By Matt Jarman
Senior Vice President
 

EBA update

The ballot for the 2021 Schools EBA closed Friday 17 June. Of those members who voted, 70 per cent were in favour, 28.5 per cent against and 1.5 per cent abstained. Just over 5,000 votes were received, around 2,000 more than the 2019 EBA ballot. This reflects the Australian voting pattern of 30 to 35 per cent for non-compulsory voting, such as local government elections.

School leader support

The SSTUWA would like to warmly thank School Leader Organiser Chris Booth, who retired in May. Chris provided strategic intelligence and support to our secondary schools and also across the most recent EBA. His counsel and perspective from across his wide and varied career will be missed by members and staff.

We are in the process of surveying our school leader members, enabling us to reflect on our support, service and future directions.

The new General Agreement has a variety of gains for school leaders, including:

• Compensatory leave. It is the first agreement in the country to recognise that when a catastrophic emergency occurs, principals are required to undertake a variety of additional responsibilities.

• Compliance reduction. A new section in the General Agreement and recognition by the employer that additional workload must be addressed.

• Level 3 Deputy time allocation of 0.3FTE for primary deputies. To be reflected in the one line budget.

• Centrally funded professional learning programs for school leaders will include the cost of travel and accommodation where attendees are regionally based.

• DoE commits to the review of the current reclassification model for principals and deputy principals.

June State Council Conference

The June State Council Conference (10- 11 June) was at the Hyatt Hotel to cater for the largest attendee list we have had since the start of the pandemic. The membership endorsed the SSTUWA as a member of the Public Sector Alliance and to continue to challenge the state government wages policy as a key strategy. The WA Police Union is now an affiliate, taking the membership close to 150,000 public sector workers, with multiple agreements to expire before the end of this year.

President Pat Byrne announced to State Council that the SSTUWA will be conducting a report into the current work value of school leaders and teachers in WA. We ambitiously aim for the report to hand down preliminary findings by the 2022 November State Council. The purpose of the report is to lead an investigation ahead of our next EBA round commencing in June-September 2023. School leaders will be consulted to participate in the report.

AEU update

AEU Federal Secretary Kevin Bates told June State Council Conference that the AEU is “hopeful” the change in federal government will see a change to public school support and funding. New Education Minister Jason Clare attended public school in Cabramatta and has widely referred to his public school education. He also met with AEU Federal Executive this month, the first time a federal education minister has done so for a decade.

The Online Formative Assessment Initiative (OFAI) remains a key issue for all states and territories; we continue to advocate the OFAI needs to go based upon our own history in WA with learning progressions and student outcomes.

The SSTUWA would like to thank Pam Pollard and Kerryn Woodhouse, supported by members of the school leadership reference group, for their submission to the National Productivity Commission review into the National School Reform Agreement. Professor Pasi Sahlberg and national convener of Save our Schools, Trevor Cobbold, collated information from across the country to form the AEU submission.

DoE Reclassification Review

This working group recently stated its intention to complete the review by the end of this year. The SSTUWA is represented by Pat Byrne and David Lee.

DoE – VRO, social media and parent liaison progress In response to leader member concerns and changes in the expectations from community and the employer in recent years the SSTUWA continues to work with the DoE on these issues: Violence Restraining Orders (VRO) – We are seeking protection and clarification for all staff school but especially school leader members, regarding the responsibilities when VROs are administered.

Social media defamation – We have agreed outcomes with the DoE and both parties are currently clarifying legal issues. Several recent cases elsewhere in Australia continue to give hope that the DoE and SSTUWA will be able to advise how an employee can act and be protected if defamed.

Parent liaison with complex cases – The SSTUWA continues to raise member feedback with the Minister’s office and DoE senior officers; it remains far from resolved.