The IEU says: Don’t be duped by policy documents

All too often, the IEU puts forward an important employee claim in bargaining only to be met with the employer response, ‘we will address this claim in a policy document’.

Don’t let this happen to you. Employees must try to avoid being railroaded by this tactic of putting workplace conditions in an unenforceable document which can be changed or ignored.

A union-negotiated Agreement is a legally binding document that sets out the terms and conditions of employment. It is a framework that both parties must adhere to, ensuring compliance with employment laws and regulations. This protects both the employer and employees from arbitrary changes or breaches of contract.

Agreements benefit employers because they can negotiate employment conditions tailored to their workplace, provided employees are better off overall. Employees are empowered by the Agreement bargaining process, enjoy certainty as to their employment terms and conditions, and are assured that they are better off than they would have been under the applicable Award.

Workplace policy documents, on the other hand, are statements that outline the guidelines, procedures, and principles governing the behaviour, actions, and decisions within an organisation. They usually set the standards of conduct and performance expected from employees. They define acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, helping to maintain consistency and fairness across the organisation.

Policy documents are enforceable internally by an employer, but do not have the same legal standing outside the school as an Agreement.

They are often communicated in a top-down manner without soliciting feedback from employees. Sometimes, they are vague or ambiguous, leaving room for interpretation. This can result in inconsistent application and misunderstandings. They are one-sided and – you guessed it – that side is not that of the employee.

Workplace policies may cover:

• code of conduct

• recruitment

• workload policy

• staff dress code

• grievance handling

• leave.

Pay and conditions should NOT be included in workplace policy documents. The laws of Australia are in place for that.

Employers generally agree to have salaries in Agreements, yet often seek to place crucial workload conditions in their internal policy documents. Such employers will claim putting such matters in an Agreement restricts the school’s operations. What they really want is the power to make arbitrary changes to workload and conditions, often without consultation, at the expense of the employee. Don’t let your employer get away with this.

At the bargaining table recently, one employer refused to include face-to-face teaching limits in their Agreement, despite the fact that they had been in place for seven years – the IEU was not seeking to change them, just to codify them. If the school had managed to operate this way for years and had (as they assured the IEU) no intention of increasing workloads, why the reluctance to put this arrangement to paper?

Another employer refused to place the number of yard duties staff undertook per week insisting it would ‘restrict the school operationally’. That’s the point: the Agreement restricts the school operationally so that workload and conditions cannot be manipulated.

At another school, an employee was asked to provide evidence after taking a day of personal leave after a weekend – because the school’s personal leave policy document had been changed, without consultation.

Another example? An employer and employees at the table agreed on a maximum of 12 nights across the year that employees had to attend after school hours duties such as P/T interviews, information evenings, celebration nights and camps. However, the employer refused to put this in the Agreement, and instead insisted on it going in a policy document. Sure enough, a few years later, an employee was asked to attend a function late one night, despite having already attended 12 nights in the year. The document governing the policy had been re-written without consultation to now exclude camps as nights accrued.

Negotiated Agreements are clear and legally binding. Policy documents tend to be the opposite.

Next time you are bargaining, do not let your employer use policy documents as a cop out. ALL salaries and conditions (including workload) should be placed in an Agreement – if they’re not, they are worth little more than the paper they are written on.