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VOLUME 8 NO 1 MARCH 2018

T: (03) 9254 1860 • F: (03) 9254 1865 • FreeCall: 1800 622 889 • E: [email protected] • W: www.ieuvictas.org.au MELBOURNE OFFICE: 120 Clarendon Street, Southbank 3006 • HOBART OFFICE: 379 Elizabeth Street, Nth Hobart 7000

The Point is published by the Independent Education Union Victoria Tasmania.

T: (03) 9254 1860 • F: (03) 9254 1865 • FreeCall: 1800 622 889 • E: [email protected] • W: www.ieuvictas.org.au MELBOURNE OFFICE: 120 Clarendon Street, Southbank 3006 • HOBART OFFICE: 379 Elizabeth Street, Nth Hobart 7000


TasmaniaCatholic Sector negotiations progress report.

Page 5

International Women’s DayAn overview of activity on International Women’s Day

Page 20

Independent SchoolsA full roundup of bargaining across the sector.

Page 6-7

Continued on page 20 >

International Women’s Day IEU Celebration

appreciation for what she was saying was to click our fingers, and the room filled with clicking as she shared her poetry with us.

Karen Pickering is a feminist organiser and writer based in Melbourne. She was the creator and host of Cherchez la Femme, a live talk show of popular culture and current affairs from an unapologetically feminist angle, which ran monthly in Melbourne and toured nationally.

Karen was also the co-founder of Girls on Film Festival and served as its first director. She has presented on gender equality and feminist approaches in a variety of educational contexts including workshops in high schools. Karen spoke on #MeToo, what’s next, and the power of community: how to hold space, bear witness and organise for meaningful change. She invited audience participation in the discussion, and members shared their

experiences and thoughts, ending on a positive note with ideas for how we can organise to change the rules for women in our goal for equity.

The IEU ‘sister’ prize for most attendees from one school went to CRC North Keilor and they were happy to take home a small collection of books by female authors to share.

IEU women celebrated International Women’s Day 2018 far and wide across Victoria and Tasmania. Our Melbourne function returned to the Kent Hotel this year and our special guests, Sara Mansour and Karen Pickering, made for a fabulous evening’s entertainment, and thought-provoking discussion and debate under the banner of Change the Rules.

Sara is co-founder of the Bankstown Poetry Slam (BPS), a not-for-profit community

collective that has grown to be the largest regular spoken-word event in Australia, attracting over 300 people each month. Sara has been heavily involved in community work and the arts since BPS’ inception, performing locally and internationally, facilitating workshops and featuring on numerous panels. In 2016 and 2017, she programmed Real Talk, a project that delivers free spoken-word workshops to students across seven Western Sydney high schools. Sara performed four poems, drawing on her experience growing up as a Muslim woman in Western Sydney and including a new poem she wrote with International Women’s Day in mind. She explained that the way to show

2THE POINT March 2018

Meetings, Meetings, and PPTImplementing the MoU Page 3

Behind the WhiteboardIssues in Brief Page 4

GraduatesDo Graduates feel supported? Page 5

Bargaining RoundupOverview of independent sector bargaining Page 6

Data SecurityMembers should not be worried Page 9

Education SupportImportant info on overtime and underpayments Page 11

OHSYour perfume is my headache Page 12

IEU RepsNatural leaders Page 15

Graduate DiaryI’m tired but happy Page 17

International RoundupNews from around the world Page 19

What’s in The Point Contact us

CongratulationsCongratulations to the following members who have been lucky enough to win gift cards for simply updating their details online before the end of January.

Melissa M Campbell St Martin of Tours School Rosanna

Maryanne D Evans St Joseph’s School Warrnambool

Susan A Hill St Michael’s School Traralgon

Roberta N Lucchesi St Luke’s School Lalor

Gina Moppi St Brendan’s School Flemington

Suzanne M Sexton St Anne’s School Sunbury

Jennifer M Waldron St Louis de Montfort’s School Aspendale

Josephine O Woollard Holy Spirit School Manifold Heights

Lauren M Xuereb Holy Child School Dallas

Tania Brown St Peter’s College – West Campus Cranbourne

Kate L Lehmann St Ignatius College Geelong Drysdale

Margaret M Mc Intyre St Patrick’s College Ballarat

Bianca Stafrace Mount St Joseph Girls’ College Altona

Tania Deguara Ivanhoe Grammar School Ivanhoe

Jessica Huggett Camberwell Girls’ Grammar School

Michelle Petkovic Caulfield Grammar School Wheelers Hill

Prodromos Salmanidis St John’s College Preston

Olaf J Weerts St James Catholic College Cygnet

Stephen A Foskett Oakwood School Newstead

Maree J Lawes Launceston Christian School Riverside

New OrganisersThe IEU is very pleased to welcome two new organisers to the team – Cara Maxworthy and Amy Spencer.

CARA has worked for the last 13 years as a primary teacher at St Margaret’s School in Berwick, where she was the IEU sub-branch rep for 10 years and a bargaining rep for three rounds of Enterprise Bargaining Agreement negotiations. She will be known to many IEU

reps and members as a result of her very active contributions to the Union over this time – for over ten years Cara has been a member of the IEU Committee of Management, serving for a number of years as President of Independent Council and most recently as Deputy President of CoM.

In addition to this wealth of experience and knowledge of the independent school sector, Cara is bringing to the IEU a long-held passion for social justice and gender equality. Along with her husband Adam she is raising two young children, and in what free time is left she enjoys fishing, watching movies and baking.

Cara says: ‘I joined the IEU as a student in my first year of studies at ACU after a visit from an organiser, mainly to gain the protection of the Union. It wasn’t really until I became Rep at my school and attended Initial Rep training that my understanding of and commitment to unionism began to flourish. Representing my colleagues at a school level and at IEU Council and Conference broadened my passion. Sitting on the Committee of Management has been an incredible experience and gave me a taste of the work done by the team in the IEU office. My first few weeks have been amazing – such incredible support and advice from everyone! I have learnt organising is not a solo gig – it takes the Organiser, the Rep, the Members and the office team to work together to achieve success.’

AMY comes to the IEU with loads of union organising experience. For the last seven years she has been working as an organiser for the Community and Public Sector Union, most recently organising and representing Parks Victoria staff from around the state, as well as scientists, firefighters

and youth workers. Before that she worked for the Finance Sector Union, who employed her as an organiser following her time as an active sub-branch union rep while working for ANZ.

Over her 14 years working for unions, Amy has amassed extensive experience in dealing with and resolving all manner of employment issues, and has particular expertise in the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement process, having worked on this with members in a wide range of contexts and successfully negotiated with employers both large and small. We know that these skills will make Amy a very valuable addition to the IEU team!

Like Cara, Amy enjoys fishing. As a keen Tigers supporter and a fan of the AFLW, she’s hanging out for 2020 when Richmond finally enter the women’s comp!

Amy’s partner is a teacher, and she has always wanted to work for an education union. For her, the most rewarding thing about working for unions is seeing workers who feel powerless join together and create positive change in the workplace. She says: ‘my first few weeks have been great – it’s a very supportive team at IEU, and I’ve enjoyed getting out to my workplaces to meet the reps and members. I’m particularly looking forward to negotiating Agreements at independent schools and working closely with reps, members and sub-branches.’

EDITORIAL/ADVERTISING ENQUIRIEST: (03) 9254 1860 F: (03) 9254 1865 FreeCall: 1800 622 889 E: [email protected] W: www.ieuvictas.org.au

CONTRIBUTIONS & LETTERS from members are welcome and should be forwarded to: The Point PO Box 1320, South Melbourne 3205, or by email to: [email protected]

MELBOURNE OFFICE: 120 Clarendon Street, Southbank 3006

HOBART OFFICE: 379 Elizabeth Street, Nth Hobart 7000


EDITORIAL CONTENT: Responsibility for editorial comment is taken by D James, 120 Clarendon Street, Southbank 3006. Views expressed in articles reflect those of the author and are not necessarily union policy.

COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENTGeneral Secretary: Debra JamesDeputy Secretary: Loretta CotterPresident: Mark WilliamsDeputy President: Cara MaxworthyOrdinary Members:Patrick Bennett Andrew Dunne Heather Macardy Andrew WoodMember Resident in Tasmania:Kim Merhulik

School Officers:Olivia Blackney Andrea Hines

COUNCIL PRESIDENTS & DEPUTIESCatholic Primary Council President: Maree Shields Deputy: Rachael Evans

Catholic Secondary Council President: Stephen Hobday Deputy: Ruth Pendavingh

Independent Council President: Teresa Huddy Deputy: Alexandra Abela

Tasmanian Council President: John Waldock Deputy: Paul Mannion

Principals’ Council President: John Connors Deputy: Greg Lane

@IEUnews IEU Victoria Tasmania/IEUvictas

3March 2018 THE POINT

GENERAL SECRETARYDEBRA JAMES

VICTORIAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

Getting on with the MoUThe MoU reached last year committed the IEU and the CECV to progressing a range of issues in term 4 of 2017 and term 1 of 2018.

Meetings and Professional Practice Time

Consultative Committees were required to meet in term 4 to make recommendations to the principal about the arrangement and schedule of meetings this year, with a specific focus on ‘maximising efficient use of meeting times’.

Teachers are also entitled to 20 hours of release (pro-rata for part-time teachers) from SCT in 2018 as ‘additional time to focus on improved delivery of high quality teaching and learning’. This entitlement is expressed in the MoU as being equivalent to the additional 4 days operating in the Victorian government sector.

The implementation of PPT seems, on early analysis, to have been very unevenly interpreted and applied across Victorian Catholic schools. Most problematic has been its implementation in some secondary schools, where some principals are arguing that, because they already have more student-free days than government schools, they can absorb all of the PPT into existing arrangements. This approach is antithetical to the intent of the provision – it was expressed as additional time, not the same time re-badged. What the IEU did accept was that, if student-free arrangements were very generous in some schools, there may be capacity, with consultation, to absorb some, but not all, of the PPT. The focus remains the initiative of the teacher – either planning, preparation, assessment, collaboration, curriculum development, and/or relevant

professional development. Even the CECV guidelines do not envisage all PPT being absorbed into current arrangements.

There also seems to be a predisposition in some primary schools to ensure that everyone does exactly the same thing on the same day. If staff are happy to have PPT as a collaborative planning or PD day, that’s fine, and administratively easy for schools to work with. However, the entitlement is still an individual one in that the teacher nominates their preferred focus and the timing, and, if there is no agreement, the principal can determine only the timing – not the focus.

Teachers are also entitled to 20 hours of release ...from SCT in 2018 as ‘additional time to focus on improved delivery of high quality teaching and learning’.

There is also no rule that PPT mandates attendance – many of our principal members have recognised that a teacher working from home away from bells, announcements, and all the usual school distractions, is more likely to actually get their planning or assessment done.

The MoU operates until we reach a new (enforceable) Agreement. As such, where we currently have disputation, there is no easy legal remedy. However, all employers are committed to applying its terms ‘as if they were terms of the VCEMEA’. How they implement its commitments this year will have a direct bearing on the negotiating position the IEU takes in relation to teacher

workload and related matters when we resume formal bargaining in August.

Teacher workload reviewIn term 1, the parties are committed to

develop the terms of reference for a jointly commissioned independent review of teacher and deputy principal workload. It is important that this work is undertaken as early as possible this year, so that its results can feed into bargaining.

Principal workload and wellbeing

The MoU also commits the CECV to providing access to an EAP (Employee Assistance Program), voluntary confidential health checks for all principals, and an independent review of workload.

Education SupportThere are two important new statements

about the work of ES. In relation to recall provisions, an ES Level 1 or 2 cannot be required to work in isolated circumstances or to attend for duty unless a responsible manager is present.

Even more broadly, ‘an Education Support employee may only be required to perform duties consistent with his or her role’. This provision is particularly important when consulting about end-of-year arrangements for roles such as Learning Support Officers.

And…The MoU also commits the Union and

the employer negotiators to progressing a number of other matters prior to August – including CEO, SSO, ES (Level 1 and 2) and primary principal classification structure reviews, principal contracts, redundancy, and disputes procedures. That should be enough to get on with.

Woman Up! Earlier this year we lost the inspirational Zelda D’Aprano, a staunch feminist, unionist, and equal pay activist. She left school at 14 to work in a factory and it was there she first began to notice the pay inequity between male and female workers.

She was fired from several jobs for taking up the issue with employers. In

1969, frustrated with the lack of progress for women and the failure of the equal pay case, Zelda chained herself to the doors of the Commonwealth Building, and ten days later, she was joined by Alva Giekie and Thelma Soloman as they chained themselves to the doors of the Arbitration Commission. These inspirational women went on to form the Women’s Action Committee and the Women’s Liberation

Centre in Melbourne. As women were not allowed in public bars, restricted only to ‘ladies lounges’, she organised pub crawls with her friends. They paid only 75% of tram fares because that was what women were earning compared to men. Women had for too long been polite and were sick of being ignored.

