Welcome back to our members as you return to work, and greetings to the members who have worked over the Christmas and New Year’s period.
Many members have already contacted union delegates and officials, asking about flex time and breaks.
With the huge changes to team structures and people learning their new jobs, the workload has never been higher, and the stress is not subsiding.
So, what are you entitled to? The answer is quite a lot. The Enterprise Agreement that was negotiated by the union in 2019 has a range of clauses that specify exactly how start time, finish times, and breaks are meant to work.
If you’ve got more work, and your line manager is asking you to get things done, and you therefore end up working longer than your normal 7 hours, then you absolutely accumulate flex time in your flex sheet. Managers who harass employees telling them to ‘stop accumulating flex’ need to decide what they want – they can have you work 35 hours OR you can agree to work more and accumulate flex. You still cannot:
You are entitled to at least a 30-minute break, and you should be able to do what you want on that break. In practice, we are often, particularly in small and remote campuses, the only person in our customer-facing area – so we choose to prioritise the work over our own needs.
Flex leave is designed to facilitate a work-life balance. The flexibility goes both ways, and employees’ needs should be considered just as business need should be.
It is the Union’s opinion that managers must state in writing why and how it is not possible for staff to work under the FWHA. If you are being denied the opportunity to build and take flex time, contact the Union.
Particularly in the Student Services and Systems Group (IT) sections, members have had their leave denied, with TAFE managers claiming that the business can’t spare them. This may be the case in many instances; however, the union strongly disapproves of, and does not acknowledge, blanket decisions on leave requests.
The union has been assured in meetings with TAFE NSW leadership that the 2021 working from home (WFH) arrangements will continue until at least the end of February 2022. Any of the normal restrictions on WFH such as the 60 per cent weekly limit, should not be enforced. If your manager insists despite being told this, please contact the PSA on 1300 772 679 for assistance.
Business needs are still the main determinant of whether flexible arrangements can be put into place; however, they do not overrule every possible circumstance or need of employees.
This is highly irregular and is in contravention of the Enterprise Agreement. The contemporary classification scale for TAFE workers sets your pay at a certain level based on the level of skills required – if you can teach a TWL4 worker how to do their job, then that implies that you are in fact doing TWL4 work yourself and you should be paid as such.
If you are asked to do this, you need to contact the PSA straight away on 1300 772 679, to get advice on how to respond.
If you have any other questions to ask, have a chat with your local union delegate, or call the PSA directly.
We will be regularly addressing questions of all kinds in bulletins throughout Term 1, so your question may be something that other members would want to see the answer too.
More details about rights at work and conditions of employment can be found in the Enterprise Agreement and the Flexible Working Hours Agreement, which you can access here:
The union will be sending out a separate bulletin this week that will address TAFE’s ongoing COVID response, as well as the staff vaccination mandate.
