Updated: the delicious tale of ‘Tim Tam-gate’

Many IEU members will be aware of the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office’s ongoing obsession with disrupting the work of the IEU and doing everything possible to keep IEU Organisers away from Catholic school staff. You can read some of the backstory here.

Recently, their strategic manoeuvres plunged to new depths of desperation.

HR Manager Richard Heyward, following the collapse of his claim that the IEU has been discriminating against him on religious grounds, recently wrote to one IEU Organiser (renowned state-wide for his limitless supply of Tim Tams), attempting to ban him on Workplace Health and Safety grounds from bringing snacks into schools on his visits.

The IEU responded to Mr Heyward with this letter, advising him of a number of important further steps he should take in order to rid Catholic schools of the deep and serious risks presented by free snacks.

Having got wind of this, IEU members across the state had a lot of very tasty fun, posting selfies with the apparently lethal foodstuffs. This caught the attention of Tasmania’s leading newspaper The Mercury, which featured ‘Tim Tam-Gate’ on its front page.

In response, the TCEO incredibly doubled down on its OH&S angle, which didn’t convince IEU Victoria Tasmania general secretary Deb James. She said the snack ruling was merely an attempt by CET to “frustrate” the union.

“We are advised that the TCEO has written to principals, asking them to demand explanations from any staff who have shown support for the IEU through the public consumption of sweet snacks,” Ms James said. 

“We’d strongly advise Mr Gaskin and the TCEO to focus on rebuilding very damaged trust relationships across Catholic education rather than the petty pursuit of staff who have spoken up about this absurd ban. 

“As always, we will vigorously defend any IEU member who is subject to unfair or unreasonable treatment in their employment.” 

The facts behind Tim Tam-gate

The IEU asked if there was any substance to the TCEO’s concern in our letter. They did not respond but then they went to the media with the story about students raiding a pack of Tim Tams in a staff room. 

There are thousands of staff and tens of thousands of students in TCEO schools: imagine how many peanut butter sandwiches there are in the playgrounds - full of the substances the TCEO was supposedly worried about. And the TCEO are worried about a Tim Tam in the staff room. Perhaps they should be more worried about students being unsupervised in the staff room!

When Mr Gaskin comes out to defend the indefensible, it confirms what people already think of the TCEO. The comments on the Mercury’s online article reflect what we hear every day: staff in Catholic Schools know that the TCEO treat them with contempt and the resentment is widespread. When the Mercury asked whether staff would be punished for having photos taken with Tim Tams the TCEO refused to answer. Let’s see how they go punishing hundreds of employees for having a sense of humour.

Bargaining

It is nearly a year since the last Agreement in the Tasmanian Catholic sector expired. The TCEO have repeatedly failed to meet and ignored our requests to meet. We had to go to the Fair Work Commission to force them to meet. Staff are sick of the delays. 

The TCEO claim they are “negotiating directly with their own staff”. That’s laughable. The TCEO set up what they call a “portal” for employees to interact with them, but it’s more of a vortex. All staff can do is send in messages to HR which HR respond to or not. 

It’s not a negotiation when you can’t even have a discussion.

The Agreement is 160 pages long. It covers wages, all kinds of leave, performance management, workloads – everything.  Which staff members have the time, inclination, and knowledge to re-negotiate that with the TCEO’s HR team and their lawyers?

The claim that letting staff send a few messages to HR is “negotiating” is preposterous. But the TCEO clearly think their own staff are stupid enough to believe them.

Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) Checks

The TCEO demanded IEU organisers produce a WWVP check to be allowed to visit schools and their offices. Our organisers only meet with staff. We have no contact with students, and the governing legislation does not require us to have WWVP registration.

The TCEO know perfectly well that they let in visitors of all sorts to their schools without WWVP registration. It’s only union people that the TCEO insist should have registration, even though they are fully aware that we are not required to have it under the Act. They even insist on it when we go to the TCEO office – which has no kids anywhere near it!

The bottom line?

It’s not about bargaining with their staff – it’s about trying to frustrate the union.

It’s not about child safety – it’s about trying to frustrate the union.

It’s not about a Tim Tam in the staff room – it’s about trying to frustrate the union.

The TCEO are behaving like 1980s ideological throwbacks – and it’s great for us. While many unions are struggling to maintain membership, our Union is growing – and it’s largely thanks to behaviour like this. We also have many members Mr Gaskin knows nothing about – including the majority of schools’ leadership!

Behind all the joking, we are deadly serious: The TCEO needs to lift their game. They need to stop treating their staff like idiots, respect the work their employees do and get on with bargaining for a new agreement. 

And if they start behaving like adults, we’ll offer them a Tim Tam too.

Responding to the mirth at its expense, the TCEO doubled down

We really hope that the snack-related risks Mr Heyward has identified only apply to Tim Tams supplied by the union, as otherwise it would appear that we have a full-blown health and safety crisis on our hands, right across Tasmanian Catholic Education.