Report Back from May 3 Meeting of AEU ACT Branch Council

1. Main Action Points From the Meeting

a) Special Branch Council May 15: A special branch council meeting will be held at 5.30pm, Thursday 15
th
of May, venue TBA. It
will be one hour only and will solely focus on the single issue of financial control of the union: see union governance below.

b) Public Education Dinner May 22: It will be a great night. Youre invited. Were encouraged to book a table for our school. More
details and buy tickets at http://www.aeuact.org.au/2014_public_education_dinner

c) If you know someone who would be a worthy recipient of the 2014 Public Education Award please nominate them before May
16. Details here: http://www.aeuact.org.au/public_education_awards

d) Two vacancies on Branch Executive, a general membership representative and a preschool representative, Interested
members are invited to put in an expression of interest. Details will be communicated soon.

e) Could one person from each sub-branch executive, please send a staff list (like the phone extension list) to lead organiser,
Andy Jennings, at aeuact@aeuact.org.au. This will help focus recruitment efforts.

3. Union Governance Report: New laws mean, as things stand, every AEU councillor (over 100 of us) is legally required to
receive a full day's financial training before June 30. Given the logistical challenges involved, Branch Executive (which is made up
15 elected members) has proposed that financial control of our union be transferred from Council to it. The June 30 deadline
means there is some urgency but it's a significant change so a vote will be held at a special meeting of Branch Council which will
be held on Thursday 15 May, 5.30 -6.30pm, at HBCTL. It's hoped all members will have a chance to reflect on the proposed
changes and convey their views to their councillor before then.

4. Training for AEU members and sub-branches: As part of measures to empower workplaces, AEU lead organiser, Andy
Jennings, will be rolling out a range of training packages. They will be available in a mix of formats: some are workshops for sub-
branches held on site at the sub-branch (i.e. school); others are held off site and available for individual members to access; others
will be made available as web-based training. In Term 2, sub-branches can choose one of the following options to be delivered in
their workplace:

The power of a sub-branch: how to write a motion (how to empower our workforce by building collectivism)
The recruitment conversation (how to converse with non-members)
The role of the workload committee (all schools should have a workload committee and this workshop seeks to assist this
committee to appropriate provide solutions)
Andy also flagged an intensive three-day course he is developing. Committed activists in our union will be able to access this
training by taking paid Industrial Leave

5. Donation to the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union: Comrades in WA defied draconian legislation which means you
can be called before a commission with no right to silence, limited recourse to legal representation and without permission to tell
anyone. They now face threats that bailiffs will come to their homes and requisition the property of workers who cant pay off fines.
Branch Executive made $2000 donation of support to send strong message of solidarity and that we will stand up to intimidation.
Council endorsed a letter of support.

Questions without notice

Report that AEU emails to act.gov.au are being blocked. Communications Officer, Tom Greenwell, will look into this.
Open days for schools on Saturdays: Glenn will look into it and will see how widespread this practice is
Provision of ICT: orders have taken up to 7 months to arrive. More conversations with employer continuing.
M-teach (UCs Masters of Teaching): there are teething problems, lack of support. Addressed below.
Relief teacher being required to work every line plus duty. Everyone is entitled to 30 minute break. Relief Teachers are
increasingly organising together to address this and other issues. However, nature of casual work means relief teachers
have less bargaining power. Sub-branches encouraged to raise issue of reasonable and prudent relief teacher workloads
through school workload committees
Teachers on LSL or extended sick leave being expected to come in to work. This is not a reasonable expectation. Its also
dangerous; employees on leave are not covered for many situations.

MTeach (University of Canberra Masters of Teaching): UC now offers Master of Teaching, this is replacing Dip. Ed. Masters of
Teaching is distinct from Masters of Education, Masters of Teaching is more practice-focused. There are five school clusters in the
ACT, preservice teachers start off by doing intensive 4-5 weeks at UC, then allocated to clusters. In one cluster 20 preservice
teachers allocated to 3 schools and do 60 hours of teaching across the 3. $45,000 is provided to each cluster. Professional
associates in cluster schools take preservice teachers and do work including marking MTeach assignments. Professional
associates receive no payment (unlike when you get a normal preservice teacher). Roger Amey says professional associates
needs more time and that time needs to be resourced by the Directorate (rather than at the school level). Concern raised from the
floor that this is yet another example of an external agency making decisions impacting on us in schools, without consultation.
While sympathy for MTeach students and the concept was expressed, range of concerns raised about practical impact given lack
of consultation, lack of resources. Secretary, Glenn Fowler, will pursue this with the Directorate.