Zelda certainly led the way for the young women who came after her and was an inspiration to many through her activism and her mentoring of others. I was still at school in the 70’s when Zelda was chained to a building, but the Good Samaritan nuns at St Monica’s in Epping, despite

thinking of me as too talkative and a trouble-maker, inspired us girls to stand up for what you believe in. I’m sure some of them would have joined Zelda! I was lucky enough to meet Zelda through the union movement at Trades Hall and was left like so many, inspired by her and renewed for the fights to come.

There are so many inspirational women in our movement today and they, like all of us, stand on the shoulders of the women who have gone before us: Sally McManus, first woman to hold the position of Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Secretary, currently leading the campaign

to change the rules; Ged Kearney, a nurse who became National President of her union and has been the ACTU President for the past decade; Sharan Burrow, a teacher and union leader who now is the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation following a decade as President of the ACTU before Ged. Jennie George, also a teacher, preceded Sharan and was first woman to become President of the ACTU. Jess Munday is the Secretary of Unions Tasmania and Ros McLennan, former IEU organiser, is the Secretary at Queensland Council of Trade Unions. They are both doing

cracking jobs leading unions in their states and taking up the fight to governments and employers.

There are many more women I could name who are leaders in their unions and who spend their working lives protecting and advancing the interests of their members but lastly, and most importantly, I pay tribute to the women in our union both on staff and on Committee of Management. They are a fabulous group of sisters committed to supporting each other in our work for members of the IEU and keeping alive the activism embodied by Zelda.

Vic Cath Pay Rises – 1 April 2018

TeachersLevel

T2-6 $99 518

T2-5 $91 998

T2-4 $88 724

T2-3 $85 566

T2-2 $82 521

T2-1 $79 584

T1-5 $76 753

T1-4 $74 020

T1-3 $71 387

T1-2 $68 846

T1-1 $66 396

ES*Category A from $47 587 to $104 457

Category B from $43 926 to $96 422

Category C from $45 757 to $100 440

SSO*Category A from $42 443 to $62 119

Category B from $39 179 to $57 341

Category C from $40 811 to $59 730

Deputy Principals*Category A $112 188 to $166 911

Category B $107 090 to $151 407

Principals*$121 580 to $176 653

* Salary range from bottom to top pay levels.


CATHOLIC PERSONAL LEAVEThe procedures for determining

the amount of personal (sick and carer’s) leave deducted for teachers in the Victorian Catholic sector have changed. An individual day is still worth 7.6 hours, with the pro-rata rule for a part-timer continuing to apply. Unused personal leave of course just continues to accrue until you no longer have any need for it!

So how does this work? For those full-timers absent for a whole school day, or part-timers who work a full day and are absent for the whole day, 7.6 hours of personal leave are deducted. If absent for only part of the school day, you are only deducted based on the proportion of the school’s instructional day you are absent for. However, if you are absent from the workplace when you are not on ‘instructional time/scheduled duties’ (eg lunch), there is no deduction of personal leave.

Busy times for the office staff! I assume there are the right sort of spreadsheets to assist. Your IEU Organiser will always be able to provide the answer.

REP PROFILEA new rep at Parade – welcome!

REP PROFILEFarewell and thank you Pamela. Nice to meet you Sally.

This is the part of The Point where you find the unusual, the ‘often not commented on’, the answers to day-to-day questions, the input and reply to members. If you’re interested in contributing, having some feedback, asking a question, or you’ve got a comment to make, go to [email protected] Anonymity guaranteed.

MARCUS CORLETT is the new sub-branch rep at Parade College Bundoora. Marcus has had a diverse teaching career over 18 years, 7 of which were international schools in the USA and Europe. More locally, he has taught in government, independent and Catholic secondary schools. He commenced as a graduate at a state secondary school, and has been a member of many faculties and learning areas, but mainly in Science.

Marcus has been at Parade for 8 years, but as an Old Paradian he carries some history with him.

He notes that teaching used to be what happened solely in the classroom, but that now the work outside of face-to-face is forever increasing. Administrative accountability is now a fixation. Positively, he notes the increased opportunities for students and the diversification of teaching methods as aspects for the better.

With the previous rep moving schools, Marcus saw the union vacancy as a great opportunity to represent his colleagues. He aims to increase member density at the school, providing better representation in supporting the work of the IEU. He looks forward to coming to union training in the coming months.

The IEU wishes all first-time reps like Marcus a productive time representing members at their workplace.

SALLY STADDON has become IEU Rep at Camberwell Girls’ Grammar School following the retirement of Pamela Chaikin-Badoer. Pamela has flown the IEU flag at CGGS for many years, advocating on behalf of members and negotiating for better conditions in successive Enterprise Agreements including their new Agreement, finalised just before she left. The members at CGGS and the IEU thank Pamela for her long-standing commitment to the cause, and wish her well in retirement.

Sally has also been a key part of the negotiating team in bargaining for the last two Agreements, and we are very happy that she has agreed to

continue working for members as IEU Rep. Sally was born and grew up in in the UK, where she started her career teaching French at tertiary level, and was particularly involved in Computer Assisted Language Learning as well as teaching French on a range of degree and vocational courses. She then migrated to Australia and was a lecturer at Monash University for 20 years before moving into secondary school teaching 9 years ago at Camberwell Girls. She has not regretted the move for one minute and says she loves teaching all levels.

Before Sally went in to teaching she worked for a year in publishing in the UK and her employer was the infamous British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who in the 70s and 80s was giving Rupert Murdoch a run for his money. ‘Working for Maxwell made the need for strong union representation all too clear to me and I have been a member of a union ever since’ says Sally.

‘I joined VIEU (as it was then) as soon as I began teaching at Camberwell Girls. It never occurred to me not to. At CGGS the union has played a crucial role in two rounds of enterprise bargaining and has provided advice to individual union members in times of professional difficulty.

‘Why did I put my hand up to be Rep? Well someone had to do it. I admire and have worked closely with Pamela and felt it an honour to take over from her. I find it hard not to get involved when employee rights and working conditions are in question.

‘In a school like ours, the challenge is to encourage colleagues to see the value of union membership at all times, not just when something goes wrong or the EBA process comes around. I am looking forward to coming to Rep Training to learn a bit more about the role and get some ideas for further promoting the IEU at our school.’

Welcome to...

2018THE STATE OF THE STAFF ROOM

BTW has been doing a lot of school visits lately and has seen the insides of a lot of staffrooms at lunch and recess. There was a time when the significance of the staffroom was greater than it is now. It was an important place of assembly for all staff, and it was unusual if you hid from it. Where else would you see the footy tipping results, or the IEU noticeboard?

What I can’t believe is the number of near-empty secondary staff rooms at lunch-time. What has happened to the social staffroom, where education and student anecdotes are exchanged, social chit-chat caught up with, maybe a quick game of 500 (Graduates will not believe this), and an announcement from the principal about an impending marriage, someone’s long-term illness, or his absence on long-service for the next 13 weeks? Everything now is lost ‘on-line’ or in the email ether, and staff interaction constrained to the smaller work stations. On a similar note, staff meetings are reserved for reports, with little or no discussion and debate of critical staff decisions.

I might be reading this wrong, but the primary staff room seems to be a more interactive kind of educational and social setting these days. I know, I know, the world

has changed, and schools are so much busier, but it would be nice to think that you could make some new friends at least a couple of times a week. Schools thrive on that interactivity.

AND WHILE I’M AT ITThese little tales are based on calls to the

IEU office over recent days. Mobile phones in schools are again the

hot topic, schools having a wide variety of policies and practices to deal with this essential communication tool. Used properly, responsibly, out of sight and used at the right time, maybe they’re ok. Research, calculator, whatever. I note the Liberals plan to make banning them in schools an election issue. Good luck with that one.

The trick is for staff to use them properly as well. With the attachment so deep that the specials board at the pub needs photographing, there is always the temptation to pull them out at school. Calls from the kids, dinner date, team selection, don’t let the call get in the way of your paid employment. And when can you take a photo of students at school? Unknown miscreants in the schoolyard hurling food around while you’re on yard duty, refusing instructions to stop, you take the photo so that you can report

them. Who will get into more strife, the student for poor playground behaviour or the teacher for breaching media and privacy policy?

And school corridors. Walking on my way to sub-branch meetings along the torture trail that is the student locker area. All staff need to be super careful about contact with students and about avoiding situations of risk. A couple of recent cases have seen students alleging that they were hit by teachers who were simply walking down a very busy corridor. Easier said than done, but avoid the trek at peak times, bit like driving through the city.

And something more Catholic industrial. Teacher wondering why she didn’t increment at the start of the school year when commencing another fixed-term contract (which is another matter). Reasonable question, but it turns out she never had 6 months service in the previous April to May annual cycle, which is a must.

All good. Go about your business, try enjoying the job in the way working with kids should be. Look forward to hearing from you.


DEPUTY SECRETARYLORETTA COTTER

The time has come for a change to the rules. As Sally McManus has been saying since taking up her

role as leader of Australian unions, too many workers have little left to bargain with, and too many employers hold the cards in their hands. Think lockouts, penalties for taking industrial action, cuts to penalty rates for the lowest paid, fighting just to maintain conditions, let alone improve them. And that’s for workers who are actually covered by the industrial relations system.

Casual workers and independent contractors have no real protections, or any chance of finding a way into ‘bargaining’. They have no bargaining power. Casuals are vulnerable to not getting work the next day, and for contractors there is no employer that can be successfully prosecuted for exploitation. The minimum legislative standards are simply that – standards that cannot be easily lifted or extended. The four-yearly review of Modern Awards is now entering its fifth year, bogged down in technicalities and submissions. The evidence required to change just one clause in an Award can take, and has taken, years.

Meanwhile even the Reserve Bank has commented that Australian workers need to see some real pay increases, noting stronger economic growth but ‘subdued increases in wages’. In a recent speech to an international labour conference, former Treasurer Wayne Swan’s analysis was that the biggest economic losers of the past 30 years have been Western low and middle-income earners and the biggest winners the top 1 percent. The share of income going to employees is near its lowest level in sixty years. He rejects the ‘trickle down’ economic arguments touted by Trump and the federal government as not just being bad on a social policy level, but bad economically.

‘I believe that viewing economics through the frame of inequality will give Australia a better economic result. Reducing inequality offers something to everyone. It’s not about dividing the pie, it’s about growing the pie’.

Swan calls for an alternative agenda, a strengthening of the union movement, rather than continued weakening of it, and the curbing of market concentration and corporate excess. I have no doubt that Sally McManus will be calling on the union movement to be bold, to articulate a progressive agenda for change, and to be prepared to tackle and defeat a conservative employer-driven agenda that has effectively silenced our voice and influence in so many areas. The rules need to change, and it is we unionists that can co-ordinate the grassroots momentum necessary to deliver such change.

Change the Rules

Are our graduate teachers doing okay?Late last year, the IEU phoned many of our graduate members to touch base and find out how their first year of teaching had gone. 45 of them also completed a more detailed email survey about their experiences to date.

Some of the results were disturbing. One-fifth of those surveyed didn’t have a teacher mentor and more

than half of them reported struggling with the additional workload of VIT or TRB registration requirements. Given the steep learning curve that graduate teachers face in the classroom, ensuring they have an experienced mentor, and regular check-ins about how they are going in their move towards full registration is vital.

They also ranked assessment and reporting, and meetings, as the next highest issues or work that resulted in too much pressure at times. When asked if their job adversely affected their health, just under half of them believed it did. 73% of the graduates said they spent a lot of time thinking or worrying about their students.

‘As a new teacher, I am constantly questioning whether I am doing enough in the classroom, and constantly feel a need to improve my practice, which can be exhausting.’

One-fifth of those surveyed didn’t have a teacher mentor and more than half of them reported struggling with the additional workload of VIT or TRB registration requirements.

‘There hasn’t been a lot of support in cross-marking assessments at the lower year levels, so I don’t really have a good benchmark or understanding of how I should be marking the students fairly.’

Just under half of the graduates surveyed felt they were managing their workload appropriately. On a more positive note, 89% of them were still intending to teach the following year. Of those that were unsure, employment security was still an issue, and there

were individuals who had clearly had very negative experiences in terms of leadership and mentor support, and workplace culture.‘Workplace bullying and harassment are very common at my workplace. It is common to see a colleague crying after a meeting with leadership’.

Even if this is one person’s experience, it is clearly unacceptable. Teaching is challenging enough, without the added stress of a poor workplace culture.

In summary, while many respondents were managing workload, dealing with the myriad daily challenges, and experiencing good back up and support in their schools, this is not universally experienced. There is still much more we can do to support graduates, including pressing for more regulated arrangements about mentor support, and ensuring that we take up their issues professionally and industrially. All the graduates were offered follow up with their IEU organiser, and many commented on feeling happy that their Union had taken the time to touch base, listen, and hopefully continue to be there when needed in their working lives.

As advised to members at the end of 2017, negotiations for a new Agreement have been proceeding very slowly.

The IEU’s claim was served on the TCEO in August, but it was not until 11 December that the Fair

Work Commission officially approved the employer’s application for a Single Interest Agreement. The Notice of Employee Representation Rights (NERR) was not issued until after this, and the TCEO log of claims was not tabled until 19 December. The pace of activity has picked up this term.

What’s in the employer log of claims?

Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of claims, 31 to be precise, competing with the IEU’s 38! A few of the claims are common, such as removing any ambiguity in the Agreement, technical amendments, etc. The majority of claims however are different and, in some cases, opposing, and the IEU

negotiating team has been working our way through understanding the employer’s position and rationale for their claims.

Some claims that are in direct opposition to the Union’s push for further regulation of workload go to yearly averaging of hours for teachers, increasing the number of non-instructional, non-student days by 5, and scheduling PD outside of school days.

There are some broad claims about reviewing leadership structures, including PORs and Professional Learning Leader Allowance, which we are not in-principle opposed to, but, as always, the devil will be in the detail. The capacity to act as a single entity in appointment, location, and transfer of staff is also high on the employer’s agenda.

One claim which the IEU has already flagged its strong opposition to is ‘move towards standards-based progression for teaching staff’, which in effect is removal of automatic incremental progression. We have sought for teachers the new Level 13

rate for teachers (and appropriate retrospective arrangements), where the only pre-conditions are full registration and time at the top of the scale (12 months). We are also seeking the higher entry level rate for 4 YT graduates.

Who is on the negotiating team?The TCEO negotiating team

comprises:�� Paul Adams, TCEO Manager Human Services�� Janine O’Hea, Deputy Principal, Dominic College�� Cameron Brown, Principal, St Therese’s Catholic School�� Anita Smith, Business Manager, Sacred Heart College.

Members are represented by the IEU’s Deputy General Secretary, Loretta Cotter, and Senior Industrial Officer, Denis Matson. Loretta and Denis will report to Committee of Management and reps as negotiations proceed. There a number of meetings scheduled for the rest of term 1 and more will be set for term 2.

Slow but steady progress in Tasmanian Catholic negotiations

Respondents asked whether their job adversely affects their mental health

Unsure

23.1%Yes

43.6%

No

33.3%


Towards the end of 2017, 25 Agreements were lodged for approval at the Fair Work

Commission. The hard work of 2017 is now paying off with Agreements being approved at: St Michael’s Grammar, Melbourne Montessori School, Geelong College (Teachers), Beaconhills College (General Staff), Braemar College and Albury Wodonga Community College with plenty more in the pipeline.

Among these are the Christ Church Grammar and Life Education Agreements, both of which met with strong employee approval in their ‘votes’, and when approved will deliver excellent salary and entitlement outcomes to members.

We are waiting on Fair Work approval for Agreements at Billanook College, Hester Hornbrook Academy, Fintona Girls’ School, Mount Scopus Memorial College, Ilim College, St Paul’s Anglican Grammar, Westbourne Grammar, Southern Cross Grammar, Highview College, Preshil and The Knox School. The high number of Agreements awaiting approval is unusual. The Commission advises that they are dealing with a greater volume of Agreements at the moment and they are checking Agreements very carefully. Nevertheless, we expect the last of the 2017 Agreements to be approved shortly.

The Camberwell Girls’ Grammar Agreement has recently been voted up and lodged for approval. Improvements include 10 days paid partner leave, solid salary increases and enhancements to the school’s workload policies.

Negotiations have been proceeding at Methodist Ladies College, and while there has been conditional agreement on some improvements to existing conditions, the employer has a claim on

the table to increase workload. This is an unusual and provocative move at a time when most employers are starting to see the rationale for workload recognition. There has been overwhelming rejection of the employer claim from members, something reflected at the bargaining table where the 9 union and employee reps stated their opposition to the claim. Matters will proceed, with ‘action’ the next consideration.

At Tintern Schools we are close to reaching an agreement. The key outstanding issue is around setting dates for the school year that ensure all teachers, including those in management, have a six week break over the summer holidays. The school is working co-operatively with employee reps to find the way forward on this issue.

Bargaining is progressing well at Cornish College with meetings scheduled on a fortnightly basis. Meetings are also underway at Carey Baptist Grammar School. After a long and steady campaign to commence bargaining for a first-time Agreement at Mt Hira College the employer has agreed to start negotiations. However, scheduling meetings is proving difficult. We hope to get the process moving soon.

Drafting is well underway at Gippsland Grammar and staff can expect to vote for a new Agreement with many benefits soon.

Staff at Oakleigh Grammar are in the process of preparing to bargain. At a recent meeting there was really positive staff engagement and lots of good ideas shared about what items will form the claim. Bargaining is also underway at Woodleigh, St John’s College (General Staff Agreement), Beachonhills College and Eltham College.

Independent School Bargaining

Victoria

Tasmania

Excessive Annual LeaveIn schools the issue of excessive leave accrual is not usually a problem.

The dedicated team of employee reps have been at the bargaining table at PEGS since July last year.

Throughout the negotiations the IEU has conducted surveys to ensure we are testing and confirming the

views of teachers and assistants we are representing. Chief among the concerns raised for bargaining has been seeking measures to reduce workload pressure and achieve a strong and equitable wage outcome.

The school made a claim to add up to 5 days to the school year for Professional Learning and planning. Reps have consistently advised that this will not be accepted in the face of an already demanding workload which includes Saturday sport. Prior to our 1 March meeting the school conducted its own survey asking if staff would accept the

employment package which includes the claim for up to 5 days PL with 2 days to be set for 2020 and 2021. The package of course includes a number of benefits and a wage offer – which is not proposed to be backdated and does not address a lag in wages for Level 11 teachers. The school’s survey confirmed that the majority of staff to be covered by the Agreement will not accept the package. It is clear the main stumbling block is the proposed increase in attendance time – in effect more work rather than less.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that an Agreement will not be reached while the additional PL days remain on the table, the school advised at the meeting that this is still central to their claim and that it would not be dropped. This left our team no choice but to advise that we could not continue negotiations and to conclude the meeting. The message is clear – ‘We can’t reach a deal while PL days are on the table’.

Bargains in Brief

Negotiations on new EBAs concluded at a number of Tasmanian independent schools

toward the end of 2017 with some Agreements lodged at Fair Work and others about to go to the vote.

At Fahan, 100% of votes cast were in favour of a new EBA where the focus of negotiations was around matching Tasmanian government Band 1 Level 13 rates as well as improving the process of negotiation around co-curricular expectations.

Negotiations at Launceston Church Grammar concluded last year with staff due to go to the vote in March. The new EBA includes a revised model for the calculation of teachers’ hours, which Bargaining Reps from the primary section of the school argue is fairer. The school also improved their initial wages offer

to teachers to move closer to and then exceed Band 1 Level 13 rates in Tasmanian government schools, provided that, as is the case in government schools, teachers hold full registration with the TRB.

At Leighland Christian EBA negotiations have been deferred until later in the year when the IEU also expects negotiations at Scotch Oakburn to commence.

A new EBA covering ES staff at Hutchins has been voted up and is awaiting approval at Fair Work as is an EBA covering staff at Launceston Christian School. A new EBA covering teachers at The Friends’ School is about to go to the vote. (See related article)

Bargaining has commenced at St Michael’s Collegiate on a new EBA for ES staff. The IEU is working with members to finalise a Log of Claims.

Teachers’ four weeks annual leave is absorbed into school holidays and many Education Support staff

also have conditions that mean annual leave is ordinarily taken in term breaks. However, some ES, for example those in admin or operational services, work a 52-week year and receive only 4 weeks annual leave that can accrue from year to year if not taken.

The General Staff Modern Award has been amended to deal with the instance of employees accruing an excessive leave balance. The Award defines an excessive balance as an accrual of 8 weeks. Under the Award, an employer can now enter discussions with an employee to see if agreement can be reached for leave to be taken. If agreement cannot be reached, the employer can direct an employee to take leave as long as the following conditions are met:�� The employee’s remaining leave balance must not be less than 6 weeks�� The directed leave cannot be less than one week

�� The time at which the leave is taken is not less than 8 weeks or more than 12 months from the time of the direction �� The direction is in writing.

Equally, an employee who has not been able to have leave approved may, with similar provisos, give notice of an intention to use an excessive leave balance, and the employer must grant the leave.

In bargaining, the IEU has not seen many instances of employers seeking to replicate this new Award clause in Agreements. In most schools, excessive leave accruals are not a problem and, in the rare cases of an employee not using annual leave, the issue should be able to be resolved by discussion and mutual agreement. Where the employer seeks to adopt the Award clause to be able to direct employees to take annual leave, we will resist this claim and urge employers to manage leave via discussion and consultation. In most circumstances, we would view this clause as unnecessary.

PEGS Agreement impasse over additional attendance demand

The dedicated team at PEGS


Lutheran bargaining has got underway for 2018. To date, LEVNT have offered a package that meets a number of the employee claims. The offer includes:

�� An increase to compassionate leave from 2 days to 3 days for injury or illness that poses a serious threat to life�� An expansion of study leave to include assessment leave�� Increased and expanded access to special leave�� 5 days paid Family and Domestic Violence leave�� Increased camp allowance for camps within Australia, and�� Salary increases over the life of a proposed 4-year Agreement ranging from over 10% to 14.75%.

The variation in salary increases arises from addressing previous

discrepancies in wage increases and providing greater increases to School Officers at Levels A, B and C.

LEVNT has not agreed to remove the 25% barrier to forming a consultative committee and has not agreed to our claims for workload to be defined within the Agreement, or to set parameters around meetings, yard duty and extras, for example. In particular, our claim to have a full-time face-to-face load be defined in the Agreement has been refused. LEVNT contends it is not possible to have a ‘one size fits all’ definition for the 15 schools in the Victorian Lutheran system.

Instead, LEVNT has offered to conduct a review of workload in all its schools and, following that, develop workload guidelines. It is proposed that the review will take place over the next two and half years. Employee reps are unanimous in their view that this is not an adequate response to a deeply pressing problem. We need greater assurance than a protracted

review to address the issue of workload burnout.

School Officers have asked for greater flexibility when taking leave. In some schools, many SOs feel there is too great an expectation that leave will be taken in non-term time and that requests for leave in term time are rejected out of hand. SOs seek greater clarity in the Agreement that leave can be taken throughout the year at mutually agreed times.

Our next meeting will be our opportunity to convey our response to LEVNT’s proposals. We have been gathering feedback at recent school visits and this leaves us in no doubt that, not only are workload demands high, they are continuing to grow, often without consultation. Employee reps are doing a fantastic job expressing these concerns and putting forward possible solutions – Please give them your full support for the next round of meetings!

Lutheran Bargaining: Workload at breaking point

Great bargaining result at The Friends’ School

Fantastic Independent School Agreements and Where to Find Them

Negotiations for a new EBA have concluded at The Friends’ School and the IEU is very pleased with the improvements that have been gained on behalf of members there.

The staff reps, with assistance from IEU staff in Melbourne and Hobart, ran a very

organised and unified bargaining campaign, highlighted by open and honest communication with employer representatives. While the new Agreement is yet to go to a vote, the IEU feels confident that members will vote to accept the new Teachers’ Agreement.

The key improvements in the new EBA include:�� Salary increases of 2% in January 2018, 2% in May 2018, 3% in 2019 and CPI increase for 2020. Salary offer also includes the creation of a new SCT2 rate that can be gained by staff as of May 2018 if they meet the set criteria �� Inclusion of 5 days paid Domestic Violence Leave

�� Increase in paid parental leave to 15 weeks and removal of potential pay-back clause for PPL�� Several technical changes to give clarity to all parties to the EA.

Just as importantly for staff, there were also changes and improvements to school policy as a direct result of the EA bargaining process. These include:�� Shorter notice period for LSL, down from 18 months to 6 months. There have also been some improvements to access of smaller portions of LSL in certain situations�� Establishment of a Staff Wellbeing Committee. ‘The purpose of this committee is to look at priorities and issues relating to the pastoral and spiritual wellbeing of the staff and to make recommendations to the Principal’s Committee’. EBA reps, including the IEU, feel that this could be a great forum for raising matters relating to workload and conditions that affect staff morale at the school�� Free access to the Friends’ Health and Fitness Centre for staff with a teaching load of 0.2 or above.

Staff felt very strongly that there should have been some improvements to school processes with the application and taking of long service leave and certainly feel that their concerns have been listened to as part of recent EA meetings. Issues around consultation were also raised in the previous round of bargaining and it is hoped that the establishment of the Staff Wellbeing Committee will give staff an important forum to raise issues that affect their conditions of employment.

