News

Thursday, 1 November 2018

CPSU NSW delegates meet with Dr Caralee McLeish, Managing Director TAFE NSW

CPSU NSW delegates meet with Dr Caralee McLeish, Managing Director TAFE NSW – November 2018 (PDF version)

Your TAFE Delegates Council Executive & CPSU NSW officials met with the new TAFE NSW Acting Managing Director Dr Caralee McLeish on Wednesday 24 October 2018.

The MD is very new to our TAFE but was open and attentive to our views and opinions.

She did acknowledge the important role our union plays in partnership with TAFE management to achieve outcomes that are mutually beneficial.

This was a short introductory meeting however, your delegates were determined to raise concerns on your behalf, with regard to long standing issues with TAFE management.

These concerns included:

Overall frustration of staff through mismanagement over various areas
Overuse of agency staff at the expense of proper recruiting
Poor recruitment practices leading to staff disillusionment and cynicism
Concerns with the EAS staff being overloaded and transferred into roles they had just been sent away from
Complete lack of follow through with PDR
Work intensification and imminent reviews hanging over our heads (or past ones impacting on us now) resulting in low morale and in effect, being restructured by stealth
Concerns over workplace practices and interpretation of policy causing distrust and anxiety
Inability of management to either adhere to or even attempt to understand the Flexible Working Hours Agreement

We also had general discussion about areas affecting our members such as clarification on the Connected Learning Centres project and the MD’s general impression of TAFE as an organisation.

We have requested a meeting with the CLC Project Team in early December to ensure greater consultation in this matter.

TAFE NSW has committed to earlier consultation with local CPSU NSW members regarding possible impacts of the CLCs.

Dr McLeish has taken on notice a number of our questions, issues which the MD was not yet briefed about, including:

the possible divestment TAFE NSW assets (eg selling off TAFE campuses, in particular whether Randwick TAFE was intended to be sold to the University of NSW)
our concerns in relation to the debacle that was the Group 4 restructure,
the number of staff on fixed term contracts without proper records of merit selection, and how this disadvantages them.

Your CPSU NSW delegates put TAFE NSW on notice that there are a significant number of staff not working in a permanent position, through higher duties, incorrect (long term) temporary contracts, incorrect (regular and systematic) long term casual contracts or incorrectly engaged as agency staff.

The union stressed that our members are crucial in the performance of TAFE’s future and that our members’ interests are to be at the forefront of any decisions for TAFE.

Without CPSU NSW members, TAFE NSW cannot function nor provide the essential services the people of NSW rely upon TAFE to deliver.

CPSU NSW is currently demanding that TAFE ensure all casual employees, who work a regular pattern for more than 6 months, are appointed permanently or at the very least on a temporary contract.

You can see more information HERE.

As union members, you contribute to the work your union and your delegates do in advocating and fighting for rights and conditions. Your colleagues benefit from your contributions and the volunteer efforts of your delegates.

It’s time to ask your colleagues today to contribute by joining the CPSU NSW. They can join online HERE.

View more about what your union is doing by visiting the following websites: