Vol. 7 No. 2 September 2012 The newsletter for the Early Childhood Education sector

In this edition

• Are You Covered By a Federal Agreement?

• Quality Professional Development

• Supporting Rural and Regional Areas

• Your Questions Answered

• Time Crunch: Impacts of the NQF

• Member Profile, Helen Knaggs

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Is Your Kindergarten Covered by a Federal Agreement?

Our union continues to help kindergartens secure enhanced conditions under agreements

Our union continues to urge all members to ensure their kindergarten is covered by a Federal Agreement.

An approved Collective Agreement is essential not only to secure enhanced wages and conditions for members in the ECE sector, but also to navigate changing legislative requirements placed upon kindergartens following the implementation of the National Quality Framework (NQF).

For example, an Agreement is the only way in which community kindergartens will be able to deliver the Government’s new “15 hour” educational program mandatory under the NQF.

The old state award and any preserved State Certified Agreements limit a teacher’s contact hours to 27.5 per week. Consequently it would be impossible for the one employee to deliver two programmes.

An Agreement, particularly in light of this legislative environment, is mutually beneficial for employers and staff to facilitate the implementation of the 15 hour programme.

Background Information

Until 2011, Queensland Kindergartens that had not negotiated a collective agreement were covered by the Early Childhood Education Award (ECEA). However, the recent phasing out of this Award meant that workplace and employee entitlements became vulnerable. The expiry of the longstanding ECEA automatically reverted kindergartens back to an unreliable preserved state agreement which would not guarantee the surety of employee entitlements.

Since the expiration of ECEA legislation, our union has been working diligently with members to protect their working conditions. However, there are still kindergartens that are not covered by a Federal Agreement.

How to Implement an Agreement

If you do not have an up-to-date federal agreement, please contact our union as soon as possible.

We will approach your employer with a request to commence negotiations. There is legislation in place to ensure that an employer responds to such a request.

Many kindergartens have recently succeeded in protecting their workplace conditions by registering an Agreement.

Our union commends members who have joined together with their colleagues and negotiated Agreements, and strongly urges any members employed in kindergartens without an Agreement to start the implementation process.

■ Contact our union on enquiries@qieu.asn.au or call 1800 177 938. Further information is also available on our website at www.qieu.asn.au/earlychildhood

All About AgreementsWhat the former state award covered

The ECEA granted conditions such as an Hours of Duty clause prescribing maximum hours of work; specifically (for teachers) a maximum of 27.5 hours of contact time and 10 hours of other early childhood duties. Further, members were covered by a clause that protected a number of conditions, including access to accrued Long Service Leave accruing at the rate of 1.3 weeks for each year of service.

Developing a new agreement

Our union provides necessary assistance to reach an agreement with your kindergarten committee. Our assistance will mean there is no cost - either in time or money - for your committee in negotiating an agreement.

Disadvantages without an agreement

Without a Federal Agreement, your kindergarten is covered by an older state agreement.

Under old state agreements, it is highly likely that employees have been disadvantaged by out-of-date wage rates and the cancellation of entitlements.

Professional development is an integral component of teacher development.

As an ongoing activity designed to increase levels of expertise and understanding, professional development should also, where possible, be a process that works individually with the strengths and needs of a specific education professional in order to create higher capability and understanding.

Professional development comprises active and reflective engagement in a range of professional experiences that are considered supplementary to the day-to-day responsibilities of a teacher. The intent of professional development is to enhance the skills, knowledge and understandings of teachers and school officers in order to enhance student learning outcomes.

Professional development can be employer provided, linked to systemic programs and initiatives and delivered by private providers; it can comprise additional formal study, be school-based or even offered by professional associations and networks, such as unions.

IEUA-QNT members recently undertook professional development at a joint IEUA-QNT and Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU) conference.

The ‘Challenging Times: Sustaining Professional Practice Conference’ included a range of presentations that addressed key issues in relation to the Australian Curriculum and the pedagogies necessary to assist students to make the most of their learning opportunities.

Members in the early childhood sector were particularly able to access relevant professional development through the ‘Maintaining early childhood pedagogy in a data driven environment’ workshop presented by Professor Sue Grieshaber from the Queensland University of Technology.

Rhonda Murphy and Leanne Cameron from Cannon Hill Kindergarten and Community Preschool and Peter Dart and Jennifer Burke from Sacred Heart School, Yeppoon (pictured, above) attended the conference.