The IEU would like to take this opportunity to thank the EBA staff reps: Duncan Gillespie, Michael Cole and David Brooks, for their hard work, both at the table and in consultation with staff and union officials.

The staff at The Friends School, through their membership of the IEU, have a strong voice in improving their workplace conditions. It is a simple fact that the more members a workplace has, the better your Union is able to represent your needs through the EBA process. Bargaining is a great time to ask your colleagues to join you as part of the IEU.

In Victoria, 85 independent schools have current Enterprise Agreements, while in Tasmania 12 have an Agreement.

These Agreements cover the terms and conditions of employment for either Teachers or General Staff or both. The

number of Agreements negotiated on behalf of members by the IEU is increasing each year, with several new and expanding schools making first-time Agreements in recent years.

Getting an Agreement for the first time or renegotiating an existing Agreement can be time consuming and can take a lot of work. So why have an Enterprise Agreement at all? Why not simply rely on the good will and generosity of your employer to provide industry standard terms and conditions of employment or even better? The fact is that the two propositions are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Whilst the evidence shows that employees in workplaces with Enterprise Agreements have higher salaries, better conditions and greater transparency, there are many workplaces, without workplace Agreements, that have the capacity and desire to provide conditions superior to the industry standard and far superior to their minimum obligation at law… and they do just that.

So, given this, what is the benefit of going through the Enterprise Agreement process?

Negotiating an Enterprise Agreement gives employees and employers the opportunity to reach agreement about what is important in their workplace in terms of processes and entitlements. An Agreement will set a better than Award minimum set of conditions and can provide transparency and clarity of conditions. Agreements can run for up to 4 years and so can provide certainty and security for the foreseeable future for both employees and employers. However, perhaps the greatest benefit for employees is that negotiating an Enterprise Agreement provides the opportunity to have input into the process of determining the shape of their working lives, as well as helping to determine the level of remuneration they will be entitled to. The ‘Agreement cycle’ means that the opportunity to do this comes up reasonably regularly and so establishes a pattern of review that can help keep conditions contemporary and relative to similar workplaces, avoiding the stagnation of conditions.

If you have an Agreement at your workplace, make sure that you have a look through it to know what you are entitled to and consider getting engaged in the next set of negotiations to help shape your working life and those of your colleagues. If you don’t have an Agreement at your workplace, have a look on our website to see what might be possible to achieve…pick out a similar school and see what applies there and do the comparison with what applies at your workplace. Talk to your colleagues, get people interested and start the conversation.

There are some fantastic independent school Agreements out there and this where you find them www.ieuvictas.org.au/pay-conditions/agreements/


Reportable Conduct: IEU presses for procedural fairness

The scheme, which is similar to the scheme in NSW, requires a school employer to notify

the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) of allegations of ‘reportable conduct’ by an employee (and also volunteer, contractor or office holder) and then report the findings of the investigation carried out by the employer, and any subsequent action taken or not against the employee.

The Commission then also notifies the reported conduct allegation to VIT (in respect to teachers), Working with Children Check, or other relevant professional accreditation body.

Since the scheme was introduced, the Union has raised a number of issues with CCYP and employer groups about the working of the scheme in practice.

Members will recall articles in previous editions of The Point which have detailed the union’s concerns

about the trivial nature of a number of complaints being made to the Commission, a lack of clarity about what ‘reportable conduct’ is, and duplication of processes, including VIT also carrying out investigations at the same time as the employer investigates the ‘alleged’ conduct.

The union has raised concerns with employer representatives about ‘reasonable belief’ needing to be formed that the alleged conduct meets the definitions of ‘reportable conduct’. In many instances employers were notifying the Commission before they had obtained any details of the ‘complaint’ and the Union believed the test of ‘reasonable belief’ had not been established.

The Union has continued to meet with the Commission, and improvements have been made to the Commission’s Information Sheets and in advice to school employers.

What is ‘reportable conduct’?The legislation defines ‘reportable

conduct’ asa) A sexual offence committed against,

with or in the presence of, a child, whether or not a criminal proceeding in relation to the offence has been commenced or concluded

b) Sexual misconduct, committed against, with or in the presence of, a child

c) Physical violence committed against, with or in the presence of, a child

d) Any behaviour that causes significant emotional or psychological harm to a child

e) Significant neglect of a child.

‘Significant’ defined in relation to emotional or psychological harm or neglect, means that the alleged harm must be more than trivial or temporary.

Further elaboration of ‘reportable conduct’

CCYP has developed several information sheets which aim to clarify the process and the types of conduct that are reportable. These are available on the

Commission’s website. Below are some of the elaborations:�� Sexual offences�� Sexual assault�� Indecent acts�� Possession of child abuse material�� ‘grooming’ a child in order to commit a sexual offence

(A full list of the relevant sexual offences is set out in clause 1 of Schedule 1 to the Sentencing Act 1991).

Sexual Misconduct‘Sexual misconduct’ is described

as capturing a broader range of inappropriate behaviours of a sexual nature that are not necessarily criminal.

Emotional or Psychological Harm to a Child

The information sheet states that for behaviour to be reportable under this category: �� A child must have suffered significant emotional or psychological harm�� There must be a clear link between the alleged conduct and the harm suffered.

The information sheet also states that ‘a professional psychological or medical assessment of the child may assist to determine whether a child has suffered emotional or psychological harm’.

Physical ViolenceThe Commission’s Information

sheet elaborates that physical violence includes an act that causes physical injury or pain. It gives as examples:�� Hitting/kicking/punching�� Pushing/shoving/grabbing/throwing/shaking�� Using an object to hit or strike�� Using inappropriate restraint/excessive force.

It also elaborates that physical violence does not include lawful behaviour and cites as examples:�� reasonable steps taken to protect a child from immediate harm, and�� medical treatment given in good faith by an appropriate qualified person.

IEU AdviceThe union is representing a

number of members in respect to the scheme. Members should contact the IEU immediately for assistance and advice if they have allegations made against them in respect to reportable conduct issues.

The IEU visits Mildura and the north-westAn IEU contingent recently visited the north-west of the state to conduct an intensive blitz of schools in the region.

The IEU was represented by Maureen Shembrey, Principals’ Officer, Stephanie Ben, an

organiser for the Mildura region, and Tracey Spiel, Education Support Staff Officer. Having all three of the IEU officers in the region at the same time meant that all members got to talk to the relevant IEU staff and receive job-specific advice and assistance. It has also allowed relationships between the IEU and the schools to be consolidated and deepened.

Issues facing principals in Mildura are no different from the issues facing metropolitan principals – construction and building red tape, staff management, parental and community expectations. In addition to all the usual leadership concerns they also can also feel more isolated than their city counterparts.

Staff in the Catholic schools visited were very happy to be reminded that there is a pay rise coming through, in line with the Memorandum of Understanding, on 1 April. Matters discussed ranged from implementation of a consultative committee process, professional practice time, fixed-term contracts, to education support staff classifications and principal wellbeing. Members appreciated the opportunity

to chat in person with IEU staff about some of their own concerns. ES staff had an opportunity to have their specific questions answered by Tracey Spiel, the IEU’s ES Officer. All in all, our IEU Organisers were welcomed very warmly in all the schools they visited, and they look forward to visiting Mildura again to further build relationships and support IEU members.

Members at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Merbein

Since 1 July last year, Victorian schools have come under the Reportable Conduct Scheme.


UNION PRESIDENT MARK WILLIAMS

Data Security Breaches

Welcome all teachers, education support staff and principals to 2018! I hope everyone’s year has started smoothly, and I wish you success in your various roles in education throughout the school year.

A warm welcome to new staff in our independent and Catholic schools, and particularly to graduates just

beginning their career in education. We need to ensure they understand and connect with the social justice principles of financial Union membership in ‘taking the burden to get the benefit.’ Experienced members should set aside the time to speak to all new staff and welcome them to our Union.

To our Union reps in schools – a big welcome back to 2018 – and congratulations to those who are taking on the role for the first time. You are crucial to the growth of our Union in your workplace. The fact that you volunteer in addition to your normal work in education is indicative of your commitment to Union, to fairness and to justice. Look out for IEU training dates so that you receive the support and information you need in your role.

System-wide Agreements will be hopefully finalised this year in both the Victorian Catholic sector and across the Strait for Tasmanian Catholic schools. Never forget the resolve, commitment, and, at times, the need to take collective action that have characterised many of our campaigns to improve conditions. Spare a thought for your negotiators who will spend hundreds of hours on your behalf!

As always, there will be the labour-intensive work in the independent sector to achieve collective Agreements, site by site, petition by petition. Thank you to those workplace reps who sit at the bargaining table with IEU assistance, and who work so hard to achieve great outcomes for all staff.

There will be our continued focus on the recruitment of teachers and education support staff in schools, particularly those on fixed-term contracts. There are still too many teachers and non-teachers on short-term contracts, which need to be challenged and changed. Tackling insecure employment is one of our highest priorities.

With you, I look forward to the year ahead, confident that we will organise and achieve great things together.

Have a great year … and gently remind your colleagues that what we work hard for, and achieve, will benefit all – members and non-members. So please remind non-members of the need to bear the burden to get the benefit for all and ask ‘Are you with us?’

The rules are brokenThe Australian peak union body, the ACTU, has released the results from the largest survey of workers ever undertaken by the Australian union movement.

There are existing penalties for data breaches in the Privacy Act. To date, the Union has not had

a single member seek help with any allegation of breaching privacy law. As with most public liability issues, the Privacy Act is mostly directed at the school itself. Unless staff breach privacy with malicious intent, it will generally be the school that will be liable if there is any breach of privacy committed.

The recent amendments are primarily directed at the reporting obligations of organisations and the new penalties are directed against these ‘entities’. ‘Entities’ are now required to notify the Privacy Commissioner and any individuals affected where there has been any data breach that is likely to result in ‘serious harm’. The new penalties are directed at entities that fail to notify.

This is not something that, in the main, individual employees will need to worry about.

To date, the Union has not had a single member seek help with any allegation of breaching privacy law.

Where a staff member has been involved in a data breach, or a failure to notify one, it is most likely that the school will be liable. If a staff member does end up ‘in the gun’, the Union’s insurance will cover members unless they have acted dishonestly. As with all professional liability insurance, the general rule

is that the employee is covered for damages and costs arising from claims of negligence, misconduct and statutory breaches unless an exclusion applies. There is, in the Union’s policy, the usual exclusion covering ‘dishonest, fraudulent, criminal or malicious acts’. Therefore, unless the breach by the employee can be shown to be ‘with intent’, they will be covered for any data breach occurring in connection with their employment.

Respecting privacy is important, and members should take care not to commit inadvertent privacy breaches (like losing a school laptop with student information on it). However, the responsibility for protecting private information rests primarily with the school, and members need not be panicked by the recent changes to the Privacy Act.

The survey shows that working Australians are overwhelmingly concerned about the difficulty

of winning fair pay increases and the threats to good, secure jobs.

Sally McManus, ACTU Secretary, says ‘Working people speak with one voice on the most important issues in our country. The rules are broken. It’s too hard to get a pay rise, but big business is getting a tax cut thanks to Turnbull. Our work is less secure and we are worried about losing our jobs but corporate profits are surging.’

‘The last decade has seen significant re-shaping of the Australian work landscape with working people losing power as precarious, insecure and non-standard forms of work have become more common and legislative and regulatory protections for working people have failed to keep pace.’

The survey of almost 60 000 people conducted from September 2017 to February 2018 found:�� 81.4% say it’s hard to get a decent pay rise in their workplace�� 91% are worried about the loss of permanent jobs for the next generation of workers in Australia�� 95.6 % agreed unions should be able to bargain with the decision makers, whether it’s at enterprise, franchise, sector or industry level�� 83.5% say its ‘extremely important’ to change the rules so employers cannot get away with underpaying workers.

The ACTU has also made a submission to the Senate Select Committee on the Future of Work and Workers Inquiry arguing that technological advances and demographic changes will only further erode the power, wages and security of working people if policymakers allow them to do so – our future working lives in Australia

depends on our governments making the right choices to navigate looming technological and social changes.

Sally McManus again, ‘Our rules and institutions have failed to keep pace with changes in the real world – changes to the way we work, the way we live and the way we interact with technology. Our lawmakers have a clear choice – if they choose to act in the interests of working people we can secure a better future where the benefits of change are shared among everyone. We can have a future of secure work, but we need to change the rules so people have basic rights.’

New legislation requires organisations to report data security breaches. Staff in some schools have been terrified by reports of heavy penalties, but are members really facing prosecution?

SAVE THE DATES17 April: Union Delegates Meeting

9 May: City Rally

More information coming soon.

Welcome back!


