News

Tuesday, 2 February 2021

Temporary conversion success for AMEP and EAS members


Success – Feb 21 (PDF version)

In December the CPSU NSW issued a bulletin to members advising we had initiated an industrial dispute with TAFE NSW over its refusal to recognise Adult Migrant Education Program (AMEP) staff as being eligible for conversion to permanent employment.

This is despite many AMEP staff having been in the same role for between five and eight years.

We are pleased to be able to advise AMEP members who have been patiently seeking permanency that we have met with TAFE Industrial Relations (TAFE IR) and argued for a favourable outcome.

AMEP dispute summary

  • TAFE NSW has accepted those AMEP staff who are eligible in accordance with the conversion clause of the TAFE Commission Administrative, Support and Related Employees Enterprise Agreement 2019 should be converted to permanent employment
  • TAFE IR also advises the CPSU NSW that whilst it recognises conversion for AMEP staff it also needs to maintain a component of temporary positions where required to be able to deliver on the contract with the Department of Home Affairs
  • TAFE NSW is supportive of moving to an AMEP workforce comprised of the following employee groups / engagements:
  1. Permanent employment
  2. Longer-term temporary employment with employment contract end dates aligned to the AMEP contract dates
  3. Short-term temporary employment subject to regular review based on enrolment numbers and student attendance at delivery locations.
  • TAFE NSW has been in the process of undertaking the required analysis over January 2021 with a view to progress this matter through further discussions with the CPSU NSW in the week commencing 1 February 2021.

Educational Administrative Support (EAS) conversions

A number of temporary EAS staff have also been patiently waiting on outcomes on their respective permanent conversion applications.

Those members will know how drawn out the process has been with TAFE dragging its heels for months and continually offering excuses about how it supposedly needed to finalise the Teachers’ EA before it could look at EAS conversions.

Anyhow, owing to continued pressure on the part of your union we can also now advise we have secured a verbal assurance from TAFE IR that it will begin to convert the backlog of eligible EAS applications. This should happen beginning the first week of February.

Not a member?

Join at www.cpsunsw.org.au/join