TAFE Leave balance reduction – 9 February 2017 (PDF Version)
Members who have moved from a 38-hour week to a 35-hour week may have noticed their leave balance has been reduced. TAFE NSW was supposed to communicate about this with staff, but has failed to do so prior to the balance change.
While there is a lot of change going on across TAFE NSW at the moment, the organisation must invest in its employees. For TAFE NSW to have a future, its employees must be supported, valued and respected. This way we can all work together to rebuild TAFE NSW into a strong, vibrant, public education provider.
Reducing employees’ leave balances without notice or explanation is not acceptable. This demonstrates a total lack of respect for you and your colleagues. The PSA (CPSU) has demanded that TAFE NSW improve its respect for all employees and we will continue to push for this at every level.
This update is to inform you what the reduction in hours from 38 to 35 per week means for you in terms of accruing leave. The end result is that the number of weeks and days of annual leave, sick leave and extended leave should be the same. You should also receive the same income each seven-hour day of leave you take.
From 13 January onwards, for each day of leave people will only need seven hours, not the 7.6 hours you previously had to work.
For each week of leave, you will only need 35 hours and not 38 hours.
The pay for each day and each week is the same, in spite of the reduction in hours (as the hourly rate has gone up to ensure the daily and weekly pay remains the same).
For example:
People who worked 38 hours a week, would get 38 hours of Annual Leave or Extended Leave for each week of leave.
People who worked 35 hours a week, would get 35 hours of Annual Leave or Extended Leave for each week of leave.
For every ‘day’ of leave accrued, it was 7.6 hours per day for employees working 38 hours a week, or seven hours per day for employees working 35 hours a week.
For an employee working 38 hours a week, if they were paid $25 per hour, a week’s leave would be $25 x 38, which is $950 each week.
When you dropped down to 35 hours a week, the CPSU/PSA negotiated to ensure your hourly rate went up. If you previously earned $25 a week, now you would earn (at least) $27.143 per hour. If you took a whole week’s leave, then you would be paid $27.143 x 35, or $950. Which is the same as when you worked 38 hours a week and were paid $25 an hour.
The amount of money paid by TAFE and received by members for every day of leave, or every week of leave, remains the same. The amount of leave per day and per week, remains the same. This is because you don’t need to take 7.6 hours of leave for a whole day, only seven hours of leave. You also don’t need to take 38 hours of leave to have a whole week off, only 35 hours of leave.
Your leave balance should only reduce by 3/38ths. If you want to check, divide your previous balance by 38, and then multiply the answer by 35 and this should be your new balance.
Remember, your hourly rate goes up to ensure that you do not lose any money. You will also keep the same number of days and weeks of Annual Leave, Extended Leave, and Sick Leave as you previously had.
We hope that this clarifies things for you.
As we work our way through the implementation of the Enterprise Agreement it is important that you have a say and your voice is heard.
You can support the work of the PSA (CPSU) and your local delegates by asking your colleagues to JOIN the Union.
Please forward this to your colleagues so that they know what their rights are, and encourage them to JOIN the CPSU