After a successful and rewarding career as a Library Technician at Catholic College Bendigo Sue Rawlings reflects on her working life.

I have been incredibly lucky to have spent my working life in a job I loved right up to my decision to retire, feeling

valued by my employers and secure in the knowledge that the Union had my back for 32 years, working constantly to make my pay and conditions the best they could be.

When I began working in 1983, we were an all boys’ school with 22 staff but following amalgamation with the Catholic girls’ school in 1985, numbers increased dramatically to form Catholic College Bendigo, and along with it the challenge of working in a co-ed school.

In the early years, a love of literature, the challenge of finding the most useful books to help staff and students in their research projects and preparing and cataloguing books for circulation was all that was required of me. However, that all changed with the introduction of computers, then the internet and all the technology that followed. It was a steep learning curve initially, as we had to stay one step ahead of staff and students. We now take computer

FOUNDATION MEMBER

Time to hang up the boots

Retired Member NetworkIntroducing a new network designed specially for our growing band of retired members who have left education, but still want to stay in contact with the union and its activities.

Retired members have always been a welcome and important part of the

Union’s life, and now the new network means a significant reduction to the old membership fee, based in part on how the Union affiliates to various peak bodies on members’ behalf.

Members who retire will now go into the Retired Member

Network and will receive hard copies (unless electronic versions are requested) of The Point and Independent Education, as well as access to the full range of member benefits including Teachers’ Health, Member Advantage, Ambassador Card, and Union Shopper. Members who are no longer working and join the Retired Member

Network will not be included in the professional indemnity insurance but will be covered for anything historic during their active membership.

Some members may have ‘retired’ from their school position but still intend to work as a Casual Relief Teacher and may still need industrial support. If this is you, then you

need to be in a fee category that reflects what you anticipate earning in the year.

If you want to know more about the Retired Member Network, please contact the IEU on 03 9254 1860 or [email protected]

When the Tasmanian school year moved from three terms to four terms in 2013, the Union ensured that there were a number of safeguards contained in the Catholic Agreement around days of attendance for teachers. They are:

�� A maximum of 195 days of teacher attendance�� A start date each year no earlier than the last Monday in January �� The end of the school year to be no later than Friday of the week before Christmas Day provided this is a week day�� A minimum summer break of 6 weeks, inclusive of public holidays. Where the government gazetted calendar provides for 6 full weeks (Sunday to Saturday), the break must also be 6 full weeks�� Professional learning and co-curricular activities can only be performed in school holidays with mutual agreement

Taken together, these are strong protections for teachers in Catholic schools in Tasmania about their right to a full summer break. These are protections that employers have complied with to date. The exception was one Southern school that very late last year pulled a swiftie and sent out very mixed messages to staff about a PD day before the gazetted start date for teachers. Oddly enough, the message that the proposed PD was ‘voluntary’ came very late in the piece and did not reach all staff, only a few. The IEU is now working to ensure that staff who attended and who missed out on valuable planning and preparation time are appropriately compensated.

generated library programs for granted, however, it wasn’t always that way: I can remember typing the initial catalogue card, then retyping the card several times to add subjects relating to the book, then manually putting them in order, to form the catalogue.

There have been so many new concepts and programs to absorb that Union Seminars were extremely helpful, especially the hands-on workshops lead by experts’ head-hunted by the Union to help its members to be the best they could be.

Over the years, the IEU continued to fight for not only better pay and conditions, but for equality with the State system. This of course required the support of its members, a fact that I endeavoured to get across to new staff, stressing that if they were happy to accept pay rises and better conditions achieved by the Union, it was only fair to become a financial member!

Some of the improvements achieved for School Officers were security of employment (especially for women through Maternity Leave) and transferability of Benefits (e.g. LSL), firstly between Catholic schools in Victoria and then throughout Australia. Other achievements were the ability to have your classification independently assessed, over-time paid with 33% loading, and perhaps the most significant from my viewpoint, better Call Back provisions. For over 20 years, to be paid for all school holidays, Category B support staff accepted that they could be called back where needed for what were known as ‘Recall Days’. The Union changed the fact that support staff were often called back to do menial tasks outside their own area, limiting the days and specifying the requirement to be duties specific to their role within the school. In latter years, the Union fought for and won the right for Support Staff who were required at meetings or on Open Days, Camps, Drama Nights, etc. to be paid overtime, rather than be given time in-lieu, or have time deducted from Recall.

When I think back over my working life, I realise that, unlike many young people today who will not only change employers, but even their career paths, I was lucky to be there on the ground floor when Catholic College Bendigo was formed, and to watch it grow into the exciting, progressive, well-respected College it is today. My retirement coincided with its final year as Catholic College Bendigo. From 2018 it became Catherine McAuley College, changing in name only, retaining all the wonderful attributes that made it such a special place to work.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with young people to assist in giving them a good education. In retirement, I have joined a group with a name not dis-similar to VIEU, known as VIEW (Voice Interests and Education of Women), a group who work closely with the Smith Family to help students from low socio-economic families to have the chance of a good education. By being part of this group, I can continue to make a difference in education, which is very important to me.

Joining VIEW has helped me with the transition from a busy work life to retirement. Having been in the workforce for 50 years, it takes a bit of getting used to not having a structured life. It took me quite a while to give myself permission ‘to do nothing’, but of course once you have adjusted to the changes, it’s not a problem! As a colleague once said to me, she loved retirement, because it allowed her to ‘linger longer’ and not have to rush from one thing to another.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have had a career in education, which continued to challenge me, gave me the opportunity to work with some wonderful, caring colleagues, many of whom will remain my friends, and enabled me to lead a fulfilling life, getting paid to do something I loved to do!’

Tasmanian Teacher ‘Guarantee’


CV Writing and Interview SkillsThis training provides you with the information and skills you need to enable you to plan your career path, prepare your application and ace that interview!

� Compose a CV that emphasises your skills and point of difference

� Discover how you can present yourself as the perfect candidate for the role

� Learn how to prepare, what to wear and what questions to expect at the job interview.

The seminar is aimed at all staff in schools. It will include information on careers and work, networking, CV writing and interview skills.

Please note that places are strictly limited and bookings will only be confirmed on receipt of payment. While we can try to accommodate special dietary requirements such as gluten or dairy-free we cannot cater for serious food allergies.

To Register: Email [email protected] (quoting course code CV181) to book your place.

Monday 9 April9.30am – 4.00pmFEU Conference Centre120 Clarendon St Southbank

COST: $50 for members ONLY

Learning Support Staff SeminarThis seminar is aimed at IEU members who are employed as Learning Support Staff in Victorian Catholic schools.

The seminar will focus on participants gaining an understanding of how the ES classification structure works and giving them an opportunity to examine whether their current classification is accurate.

Tuesday 10 April10am – 12.30pmFEU Conference Centre120 Clarendon St Southbankfor IEU members ONLYMorning Tea provided*

To Register: Email [email protected] (quoting course code ES182) no later than Tuesday 3 April.

* While we can cater for dietary requirements such as gluten or dairy free, please note that we cannot cater for more specific food allergies.

Chasing underpayments just got easier

Fixing the fixed-term problem

Already this year, around 20 staff in one school got the good news that they were

being made ongoing. In other schools, the IEU has been able to work with employers to see the bulk of Learning Support staff made ongoing.

Obviously access to ongoing work is very important to every worker. Being on a fixed-term contract means never knowing if you have work the next year, as well as making it harder to access necessities like a basic home loan.

Former Catholic primary principal, now IEU Organiser Maureen Shembrey, said that there has been some misunderstanding in schools about the use of fixed-term contracts. She said that the publication of the CECV Guide to Fixed-Term and Casual Employment made the circumstances where a fixed-term contract can be used much clearer to Principals.

‘Principals have been working under a misapprehension about the application of fixed-term contracts. For example, the practice in too many schools has been to employ all, or at least most, learning support officers on fixed-term

As Support Staff, you have set hours of work and are entitled to be paid

overtime if you work beyond your normal hours. Some employers fail to keep proper records, so chasing overtime money has often been a difficult exercise, but the game has just changed.

We have always argued that it is the responsibility of the employer to keep the records and, if they failed to, then the court should accept whatever evidence the member puts up. The courts

have been sceptical, but our position has recently become the law.

In September last year the Fair Work Act was changed to insert a new section which says, in short, if an employer was required to keep pay records and failed to do so, then instead of the employee having to prove their claim, they can just make the claim and the employer has to disprove it. Unless the employer has a ‘reasonable excuse’ the court will accept the employee’s evidence about the amount owed.

Over the years the Union has retrieved huge amounts of money for Education Support staff members, a lot of which was unpaid overtime.

The IEU continues to have success in several Victorian Catholic schools with a significant number of staff, many of them in education support, being converted from fixed-term to ongoing employment.

Employment for a specified period of timeUnder the VCEMEA, there are seven reasons for the appointment of an employee as fixed term in a school:1. The employee is employed to undertake a specific project or

task where funding has been made available for a specified period of time

2. The employee is employed to undertake a specific task which has a limited period of operation

3. To replace an employee on approved leave for greater than 11 weeks

4. An employee terminates their employment after the commencement of the school year or prior to the end of the school year, and a replacement employee is required (provided the fixed term contract does not extend beyond that school year)

5. To avoid a redundancy situation6. Where an employee is employed as a Primary School Principal7. Where an employee has been issued with permission to

teach from the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT), provided that the fixed term contract does not extend beyond the permission being granted.

So what does this mean for you? Most importantly:1. Overtime must still be ‘authorised’. Your employer needs

to be aware of the hours you are working and authorise or condone them. If in doubt about work needing to be done, email them. For example, ‘All that prep work needs to be done before Monday. It will take about four hours. Do you want me to do it on the weekend?’ Otherwise the employer will say they didn’t require you to work the extra hours.

2. Keep your own records of additional hours worked in a diary. If your employer has not kept good records, then your diary will be enough evidence to make out the time worked.

contracts using the argument that these positions were linked to funding and therefore had to be fixed-term. The Guide explains how this reasoning is flawed and that in many circumstances it is appropriate for all LSOs to be employed on an ongoing basis.’

There are seven reasons why an employee in a Victoria Catholic school can be on a fixed-term

contract and employers must state which of these reasons applies when engaging a worker on a fixed-term contract. The IEU encourages all members who are on fixed-term contracts to check their validity and to contact their Organiser if they have any questions.

ES staff can email our ES Officer directly at: [email protected]


Managing Chemical SensitivityLife in the 21st Century means chemicals are present in our day-to-day environment in increasing quantities.

An emerging hazard, known as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), is beginning to affect increasing

numbers of people who no longer have an ability to tolerate chemicals at doses far below those considered by the authorities to cause harmful health effects. This hazard is a condition where previously healthy individuals experience non-specific symptoms when exposed to chemical odours at very low concentrations.

Can you imagine how different life would be if you suddenly become sensitive and reactive to the chemicals in everyday products? Yet this is the case for an increasing number of people who have mild to extreme reactions when exposed to low concentrations of a wide range of everyday chemicals. Petrol and diesel fumes, woodfire smoke, cigarette smoke, perfume, deodorant, after shave, hair spray, cleaning chemicals, detergents, fragranced products, and insect repellent are just a few of the array of circumstances that an individual affected by MCS may be adversely affected by. According to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM), MCS has emerged as a hazard because we are surrounded and immersed in a soup of an increasing array of potentially hazardous chemicals which affect more and more people.

Employers generally have little knowledge of MCS as a hazard and will often ask questions such as, can chemicals cause injury at low concentrations? What mechanisms cause employees to become extremely sensitive to chemicals? What kinds of chemicals are involved? Often employers will want to know the specific substance the worker is reacting to, but that is often like looking for a needle in a haystack as many products form a cocktail of substances.

The elimination of the hazard at its source must be the first consideration, and if this is not possible, then the hazard must be controlled

Often, because the worker is the only employee displaying symptoms, it is difficult to gain recognition of MCS as a hazard in the workplace. It is common for such employees to feel isolated, ostracised and ‘the problem’. It is generally accepted that the onset of MCS occurs in two phases, the first of which is exposure, often to a high concentration of a substance, followed by triggers that initiate a variety of symptoms to low concentrations.

MCS is real, it is not imagined. The impact of MCS can be felt in many of the body’s organs, such as, difficulty breathing, chest

pains, irritation of the mucous membranes in eyes, nose and throat, fatigue, stomach and intestinal complaints, muscle and joint pains, and skin complaints. Its impact may also be felt in the central nervous system, such as headache, dizziness, difficulty in concentration, depression, poor memory. Many affected by MCS react to an increasing number of chemicals over time, and the array of symptoms may also increase.