Heating and cooling solutions: Glenn wrote to Minister Burch. Minister Burchs reply acknowledged the Labor Governments
commitment of $70 million for refurbishment of older school stock but did not commit to devoting this money to ensuring there are
satisfactory heating and cooling solutions in all schools. We have included this matter in our enterprise agreement claim.

Public Education Week: May 15 Launch. Art displays at public libraries and hospitals throughout the month of May. May 22
Dinner. Great night for $40. This year we have Brian Schmidt, Nobel Prize Winner, first Australian Nobel Prize winner in Physics for
a century, absolute pinnacle of profession, proud advocate of public education. Public Education Awards please nominate worthy
recipients. Friday May 23: Showcase of art and music at Westfield Belconnen. Was in City Walk last year, trialling a shopping mall
this year. If it works, well do Woden or Tuggeranong next year.

National Disability Insurance Scheme: ACT Government will be withdrawing from provision of Early Intervention Centres. This
will affect 27 teachers, 23 school assistants, impacts school psychologists, 20 school locations, 302 students. This is happening as
of the start of next year. ETD have been uncommunicative. One meeting of school assistants so far, another one on Monday. ETD
reluctant to concede there are retrenchments occurring. Our members to be advised if their jobs will no longer exist at some point
in the future. We also want to know where the children will go. Dont want a situation where children are not getting what they have
until now, arrive at our schools aged 4, and theres gaps in their progress.

Teacher Enterprise Agreement: Two meetings since serving our claim. First: decided protocols of how meetings will be
conducted. Second meeting: we presented our claim. ETD not formally bargaining with us yet, theyre waiting on instructions from
ACT Government cabinet. Then well find out what they want. Meetings occur alternatively at an ETD venue and an AEU venue.
Around half of our 28 claims will cost money and our core claim reduced face-to-face teaching time will be a significant cost.
Our objective is to convince the ETD bargainers and the Minister of the merit of our claim and to give the Minister the information
and arguments to then convince cabinet.

Accelerated Incremental Progression: ETD has changed the process so assessment of eligibility for acceleration through the
salary scale is school rather than system-based. ETD changed this process without adequate consultation (contrary to requirement
to consult in the EA). In regard to substance of changes, were worried about 1. workload shift to schools 2. consistency, 3.
disincentive to apply (because it will increase colleagues workload), 4. colleagues granting pecuniary advantage to other
colleagues. Were open-minded about improving the procedure around Accelerated Incremental Progression but the employer is
obliged to consult appropriately with us before making changes. On instructions from Executive, Glenn has formally notified the DG
were in dispute, invoking the Dispute Settlement Procedure.

School Funding: COAG rally at the Hyatt was a huge success. Very disappointing that State and Territory leaders, including Chief
Minister Katy Gallagher, did not insist that Gonski was discussed at the meeting. Communique states it will be discussed at next
meeting (like the last communiqu said). Disability forum May 12 high-level forum to highlight that a big part of Gonski is loadings
for students with disabilities. On May 20, AEU Federal will be lobbying MPs from 20 target seats. The fight will go on. It will be a
2016 election issue. Were disappointed that the Canberra Liberals, unlike interstate Coalition counterparts, like Mike Baird, are not
supporting Gonski.

Senate Committee on NAPLAN: Unanimous recommendation of committee (with members Libs, ALP and Greens): there should
be quicker turn-around of NAPLAN results; tests should be better designed for students with disabilities and students from non-
ESL backgrounds; test should be used to target funding to schools with high-needs not for simplistic league tables. Commonwealth
Parliament has officially criticised crude league tables via this inquiry, calling the practice disingenuous.

Reliability of ICT: System-wide crash the other day. Fourth crash this year. Bad for teachers, bad for students, bad for community.
Motion passed:

That given the ACT Government has spent tens of millions of dollars on IT for ACT public schools and that the use of and
integration of ICTs is a priority of the National Curriculum. The AEUACT demands the ACT Government provide the support
required to ensure the IT network in schools (schoolsnet) is available for use at all times, including remote access through the
enclave. That if the ACT Government fails to respond immediately to this request that the AEUACT make this a public issue.

May Day Rally: Council finished early so we could attend May Day Rally at Old Parliament House. Over 300 people attended to
mark May Day and condemn the attack on our community the Commission of Audit and the upcoming Budget represents.