The Union recently assisted a member from a Catholic systemic school who was wrongly classified as a continuing teacher when the member was a new teacher for the purpose of the new agreement.
The difference is that although he had done some casual teaching in 2013 he did not have service that is recognised for the purpose of long service leave or sick leave or personal/carer’s leave accrual prior to 1 January 2014. This is what is used to determine whether the incremental or standards classification applies. Casual service does not ‘attract’ any of this leave.
Initially the Catholic systemic employer involved only relied on clause 14.6 (c) of the Enterprise Agreement. This clause explains that service as a casual teacher will be credited on the basis that 204 days are equal to a year of service. This is correct for the calculation of service for anniversary dates but not for determining whether the incremental or standards classification applies.
The correct section of the EA for classifying teachers in this circumstance is Clause 15.1. This clause clearly stipulates that the standards classification will apply to teachers who do not have service prior to 1 January 2014 recognised by their current employer for long service leave or personal/carer’s leave purposes. Casual service prior to 1 January 2014 is not recognised for these purposes and so a teacher who only has casual service prior to January 2014 will be on the standards classification.
After several attempts to explain the difference to the employer, the Union was able to have this member correctly classified.
Because of the Union’s intervention in this matter the employer has now identified over 20 teachers who were possibly affected and confirmed that they would look at each one to make sure that “none were disadvantaged”.
Having said that the savings clause (Clause 15.5) would protect them if the proposed 2016 standards pay rate was lower than the 2015 incremental classification rate.
If you have not had any service with a diocesan employer, other than casual, prior to 1 January 2014 and are not currently on the standards based classification contact your IEU organiser for further advice.