Whether the initial exposure occurred in the workplace or not, if MCS reactions are triggered in the workplace, the employer has an OHS duty to control the hazard. The principles of hazard management applied to other hazards in the workplace must also be applied to MCS. The elimination of the hazard at its source must be the first consideration, and if this is not possible, then the hazard must be controlled so far as is reasonably practicable through the application of the hierarchy of control. It may take some concerted and prolonged effort to identify the triggering chemical, but hazards are best controlled through either changing the working environment or changing the way work is done. Arguably, an employer fails to meet their duty to provide and maintain a healthy and safe workplace if the onus of managing an employee’s MCS is left to the employee alone.

Chemical odours are considered to contribute to a deterioration of indoor air quality. Many school working environments have spaces totally reliant on mechanical air ventilation, where there are no windows to allow natural through ventilation. In those

environments odours such as those from air fresheners, perfumes and carpet cleaning products are likely to be the most common triggering factors for MCS reaction. In Nova Scotia Canada during the 1990’s a number of schools initiated a ban on perfume and scent-containing products. This is a simple example of a prevention strategy focussing on the elimination of scented products once they were identified as a common trigger. Reducing the risk of exposure to high concentrations of chemical odours and at the same time limiting chemical odours in low concentrations will create healthier and safer indoor working environments, will reduce the risk of employees developing MCS and benefit any person currently affected.

Consultation about the management of the hazard is also vitally important and is a requirement of health and safety legislation. Health and Safety Reps and employees must be involved in the decision-making process about the use of chemicals and scents in the workplace. Information should also be provided to all employees that some in the workplace are not able to tolerate certain scents and chemical odours. By raising awareness employees are encouraged to consider others in the decisions they make about their personal use of perfumes and scented products in the workplace. When taken together, the application of the hazard management model and effective workplace consultation may achieve a reduction in overall exposure to chemicals and an improvement to the working conditions for anyone already affected by MCS.

CAREER CORNER

Saying ‘Yes’ to lessHave you ever noticed that it’s easier to accumulate roles, tasks, duties and responsibilities than it is to relinquish them? Have you ever considered applying for a new job and then recoiled in horror at the breadth and length of the position description? Conversely, have you ever resigned and then been asked by your boss to write your own position description, so the organisation can find a replacement you?!

Employees with a strong work ethic occasionally fall foul of the maxim: If

you want something doing, give it to a busy person. The risks in accepting additional work include becoming overrun with a portfolio of diverse tasks that don’t quite fit elsewhere, thereby distracting you not only from the tasks that you are passionate about and skilled at, but also diminishing your most precious resource – time. When we take on more work, we have less time for other important activities: not just our core business of teaching, planning, giving feedback, etc. but also resting, sleeping, exercising, spending time with friends and family, taking a full lunch-break! Our work-life balance is quickly skewed in the wrong direction and we risk fatigue, burn-out and breakdown.

A quick online search of ‘workload intensification’

reveals the global extent of the problem for teachers. Of course, there are several factors to blame for this: the ubiquitous and pervasive (invasive?) use of technology, the expectation to duplicate work – provide physical handouts then post a soft-copy online – the expectation that you respond to student and parent emails, etc. I even worked at one school where staff were provided with pagers: rather than students coming to find you in the staffroom, they merely had to page you at student reception for you to come to them! Likewise, the number of yard duties and the areas to be supervised seem only to increase from one year to the next.

A friend recently told me about their wardrobe strategy: Every time he buys a new shirt he commits to getting rid of an old one. It struck me that

this would be a great strategy to employ in the workplace. On the understanding that you are already employed on a full-time basis – 38 hours per week in practice – taking on any additional responsibilities would tip you over the edge. Your wardrobe is full! Yes, you could probably squeeze in another hanger, but then your shirts end up creased and crumpled, making it harder to pick one out in the morning. Staff in a prominent independent school have recently received notification requiring them to supervise Year 10 Personal Projects as part of the International Baccalaureate MYP. They are being offered a meagre allowance as incentive (several hundred dollars gross) but the school is missing the point. Staff are time-poor, seldom taking a lunch break and increasingly attending to tasks in ‘work time’, which in turn pushes

marking and preparation into the weekend to the detriment of their personal lives.

The start of a new year is a great time to take stock of your work ‘portfolio’ and, much like a wardrobe, make a mental note of the most important items and those which you could more easily jettison. Once you have established a mental hierarchy of duties and responsibilities, you are ready to implement your new policy of taking on a new duty/role/responsibility only in exchange for an existing one. You need not sacrifice diversity, relevance, or passion; indeed, it’s an opportunity to redress any imbalance in these respects and reposition yourself, gradually perhaps, within the organisation.

Try saying ‘yes’ to less in 2018 and swap business attire for leisure wear a bit more often. Your friends and family will thank you for it!


Implementing school-wide models of teaching

Looming Crisis for School PrincipalsFiona DearnSt Margaret Mary’s Primary School North Brunswick

What is your educational story? I am a product of Catholic education having attended

St Joseph’s Primary School Boronia, Mater Christi College Belgrave, and attained my initial teaching qualification at what was then known as Institute of Catholic Education (Christ College), now Australian Catholic University. I hold a Diploma of Teaching (Primary), a Bachelor of Education (University of Melbourne) and a Masters of Education – Management (University of Melbourne).

I have worked as a teacher in a variety of government and Catholic settings, with two years teaching English in Japan and Italy.

Tell us about your current school and its setting.I was very fortunate to be appointed to the position

of principal at St Margaret Mary’s Primary School Brunswick North at the beginning of Term 4, 2017. What a warm welcoming community I have joined! We are a small school of 132 with 7 classes – one Foundation class and six composite classes throughout the school. Our motto is ‘A small school with a big heart’ coined by one of our Year 4 students, and this pretty much sums up the feeling at St Margaret Mary’s.

What is one thing that you are passionate about in education?

Being involved in the education of our young children in their formative years is such a privilege. To support children to feel connected to their school, their teachers and their peers, and providing opportunities for them to learn and discover their passions and be proud of who they are is so incredibly important. My mission as an educator is for children to be engaged and challenged through ownership of their learning.

What do you believe is the greatest challenge facing schools today? Why?

Schools are constantly being caught in the ebb and flow of political decisions. Education should be left to educators. It is no use comparing our schools with those overseas and then holding us to ransom. Our society, our cultures, our organisational structures are not the same. Be inspired and informed about practices around the world, but holding us up to be compared only denigrates the work that we are doing at the local level. Our teachers are amazing! They are constantly learning about best practice and face constant challenges each day. My job as a leader is to inspire and empower teachers, through evidence-based research and support, to do what they do best.

What are your interests outside school life?I am a voracious reader. I love historical fiction,

history and literature. I am passionate about social justice and I am a member of Amnesty International and GetUp!. I love to travel, with Italy being my number one destination.

Why are you an IEU member?I believe in the power of the collective. Without the

Union we might still be considered babysitters rather than professional educators. It is through the Union that we have lifted the professional status of teachers. Through a collective voice we have stood up for our rights as professionals. I have always been a proud Union member, either AEU or IEU. Together we are stronger!

Share your favorite ‘Pearl of Wisdom’.Authenticity is fundamental as a teacher and a leader so

my pearl of wisdom which came from an advertisement years ago: Do what you want but always be you.

The results from the Australia-wide Principal Health and Wellbeing Survey 2017 paint a troubling picture of the health and wellbeing of school leaders.

The longitudinal study in its seventh year, cites workplace violence, steadily increasing

workloads, and lack of support from employers as key factors. The sheer quantity of work and lack of time to focus on teaching and learning were the two biggest causes of stress.

ACU Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, Philip Riley, said the results indicated the demands on principals were unsustainable. ‘When you have one in five principals showing serious signs of distress then it is a systemic problem, not an individual problem,’ Dr Riley said.

Principals expressed frustration with political and bureaucratic interference. Dr Riley commented, ‘Politicians love to be able to say they’re going to radically change education for the better and what that usually means is a hell of a lot of extra work for principals without actually very much real change. Rather than trusting principals to do their work with honesty and integrity, it’s been replaced with massive checklists that they spend a lot of time filling out.

We’re really at a point where we have a looming crisis in terms of school leadership and we have to address that. The very first thing is to say we have a serious issue and we need to change the way we’ve designed this job. It’s virtually become impossible to be a school principal and survive for a long career.’

Dr Riley said the most worrying finding was that principals rated the level of employer support at less than one, on a scale of ten. The Report recommends better policies and resources to support principals be put in place, noting that principals do not receive sufficient levels of professional support and are instead expected to learn to cope on the job.

One Victorian Catholic Diocese is leading the way in its support. Catholic Education Sandhurst lead by Director Paul Desmond, has committed to a two-year Principal Wellbeing Project: strategic in its approach and aspiring to ensure Principals are well, valued and supported. The validated strengths of principals are acknowledged and form the basis for a health- and wellbeing-centred approach to enable a proactive response. The implementation of the strategic framework will ensure ongoing formation and development of principals, resulting in effective leadership of school communities.

Principal Wellbeing Project Officer, Julie Cobbledick, has worked over the past year consulting with principals,

attaining Sandhurst-specific data, researching best available programs and resources, and creating professionalism, trust and ‘buy-in’ by the group. An Executive Health Check Program and Professional Supervision, both voluntary and resourced by Catholic Education Sandhurst, have had remarkably high take-up, and there is a level of energy and purpose around the program. With the generous resourcing and support comes expectation and commitment for self-awareness and action, and many principals appear to be finding a better balance in their lives as a direct result of the Program.

Under the terms of the current Memorandum of Understanding between the IEU and CECV, Clause 3.19 refers to Principal Wellbeing. ‘The parties acknowledge the increasing demands of the role of principal in Catholic primary schools. In addition to the jointly commissioned independent review of workloads, the CECV will provide access to:�� An Assistance program for principals (EAP) in relation to wellbeing�� Access to voluntary confidential health checks.

Whilst there is no current information around how this will look, it is a step in the right direction to act on this ‘looming crisis.’ So let’s hope that the great work in Sandhurst is the catalyst for addressing the issue across the state.

PRINCIPAL PROFILE

My undergraduate teaching degree was completed at Macquarie University NSW in the early 1980s.

Our formation was by teachers, seconded to the university, who demonstrated from their own

lived experience how to teach all the students we would encounter in a teaching career.

We were taught all about different models of teaching that were broken into ‘family groups’. I was never able to clearly distinguish between the personal family of models and the social family of teaching models. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my life as a secondary teacher and trust that most of the students whom I taught had positive education encounters. What I clearly remember from our training was that we were charged with the responsibility and the autonomy to choose the right model. They are interesting ideas – responsibility and autonomy.

One of the challenges facing teachers in the renewed ‘models of teaching’ approach is the adoption of school-wide approaches. Teachers are mandated to adopt a specific approach or model chosen by the school. In wide

use in Australian schools are Hattie’s Visible Learning, the McRel Classroom Instruction that Works, and Marzano’s Model of Teaching Effectiveness. Some schools have been through a process to develop their own model. The mantra is always ‘consistency of practice’. However, in some schools this has developed into an approach in which the teacher is an input to a formula. Someone draws on the research to say that if as teachers we all do X, then the students will achieve Y + 0.4 (the effect size). In this scenario there is a genuine risk of teachers becoming robots or ultimately being replaced by robots.

The implementation of school-wide models has a significant impact on teacher autonomy. Teachers are discouraged from making their own professional decision about the framework that they implement. A school-wide model does not recognise that teachers are at different stages of their professional development. Models or structured approaches to teaching might support graduate teachers but limit the effectiveness of expert teachers.

Expert teachers know that they must choose the right approach to meet the learning needs of any student at any given point in time.

Expert teachers have built a diversity of teaching practices that they bring to each education encounter. Expert teachers engage in ongoing professional learning to maintain and build their repertoire of teaching practices. Schools need to take care that they do not limit teacher autonomy and teacher responsibility for their own professional learning by introducing a ‘cookie cutter’ approach to teaching and learning

At TLN our approach is to support teachers to be ‘the best teacher they can be for every student in every class at every moment of every day’. This is an ambitious and challenging goal. Teaching is a complex and demanding profession – perhaps the most difficult of all the professions. Teachers have heavy workloads and must meet demanding measures of accountability. However, just as the best teachers do not limit the creative potential and autonomy of students, schools and those who support teachers must not limit the creativity and autonomy of teachers.

Keep these thoughts in in mind as your school discusses its pedagogical approach in 2018.

Michael Victory, Teacher Learning Network


Guns, Education, Trump… and Seth

Crunching the numbersThe IEU statistical boffin, channelling his inner Antony Green on election night, has been crunching the recruitment (and lapsed member) numbers for Victorian workplaces since 2000.

IEU push for equal payThe NSW/ACT IEU has been preparing a comprehensive claim to advocate at the Fair Work Commission later this year on behalf of 12,000 university qualified teachers employed in long daycare centres and preschools in Australia.

Seth was instrumental in organising an IEU sub-branch and continued as IEU rep for the rest of his tenure

at the school. He was offered the position of Visual Arts Domain Leader at St Columba’s College in 2004 and has been in that role ever since.