Attendees said the conference provided a healthy dose of current and energising thinking and research and helped to re-focus on how educators can sustain their profession in the modern world.

Not only are union conferences considered appropriate professional development for members, but so are union-run training such as Industrial Relations in the Workplace.

Members interested in undertaking union-run training should speak with their Organiser about what training is most relevant for their professional development.

Accessing these professional development opportunities available as part of your union membership is an ideal way to help maintain your teacher registration and increase your skills.

■ Information about upcoming union events and training can also be found on our union website at www.qieu.asn.au/events.

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More Kindergarten Places For Regional Areas

Up to 220 extra kindergarten places in eight key rural and regional communities will be established by 2014 as part of a new scheme announced by the Queensland Government.

The extra places will be provided by building new kindergarten services on state school sites, and increasing the number of kindergarten places provided by existing early childhood education and care services in five rural communities. Three new kindergartens services will open next year on state school grounds at Peak Crossing State School, Mareeba State School and Mitchell State School. A tender process will be conducted to select the service provider for these new services. Providers will also be sought for extra kindergarten places in Mackay South, Miles and Chinchilla in 2013 and in Emerald by 2014. Further information about this initiative can be found on the Office for Early Childhood Education and Care website: http://deta.qld.gov.au/earlychildhood/.

Quality Professional DevelopmentHow Your Membership Can Help

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Your Questions AnsweredFrequently Asked Questions about issues that affect you the most

Wage increases from 1 July 2012 – when will they be paid?

A significant number of individual kindergartens have signed federal enterprise agreements that contain a wage increase clause ensuring wage relativity between kindergarten employees and state schools.

This clause maintains the traditional alignment between wage rates for employees in community kindergartens and those of state schools. However, there is no legal obligation for individual kindergartens to pay wage increases under this clause until the wage increases in state schools are determined.

The wage increases in state schools are currently the subject of negotiation. Once the wage increases in state schools are determined, wages for teachers must be increased by the same percentage movement, and the same quantum, as wages for teachers employed in state schools. The wages for employees other than teachers must be also increased by the same percentage.

Individual kindergartens will need to process a back payment for wage increases to 1 July 2012. Our union will notify members and individual kindergartens when wage increases in state schools are determined.

Some kindergartens’ federal enterprise agreement do not contain a wage increase clause. In these circumstances, the kindergarten may, as a matter of good faith, commit to maintaining wage parity with state schools. In order to guarantee this commitment, the kindergarten’s federal enterprise agreement should be varied to include a wage increase clause. Our union can provide assistance to members in negotiating this with their employer.

Do changes need to be made to the 2013 teaching calendar?

Community kindergartens have traditionally followed the state school academic calendar. In 2013, and for the forseeable future, the calendar is 40 weeks. To meet the Queensland Kindergarten Funding Scheme requirements, kindergartens must offer children 100 days or 600 hours of care. A 40 week year gives kindergartens less time to provide the hours that they need to meet their funding agreements.

C&K recently suggested affiliates could meet the funding requirements by adding an additional teaching week to reach 100 days or 600 hours.

To determine whether changes are necessary, kindergartens must consider how many days or hours of educational programme are offered per week, and then multiply this weekly number of educational programme days or hours by 40 weeks. If this results in a figure of 100+ days or 600+ hours of educational programme, kindergartens can proceed with 40 teaching weeks in 2013.

If 100 days or 600 hours is not met with 40 teaching weeks then an adjustment will likely be required in the form that C&K have suggested. In this context, a direction from kindergarten management committee for employees to nominate an extra teaching week will likely be considered lawful and reasonable provided it does not result in teachers or assistants working more than 37.5 hours or 38 hours per week respectively.

However, community kindergartens have traditionally matched the academic calendars of state schools and our union believes this practice should be retained as far as possible.

Time CrunchChanging Legislation and the Impact on Workload

With the recent implementation of the National Quality Framework (NQF), employees in Queensland kindergartens are increasingly struggling to keep up with new requirements of this legislation.

Due to the inadequacies of the funding scheme, teachers in early childhood settings face the threat of teaching additional hours without sufficient recompense or reward. The increased costs resulting from the introduction of Universal Access have resulted in parents paying higher fees.

Attempts by some kindergartens to save costs by limiting the working hours of employees other than teachers have also resulted in increased workloads.

The Universal Access requirement to provide a minimum of 600 hours of an educational programme for a child in the year immediately before compulsory schooling is a problematic element of the new framework.

