IEU wins for staff stood down during COVID lockdown

The IEU has recorded another major legal victory, with Peninsula Grammar agreeing to pay IEU non-teaching staff for the period they were stood down during the first COVID lockdown in 2020.

The four staff members will receive payment for the period they were stood down.  Meanwhile Peninsula Grammar has incurred huge legal costs fighting this case for nearly two years – when it could have just paid the employees and avoided the fight. 

The matter was due for a five-day hearing in the Federal Court after two years of litigation, but settlement was reached outside court.

Non-teaching staff are often the lowest-paid workers at schools. The result sends a loud message to any school tempted to use the pandemic as an opportunity to cut costs by dipping into staff wages: The IEU will pursue them doggedly to uphold the legal rights of our members. 

Every other school which attempted to avoid payment of wages for stood-down workers reconsidered their position in the face of legal action from the IEU.  Not for the first time, Peninsula Grammar was an outlier.

In November, the school was found guilty in the Federal Circuit Court of “unconscionable conduct” over its failure to honour fee discounts of $300,000 promised to a senior teacher with her kids at the school.  When remote schooling started, the school tried to cut the discount.  The Federal Circuit Court said the blanket imposition of the lower discount “was grossly unfair” to teachers who had secured higher discounts.

Again, the IEU fought on behalf of the staff member all the way to the Court and Peninsula Grammar lost the case.  That cost the school the fees and their legal costs - and they were ordered to pay the Union’s legal costs.  At that time, Victorian IEU General Secretary Deb James told the Herald Sun Peninsula Grammar had engaged in “multiple attempts to pass the costs of lockdowns on to staff, from standing down employees without pay to dishonouring negotiated fee discounts”.

“It’s a real shame to see a wealthy institution like Peninsula Grammar displays such little loyalty, regard or care for hard-working staff,” she said. 

In the upcoming first edition of The Point, the IEU’s newspaper, we will discuss the decision with one of the employees stood down by Peninsula Grammar.