He served as the IEU representative on the Consultative Committee for many years, and remains a passionate supporter

Dear editor

Donald Trump has my vote! Arming teachers is a wonderful idea – the kind of thinking that only a person of Trump’s intelligence and foresight could articulate. Remember, he went to the ‘best schools’ and has the ‘best words’ so it naturally follows that he has the ‘best ideas’.I believe that Mr Trump’s declaration about arming teachers was metaphorical in its intent. Surely he wasn’t talking about training our American colleagues in handling actual assault rifles. He was, instead, suggesting that they should be ‘armed’ with exciting, collaborative learning spaces, access to a range of technologies that support learning, a curriculum that emphasises the development of critical & creative thinking skills, school leadership that is visionary and daring, and governmental bodies that provide the necessary funding to make schools places where the next generation of citizenry is able to become both personally responsible and socially conscious.

The image of 21st century teachers holding assault rifles as they write on whiteboards, provide timely feedback to individuals on their learning or develop relationships with students whilst, say, on yard duty is so ludicrous that a ‘really smart’ man like Mr Trump would be incapable of such retrograde thinking. Way to go Donald...I’m onto you!’

of the union movement. Since the 2016 election of Donald Trump, Seth has taken to writing angry but clever letters to The Age, expressing disappointment with the direction his native country has taken. Two of his previous opinion pieces appeared as feature letters, and his most recent one, involving the issue of guns and education, appears here in its original form.

Seth Seiderman came to Australia in 1992 from San Francisco, California, and began his teaching career in the visual arts at St Michael’s Grammar School St Kilda.

For members, they can be comforted that overall for the period, the ‘ins’ do exceed the

‘outs’. However, just as Disraeli is credited as saying ‘Lies, damned lies and statistics!’ there are some interesting trends and indicators when the beads on the abacus are being flung around.

In recruitment on a year-on-year basis since 2000, there is a consistent trend that 30% of people who are recruited to the Union are actually lapsed members of the IEU who re-join. This reflects an axiom from a business model perspective: the best customer you have is the one you already have; with the next best being one who has been a customer before as they are familiar with what the business has to offer; whereas a brand-new customer can be harder to get through the door and then more importantly, sign on the bottom line. The more interesting statistic of the 30% re-joiners in that time is that over 38% were originally members prior to 2000 i.e. they were members in the last century!

On members who have lapsed since 2010, excluding the obvious reasons

that the Union has no control over such as retirement, travel overseas/interstate, or leaving our sector, those who joined between 2010-2017 constitute 34% of the members whose membership lapsed in that same time.

In fact, 50% of the lapsed members since 2010 originally became members since 2008. This, again in business terms, is described as churn i.e. where a member/customer drops in and out of accessing a business and its services. In making this analysis, it is recognised that those who may join early in their careers may face the issue of life cycle financial priorities e.g. home loans and commencing a family, which may mean union membership is regarded as a discretionary commodity rather

than as an essential commitment.We need to encourage members

to remain members on a long-term basis to enable the organisation to grow and, more importantly, to plan for the future. When you put the two above features together – recruiting pre-2000 members and churning more recent members – there is a potential generational impact which we need to address as those who are joining are likely to be over 40 years of age whilst those who may be the new members or churning members are of a younger demographic.

The moral of the story being that, as a Union, we need to grow to stay strong and more importantly, we then need to ensure that members remain with the Union on a permanent basis. One pleasing aspect of the number crunching was that there is very little evidence of dissatisfaction with the Union being the reason members allow their membership to lapse, so when members join, they are happy with what they are accessing from the Union in individual or collective support.

30% of people who are recruited to the union are actually lapsed members of the IEU who re-join.

Early childhood teachers, of whom the majority are paid at the Modern Award rate, can earn thousands of dollars less than their primary

teacher counterparts. Over 95% of them are women, and the IEU will argue that gender has played a significant role in the way their work has been valued and remunerated.

The IEU has comprehensive written statements from members who have worked as early childhood teachers, primary teachers, moved between both settings, and expert evidence. It is clear that, when compared to similarly qualified primary teachers, there is a high degree of commonality in qualifications, skills, standards that must be met, and work undertaken.

A witness working two days a week in a NSW long daycare centre earns $140 a day less than when she undertakes casual relief teaching at an independent primary school. Her responsibilities at the long daycare centre include creating and maintaining a quality improvement plan, reviewing all centre policies, ensuring children’s safety, creating individual learning programs for any child with additional needs, planning, assessment, observation, and teaching. She receives 40 minutes time release a week from her teaching to undertake the policy and accountability aspects of her role.

The IEU application will be heard in the latter half of the year. If successful, it will mean a pay increase of between 25% to 59% for Award-reliant early childhood teachers, depending on their classification.


Training Reps as leaders

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

2018 Schedule

The role of good school leadership is regarded as a critical element in moving a good school to a great one.

When we think of school leaders, our minds usually go to picture the principal, deputies or assistant

principals and co-ordinators, but the leadership role of sub-branch reps on behalf of members in their school is sometimes less acknowledged but just as crucial.

As a group, IEU reps are generally natural leaders which is how they find themselves placed in this role by their peers. Author Jeremy Sutcliffe, who has explored the vital qualities of educational leaders, summarised them: 1. Passion, 2. Emotional intelligence (EI), 3. Judgement, 4. Vision, 5. Courage, 6. Resilience, 7. Persuasion, and 8. Curiosity. These mirror

our experience of the qualities that make good reps and, through experience and training, we seek to support our reps as they develop these skills.

Our IEU reps are a very impressive bunch of members and, while these qualities are present in each and every rep, the balance between these qualities is more individualised. Working with reps to assist them to develop these qualities as well as build planned approaches to address workplace issues is a key element of Rep Training and the work of Organisers and reps together beyond training.

If we concentrate on just the top 3 qualities, an interesting insight into the skills our IEU rep leaders develop and use in their role emerges. Passion for their workplace to be a positive, always improving place to work is a commonality. Passion about respect and collaborative approaches is also something that

resonates with most reps and members. Importantly, as passionate educators, no matter their actual role in a school, reps are also passionate about the core business of schools – the provision of high quality education. The life of a rep is rarely dull. A trip down the corridor juggling the half-cold coffee cup on top of a load of resources might find itself interrupted by a colleague seeking advice. One of the reasons reps often find themselves in the role is that they are natural listeners and supporters to colleagues. These EI skills also assist in finding the middle ground when issues become fractious in schools. EI is about understanding the importance of relationships and building trusting, open, empathic approaches to resolving issues. The development of judgement especially about what approach might work best in finding resolution to workplace issues is a key aspect of the work of the Union. The

ability for a rep to make the right call rarely happens in isolation. The involvement of the membership and the IEU Organiser is important in moving people forward together, the very essence of collectivism.

The development of these qualities and the skills that support them is central to building strength in our Union, particularly at a workplace level. As advocates and the face of the Union in workplaces, reps find themselves demonstrating leadership in every aspect of their work as reps. We look forward to working with you to develop your knowledge and skills and look forward to seeing you, our union leaders at Rep Training in 2018 – upcoming dates are Experienced Rep 20 March and IEUA National Forum 25-26 May.

For further details see www.ieuvictas.org.au/membership/training/

Three Day ProgramsWho What Where When Price

Early Career Teachers

Differentiation and explicit teaching

AEU Building Abbotsford

Three day program

9 May 2 August 19 October

$690 for IEU members

Early Career Teachers

Relationships, Wellbeing and Resilience

IEU Building South Melbourne

Three day program

6 June 7 August25 October


Teacher Leaders

Refocusing your teaching career through informal leadership


Three day program

14 June 15 August 13 November


Emerging Leaders

Strategic planning for emerging leaders


Three day program

9 May 2 August 19 October


Principals and senior leaders

Leading in the Moments that Matter


Three day program + 6 online sessions and one to one coaching

17 May 18 May 24 October


The Teacher Development Centre works in partnership with TLN to bring high quality professional development to teachers and support staff across Victorian and Tasmanian schools. These programs are full-day ‘attend in person’ courses that are fully catered.

STEM ProgramsWho What Where When Price

Primary and Secondary teachers

Teaching problem solving through design thinking

IEU BuildingSouth Melbourne

Thursday 3 May



Understanding natural and artificial intelligence


Friday 10 August


Primary and secondary curriculum leaders

Leading a team to develop a STEM curriculum


Thursday 15 November


Leadership ProgramsWho What Where When Price


Getting started with coaching in your school


Thursday 7 June



Mediation skills for conflict resolution


Friday 3 August


And MoreWho What Where When Price


Orthography: a new insight into improving literacy outcomes


Tuesday 5 June


Graduate teachers

Classroom management for graduates


Monday 7 May


Education Support Staff

Managing conflict in the workplace

IEU BuildingSouth Melbourne

Tuesday 31 July

$150 for IEU membersAll registrations at

www.teacherdevelopmentcentre.org.au or email Michael Victory – [email protected] or phone 9418 4881.

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It’s a win-win situation.

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* Competition Terms and Conditions 1. The promoter of the ‘win a car’ competition is Victoria Teachers Limited, trading as Bank First, of 117 Camberwell Road, Hawthorn East, Victoria, Australia, ABN 44 087 651 769. 2. Entrants must be over 18 years of age and a resident of Victoria to be eligible to enter. 3. The competition is not open to contractors or employees of Bank First, IAL or CGU and is conditional on acceptance of these terms and conditions. 4. The competition period is from 9am 5 February 2018 to 5pm 4 May 2018. The total prize pool is $28,300: split into 1 major prize of a Mazda 3 L 6 speed Auto Sedan Touring in Snowfl ake White Pearl, valued at $25,300 with 1 year CGU Comprehensive Car Insurance; and 3 minor monthly prizes of a $1,000 fuel voucher each. 5. To be eligible for the prize draw customers must take out a Car, Building, Contents, combined Building and Contents or Landlords Insurance policy with Bank First during the competition period. The policy must be held for a minimum of 30 days and still be active at the time of the draw. If the winner no longer holds the qualifying policy at the time of the draw, the prize will be forfeited and redrawn until an eligible entry is selected. 6. All valid entries will be placed in the major draw and in each eligible minor monthly draw. The eligibility period for each minor monthly draw is 5-28 February, 1-31 March and 1 April – 4 May 2018. Each minor monthly prize draw winner will be excluded from subsequent minor monthly prize draws but will remain eligible for the major prize draw. 7. The major prize draw will take place on Friday 8 June 2018. The three minor monthly prize draws will take place on 13 April 2018, 11 May 2018 and 8 June 2018. For the draws on the 8th June where both a minor monthly prize and the major prize will be drawn, the fi rst drawn entry will win the minor monthly prize and the second drawn entry will win the major prize. All draws will occur at 10:00am at Bank First, 117 Camberwell Road, Hawthorn East. 8. The winners of the prize draws will be notifi ed by telephone and advised in writing. The winner of the major prize will also be advertised from Tuesday 12th June 2018 on our website, bankfi rst.com.au and in the relevant month’s newsletter (eSlate). All winners must agree to the publication of their name, suburb and photograph for publicity purposes. 9. All minor prize fuel vouchers will be sent via registered post within 21 days of the prize draw. Lost or stolen vouchers are unable to be stopped or replaced and vouchers are not redeemable for cash. All vouchers are subject to the terms and conditions associated with the voucher. The major prize winner must collect their prize within 28 days of the prize draw from Penfold Mazda Burwood, 59 Burwood Highway Burwood VIC 3125.The major prize is unable to be substituted or modifi cations made. 10. All prize draw results are fi nal and no correspondence will be entered into.

Victoria Teachers Limited ABN 44 087 651 769, AFSL/Australian Credit Licence Number 240 960

Call 1300 654 166 Visit bankfi rst.com.au/win-a-car


Student Member RecruitmentIEU organisers and our Union Summer interns have, alongside the AEU, been blitzing education department orientation events across both Tasmania and Victoria to sign up students to the IEU.

A Graduate’s YearAs I sit down to write this entry, I have just completed my fifth week of teaching. On my own. Not as a pre-service teacher. Not being supervised. Not temporarily. As a teacher; and I am exhausted. I am happy and I love it, but I am so unbelievably exhausted.

CRT Conferences

Understanding and Responding to Student BehaviourWednesday 4 April

Teaching a group of students is complex. There is always more to learn about how to respond positively to student behaviours. This conference explores student behaviour by seeking to understand how and why students typically behave in classroom environments. Understanding

the behaviour is the first step in responding positively.

You can attend at the AEU building in Abbotsford or participate online via the live video stream.