The long standing provision of the Early Childhood Education Award (Qld) that the maximum number of hours for a teacher teaching an educational programme was 27.5 per week already represented the highest number of teaching hours for a teacher in an educational setting in Queensland.

Lorraine Douglas from Geebung C&K said the new framework meant a considerable increase in the amount of paperwork and planning that needs to be completed alongside regular tasks.

“We are all having to do a lot more paperwork and documentation required for recording the children’s learning and progress. We also need to have more staff meetings to discuss, reflect and plan,” she said.

Lorraine hopes the process of meeting the NQF requirements will become easier over time as staff gain familiarity with the principles but said additional pupil-free time may help to relieve some of the pressure.

Meeting with the MinisterOur union highlighted the issue of increased workload and other problems associated with the introduction of Universal Access during a March meeting with the Federal Education Minister Peter Garrett.

IEUA-QNT Senior Officers John Spriggs and Ros McLennan advocated for a series of enhancements for the early childhood education sector to help improve the conditions of kindergartens staff.

Minister Garrett was receptive to members’ concerns highlighted by our union and welcomed continuing correspondence on key issues.

IEUA will continue to seek commitments from state and federal governments to appropriately recognise the ECE sector and its employees through adequate levels of funding.

■ Visit our website at www.qieu.asn.au/earlychildhood for more information.

How did you get into teaching?

I always wanted to be a teacher. I grew up on a farm and a maiden aunt who lived with us was a local teacher. It didn’t put me off teachingwhen she said: “Whatever you do in life, don’t be a teacher because it is a thankless life.”

My three sisters also became teachers and my daughter is one now too, so we just must have it in the blood.

How long have you worked in ECE sector?

I have always worked in the Early Childhood sector, first in state preschools, then in an indigenous centre, and now in a community kindergarten.

I have been Director at the community kindergarten where I work, Yeronga Hyde Road, for 20 years and have always taught full time.

What have been some of your career highlights?

Career highlights have been watching certain children unfold in the time they are in the centre, and seeing the gratitude and joy on their parents’ faces as they see this formerly shy and reticent child rise to meet the world’s challenges.

As I have been at this centre so long I often hear the success stories of former pupils and it is a great feeling to know you helped them along the way.

What key professional issues do teachers currently face?

Teachers are asked to be hard working, highly professional, motivated,

innovative, and dedicated but don’t get the support and recognition from the community for their efforts. I was in Europe last year and saw a local teacher in the village at mid-afternoon. She said she was having time off because she was compensated for all ‘out of school hours’ requirements of the job, which in this case was Parent Teacher Interviews the evening before. She asked: “Do you receive this time off as well, to preserve your work/life balance?”

Do ECE teachers face particular issues?

This year the ‘quality assurance’ processes involved in Self Assessment and the Quality Improvement Plan, as part of the National Quality Framework have created a huge workload for directors and staff in community kindergartens.

Furthermore the changes necessary to comply with the legislation have been difficult to get on top of. With the changes there is now an increased liability on Directors like myself, which means many jobs that could once be delegated have to be performed by Directors alone.

Do you find union membership rewarding?

While you often have good committees of management and education consultants, I always tell staff and friends our union is your only real advocate in times of difficulty. It raises your awareness of the views and difficulties in your sector and teaching in general.

We have our union acting as our bargaining agent in EBA negotiations. Getting your head around the legalities of the agreement is difficult and we have industrial lawyers on our employer side, so it is really reassuring to know that John Spriggs, Senior Industrial Officer at our union, is looking things over and negotiating for us, always with our best interests in mind.

Have your workplace conditions directly improved because of union members working together?

Unions can change working conditions. My colleagues and I proved this some years ago when the status of our Teacher Registration was changed. A campaign that involved union members working together raised awareness to this situation and resulted in the decision being reversed.

Would you encourage your colleagues to join our union?

I think it is important to be part of our union. We all want our union to act for us if we feel we are wronged in the workplace. I think on-going membership is also very important. You need to ‘pay your dues’ in fair times as well as bad.

ISSN 1446-8972

early wordswas prepared by

Elise CuthbertsonEditor: Mr Terry Burke, Branch Secretary

IEUA-QNTPO BOX 418, FORTITUDE VALLEY QLD 4006

PH: (07) 3839 7020 FX: (07) 3839 7021

Email: enquiries@qieu.asn.au Website: www.qieu.asn.au

ABN: 74 662 601 045

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Member Snapshot

Helen Knaggs,Yeronga Hyde Road Kindergarten