Lighten the load

Have your say now about the next Early Childhood Agreements (VECTAA and LGECEEA).

To inform our Log of Claims we need your input. What do you want to change about our current agreements? What new items would you like to see included?

Find the online template here. Simply fill out the Word document with your ideas, save and attach to an email to Shayne Quinn. Please maintain the subject line "EARLY CHILDHOOD LOG."

Assistants On-Call Survey

The purpose of this survey is to gather information on the current practices within the sector for dealing with the school holiday periods in excess of the 4 weeks leave which assistants have under the provisions of VECTAA and LGECEEA. This information will assist us when negotiating the next agreements. Please open the survey here, attach and email to Shayne Quinn.

Context for bargaining our next agreements

Our two main early childhood industrial agreements expire at the end of 2012 and early 2013 (LGECEEA on 18 December 2012 and VECTAA on 26 January 2013.) The AEU can begin negotiations for these agreements six months prior to expiry. In preparation for these talks with KPV and the MAV we must initially develop a Log of Claims. This is a list of claims relating to wages and conditions presented by the AEU on behalf of its members to the employer representatives as an initial step in industrial relations negotiations.

What part can you play?

We are looking for members' feedback to develop this Log of Claims as ultimately these agreements will define your working conditions. These agreements come at an important time in the sector as we face the many opportunities and challenges associated with the early childhood reform agenda. There are a number of ways you can be involved:

Attend a member meeting in your region. Dates and venues can be found here.
Provide feedback through our online template here.
Join the Early Childhood Sector Council or attend as an observer. Our councilors are your voice through this process. They will consider and discuss the log of claims, endorse the log, discuss the negotiations as they unfold, and eventually endorse the new agreements in preparation for a sector-wide vote. More information here. (Link to sector council page with dates for 2012).
Let others know about the campaign — send them a link to this webpage, sign up to our early childhood group on Facebook, and encourage your non-union colleagues to join the AEU and be part of the collective effort.
Our campaign depends on strength in numbers.

What can we include in an agreement?

An industrial agreement can cover a range of matters related to your day-to-day work. Our agreements have, and will continue to, interrelate with other documents including the Act and Regulations, the Funding Criteria and policy documents of the day such as the National Quality Framework. For example, the Regulations determine staff/child ratios. The industrial agreements cannot alter or undermine these requirements in any way, but they can provide guidelines around caseload. Likewise, the Funding Criteria requires services to deliver a minimum number of hours in four year-old programs. The agreements cannot alter this requirement, but they can provide rules around the arrangement of hours for staff in terms of the requirements for teaching and non-teaching time, meal breaks and length of a day. It is important to understand how these various documents fit together and what we can deal with in negotiations.

The following matters can be dealt with in enterprise agreements:

rates of pay
penalty rates and overtime
allowances
standard hours
personal and annual leave
deductions from wages for any purpose that is authorised by the employer
any matters pertaining to the relationship between the employer and the employees
matters pertaining to the relationship between the employer and employee organisations covered by the agreement; and
how the agreement will operate.

There are some terms that must be included in all agreements:

a dispute resolution term that allows disputes under the agreement and the National Employment Standards to be brought before an independent person such as Fair Work Australia
a flexibility term that allows an employee and his or her employer to agree to an individual arrangement varying the effect of the enterprise agreement
a consultation term that requires employers to consult with employees if there are major changes to the business
a nominal expiry date which is the particular date when the agreement will expire; it must be within four years of when Fair Work Australia approves the agreement
a coverage term that explains who the agreement covers—e.g. all employees of a particular employer.

There are certain terms that cannot be included in an enterprise agreement. These are called unlawful or objectionable terms and include:

discriminatory terms
terms that breach the general protections provisions in Part 3-1 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act)
terms that require a bargaining services fee to be paid
terms inconsistent with the unfair dismissal provisions in the Act
terms that modify the law relating to industrial action in Part 3-3 of the Act
terms relating to right of entry which are not in accordance with Part 3-4 of the Act.

The reason for this campaign

Early childhood teachers and assistants work for the best educational outcomes for preschool children in Victoria. The national early childhood reform agenda recognises the critical role of your work to the life chances of children. But these new government initiatives have seen a profound increase in the workload of staff, in particular teachers.

An AEU workload survey (PDF 500KB) of teachers and assistants has found the profession overwhelmed by the pace of change, struggling to cope and with a majority expecting to leave the sector within five years.

The AEU is campaigning for a fair deal for teachers and assistants, to give them the resources to implement the changes — changes that the sector broadly supports.

Recognising the value of what you do is all well and good but it is fruitless without the resources to enable you to continue to do it.

For many, workload is affecting their decision to stay or leave the profession.

This would be counter-productive to the sector's ability to respond to our state and federal governments' agenda. The sector, the profession and educational programs for the children of Victoria will be the poorer should we lose committed, experienced, dedicated staff.

Our success will depend on the willingness of the sector to stand up together and argue our case for fair and just working conditions.

AEU workload survey

You can download the key findings and analysis of our workload survey here (PDF).

2011 Branch Conference Resolution

The following resolution in relation to early childhood workload was passed unanimously at Branch Conference and provides further direction for our Lighten the Load campaign.

Attached (PDF 17KB)