Each Conference offers:�� Professional support and insights from some of Victoria’s best classroom practitioners�� An opportunity to connect with a wide network of CRTs working across Victoria�� Seven (7) hours of recognised professional development

to support your ongoing VIT registration�� Full service professional development with catering and a professional conference environment�� The opportunity to interact with staff from the AEU and IEU union offices�� Access for CRTs across Victoria with online streaming of the conference by TLN.

For more information and to register, www.tln.org.au/crt

CRT members at the recent CRT Kickstart session.

This is a great opportunity to speak to newly enrolled education students about the importance of unions in

the education sector and also providing a relaxed and informal way for them to speak to fellow-students, lecturers and organisers from both unions.

Already this year we have signed up well over 500 new student members, adding to more than 2000 members continuing from previous years.

Student membership of both education unions is free, and gives education students access to great events such as the always popular PD in the Pub and our annual ‘Get That Job!’ conference. Student members are also entitled to free expert advice on any contract they are offered when they start looking for work – this is a must given the far too high incidence of graduate teachers being put on fixed term contracts without valid reason.

If your school is taking on education students for their professional placements this year, or if a friend or family member is studying education, make sure you to encourage them to join the IEU as student members!

If you know anyone who has missed out on joining as a student member, they can join online here: www.ieuvictas.org.au/membership/join/

I am teaching Year 7 Humanities, Year 11 Psychology and Year 12

History Revolutions and Legal Studies at an independent school in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. My teaching load is heavy for a graduate teacher, but I am wonderfully supported by my colleagues who continually check-in with me and throw resources at me like there’s no tomorrow. My situation is complicated somewhat by the fact that I am also completing my Masters in Education part-time at Monash University.

These past five weeks have involved a significant amount of lesson planning until late into the evening, followed by falling asleep at my laptop as I try to complete University readings. It has also involved a significant amount of running to the bathroom desperately at the end of teaching two classes back-to-back, worried my bladder may burst, interspersed with apologising to my colleagues who had to cover my yard duty because I forgot to take over from them during the second half of lunch.

One of the things I am most pleasantly surprised by is how quickly I managed to learn all my students’ names, and how quickly I am getting to know them all. I am also learning the names and faces of my colleagues, although not quite as quickly, I am a touch disappointed to say. I am also pleased with my ability to manage my time – so far I have only had a couple of particularly late nights spent planning or marking work.

In terms of things I am finding most challenging so far, it is without a shadow of a doubt my age (I will be 23 in September), and my inexperience.

Each Tuesday after school, I have a meeting with either my Humanities or Science faculty interchangeably. Apart from a couple of other teachers, most of my colleagues are at least ten years older than me, the oldest being nearly 50 years my senior. In this situation I can find it difficult to contribute to the meeting, as I am cognisant of my inexperience, and

consequentially I don’t want to step on any toes. I am, however, getting better at contributing to meetings in a meaningful way, whilst recognising my experiential limitations. My students are also very aware of my age; however, this has (so far!) proven an advantage in establishing a rapport with them.

Over the course of this year I will be reflecting on my experience as a graduate teacher, commenting on the challenges, highlights, pitfalls, and rewards of my first year of teaching. I will likely focus on how I manage my workload and work/uni/life (if time!) balance, and what I have learnt over the course of the year. Hopefully, when I next check in, I will be better at making it to my yard duties on time.

...I am wonderfully supported by my colleagues who continually check-in with me and throw resources at me like there’s no tomorrow.

PD in the PubOne of the most valuable graduate benefits is free access to our PD in the Pub series. Hosted jointly by both education unions, they feature outstanding facilitators providing expert practical advice for early career (first 3 years) teachers. Bring a non-member along and if they join on the night we’ll give you a free double movie pass!

Check www.ieuvictas.org.au for details.

The IEU and the AEU are supporting the professional development of Casual Relief Teachers with an innovative series of conferences.

Authorised by CSF Pty Limited (ABN 30 006 169 286; AFSL 246664), the Trustee of the MyLifeMyMoney Superannuation Fund (ABN 50 237 896 957). This information is about the Fund and is general information only. It has been prepared without taking into account your personal investment objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not intended to be, and should not be construed in any way as, investment, legal or financial advice.

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Green Schools

Union Summer 2018The IEU was again very glad to host two interns as part of the Young Workers Centre’s Union Summer program this February. Union Summer is a great opportunity for young activists to experience life working for a union, and to brush up on their industrial knowledge and campaigning skills.

International RoundupTeachers remain on strike in the west African country of Guinea, with unions representing teachers and other public sector workers calling for the economic shutdown of the capital Conakry. A 40 % pay rise was agreed with the government in October last year but has failed to be honoured. Instead a 10% pay rise was offered in February, an offer rejected by teachers and their unions. The strike seems likely to be drawn out, with unions stating, ‘For as long as the 40% increase with back-pay is unpaid…we will not be going back to school’. The strike action adds to political uncertainty in the country with the government refusing to release results from elections held in early February.In West Virginia USA, education workers and their unions remain on strike after they thought they had achieved a significant win as the governor announced a 5% salary increase which the state legislature subsequently rejected. Teacher and other education staff went on strike over low wage rates and health care premium rises. Teachers had previously been offered a 2% wage increase with further 1% increases due in 2020 and 2021 – an effective pay cut as these increases are not scheduled to even keep up with inflation. Teachers, education staff and the community have been protesting at the Capitol in Charleston, which had triggered the increased offer from the governor.Primary and secondary teacher unions in Greece are taking protest action to demand the hiring of more teachers to ease the workload on those teachers left in a system decimated by funding cuts and austerity measures. There has been a rise in strike action in the country as the government debates yet another round of austerity measures imposed on the country by creditors, measures that include limiting the ability of union members to strike.And finally, new teachers in government schools in Alice Springs Australia received a rather odd item in their welcome pack from the education department – an anti-cannabis ‘pot’ plant which encouraged new teachers to grow thyme rather than marijuana. The education department has apologised, and asked everyone to ‘chill out, man.’

For more information, call 1300 853 352 or email [email protected]

ieuvictas.memberadvantage.com.au

Introducing a new benefit website for the IEU VIC TAS Members.

The new Member Benefit website has been re-designed to offer the ultimate user-friendly experience with improved navigational and

functionality while allowing you to see the full benefit range on offer. Access your benefits directly from:

Rediscover great benefits and fantastic savings!

To assist boosting a school’s capacity in environmental education, connecting with local community groups is becoming more widespread.

There are many independent and government organisations as well as community groups that schools

can connect with to gain a wealth of information and assistance.

In 2017 Students from Penbank Campus – Woodleigh School on the Mornington Peninsula swapped the classroom for the creek when they became involved with a Balcombe Moorooduc Landcare Group habitat project. This collaboration resulted in the students gaining knowledge in how to research, design

and create habitat for indigenous fauna along a section of the Balcombe Creek at Mt Martha. They had the opportunity to engage in hands-on learning through habitat creation. This partnership between a Landcare group and the school also encouraged the involvement of the wider school community, including parents, grandparents and siblings. It has encouraged the students to engage with their community outside of the school and assist in caring for their local environment. This arrangement made by the Penbank Campus – Woodleigh School also won the Junior Landcare Team Award in 2017.

Another collaboration with Landcare saw St Michael’s Catholic Parish Primary School Ashburton receive funds through a Powerful Youth Projects grant to transform a section of the school that

was a virtual dustbowl, into a dry creek bed filled with indigenous flora. The improvement of the site has resulted in a healthier natural space, where plants now grow, insects and other creatures can thrive and dust run off no longer pollutes the area and surrounding waterways. The development of such a unique and immersive natural space within the school has encouraged a greater connection with nature and fosters a real appreciation for the natural environment.

For more info go to: www.landcareaustralia.org.au If your school is engaging in environmental education, and you think others would benefit from hearing about your project, contact [email protected] with your story for the next Point.

We were privileged to have Julia Donovan and Maddie Toohey

with us for three weeks. In addition to working with IEU staff, they visited schools, and helped enormously with our student recruitment blitzes.

They also undertook a research project in conjunction with interns at the AEU, looking how the two education unions can better engage with student members and build an understanding of, and engagement with, unionism amongst the next generation. Their report contains several important ideas and recommendations that we look forward to working through.

We asked them to tell us about their time with us:

Julia told us that ‘a

highlight for me was going out with the organisers to their school visits. The IEU is privileged to represent so many different schools across Victoria and Tasmania, and I was lucky enough to visit both primary and secondary schools. I was inspired after my visit with Tracey to see Educational Support staff members. She is doing such fantastic work around educating and supporting ES staff who are often the most vulnerable when it comes to job security. It was also great to speak with the IEU’s Industrial Officers who took time out of their schedules to sit down with us.

After three weeks with the IEU, I feel like I have a solid grasp and am more confident to have conversations about

union values, even when I may not know the right thing to say. I hope that one day, I’ll be able to ‘fix things’ and work towards change that improves lives as well. A huge thanks to all the staff at the IEU for making us feel so welcomed and valued in your workplace. It is both encouraging and inspiring to be in a workplace that is led by two strong women, Deb and Loretta.’

Maddie said: ‘Though I started Union Summer vague as to union mechanics and the overarching values more generally, my quick turnaround from union novice to keen unionist was propelled by my placement at the IEU. Walking through the doors of the IEU you’re warmly welcomed, and I instantly observed that friendliness is

coupled with unbelievable care, dedication, and passion. While this was immediately tangible, each day as we sat in on bargaining meetings, talked to Organisers and Industrial Relations experts, we both remarked on how inspiring IEU staff are. We felt instantly absorbed by the sense of pride each IEU staff member takes in their work. It was nothing short of inspiring. Thanks to all the IEU staff who allowed us into their office and offered their advice, time and expertise!’

For more information about Union Summer and the other great work being done at the Young Workers Centre go to www.youngworkers.org.au/ and www.facebook.com/youngworkerscentre

The Unions Tas Women’s Committee organised a Quiz night for IWD.

Representatives from several unions battled to be the quiz champs, but more importantly to raise funds for the Hobart Women’s Shelter who often use their funds to buy essential items for vulnerable women.

Jess Munday, Secretary Unions Tas, reminded participants that the union movement would continue to push for including domestic violence leave in EBAs in Tasmania, an area that the IEU in Tasmania and Victoria continues to be proactive in pursuing in EBA negotiations.

Unions Tasmania

Moving towards EquityOur branch of the IEU is participating in several initiatives as part of the Women’s Agenda in 2018. One of the key initiatives is to Change the Rules relating to our federal structures. The IEU Federal Council voted recently to formalise changes to the representational rules for delegates to that Council to mandate equal representation of women. There is also a commitment across all branches to examine every level of their structures through a gender lens. It is hoped that in this way our organisational structures can be more representative of our broader membership.

International Women’s Day Roundup

Press for ProgressThis year, the United Nations is asking the global community to #PressForProgress and be tenacious in accelerating gender equality and empowerment.

With the plethora of equity and inclusion programs and projects across the world, how is it that we are slowing down

our progress when we should be speeding up? Research shows that the strongest forces behind persistent gender gaps are harmful social norms and stereotypes that limit expectations of what women can or should do. These outdated norms discriminate against women in many situations and are deeply ingrained. Since all areas of life relate to gender equality, effort must be made to cut the roots of gender discrimination wherever they appear. The IEU is committed to:�� Challenge the formal and informal structures which continue to prohibit gender equity�� Challenge stereotypes and the perception of the ‘ideal worker’ which is held by many employers and governments. Women, who are more likely to have responsibility for caring, simply do not fit into these false perceptions of the ideal worker. �� Challenge sexist language and behaviour in all contexts as such attitudes only serve to reinforce gender inequality�� Campaign to ‘Change the Rules’ legally and industrially to protect and enhance the position of women. We need greater access to secure part-time flexible work, to paid family and domestic violence leave and to stronger superannuation provisions which recognise the caregivers.�� Campaign for effective education of both men and women to raise awareness of the issues affecting women, particularly regarding sexual harassment and violence.

It is important that men and women do not shy away from discussing gender equality with employers and work colleagues. We urge you to do this in your workplaces. We cannot make change if we do not speak out.

Debra James, General Secretary, and Ged Kearney, former ACTU President and federal Batman candidate, at the IWD Gala event.

B.O.L.D.These initiatives work nicely alongside the IEU Build our Leadership Development program which began in March 2017 with a Women in Leadership Conference. The program aims to connect women with professional development opportunities and activities, developing leaders within our Union.

Health and Safety is a Gender issueAnother key part of our work this year will continue to focus on the health and safety of our women members in their workplaces. It is unacceptable for our members to experience harassment, discrimination or any form of Gendered Violence in the workplace. We will be bringing out more Women’s Rights at Work (WRAW) Chats to workplaces to help identify key issues facing women in their schools and we will continue to run Gendered Violence webinars with Health & Safety Reps.

> Continued from page 1

IEU Celebration - :: HomeIn 2016 and 2017, she programmed Real Talk, a ... TH NT March 2018...

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