is the second largest employer in the sector, covering 14 schools in WA. Unfortunately, the employer has committed to providing as little in the terms of the agreement as possible, preferring to deal with matters in policy rather than be held accountable through an enforceable agreement.
Here in WA, we intend to hold renegade employers to account and continue improving the working lives of members.