Enterprise Consultative Committee (ECC) