Know Your Agreement: Victorian Catholic Education Agreement Highlights - Part 4
This is the fourth in our series unpacking important CEMEA clauses, including some details you might have missed which could significantly enhance your working life.
The Agreement was officially approved by the Fair Work Commission on 31 July and came into legally binding effect on 7 August. Congratulations to everyone who campaigned so long and hard to make these necessary changes a reality!
Consultative Committees
(Clauses 9, 16 and 40)
Consultation is crucial to good implementation of this Agreement – and this Agreement introduces stronger consultation procedures and requirements.
Regular, productive Consultative Committee meetings ensure better decision-making, greater engagement, better workload management and higher morale. Consultative Committees have a say on workloads for all staff, plan time in lieu arrangements, make recommendations around positions of leadership, and develop email policies and meeting protocols.
Under this Agreement:
There is a new ‘deadlock’ breaking mechanism, whereby a recommendation or proposal can be formally made by 3 Consultative Committee members (rather than an outright majority)
Consultative Committees are now able to make recommendations around workload issues for all staff, including Education Support Staff, School Services Officers, and Deputy Principals
Consultative Committees plan the accrual and acquittal of teacher Time in Lieu
Consultative Committee Reps are entitled to paid training leave to ensure that they are empowered and informed.
These changes mean the voice of staff MUST be considered in discussions about important matters affecting them.
Under the terms of this Agreement, every school must have a Consultative Committee!
Read more here.
Meeting limits
(Clause 59.1(b))
Fewer meetings, more efficiently run. Every educator wants that. And this Agreement delivers the means for that outcome through the 30+8 workload model.
Under the ’30 + 8 model’ for teacher workloads, only 3 of the 8 hours set aside for employer-directed tasks can fall outside the normal 7-hour ‘attendance time’. Two of these hours can be used for meetings, but no more than one hour on any day unless otherwise agreed at the Consultative Committee.
The remaining third hour is intended for other purposes, such as before- and after-school duties or student supervision, collaborative learning, PD, directed planning, or compliance training.
Furthermore, the Consultative Committee must be given the opportunity in Term 4 to make recommendations around the efficient use of staff meeting times for the following year.
Read more.
Accident Make-Up Pay
(Clause 50)
The CEMEA increases accident make-up pay entitlements to a maximum of 39 weeks, up from 26 weeks under the previous Agreement.
Employees who are injured at work and as a result unable to safely perform their duties will in most cases receive WorkCover payments – but these payments are not made at the worker’s full pre-injury salary.
The accident make-up pay clause in this Agreement requires that the employer ‘top up’ the balance for 39 weeks to ensure that the employee suffers no drop in their income – the last thing anyone needs when incapacitated through their work.
Read more.
Stay tuned for the next suite of highlights – coming next week!
Find all our Know Your Agreement articles here
For other Agreement resources and explainers, click here
Got a question or comment? Anything you'd like to tell us about how implementation is going in your workplace? Click here to let us know!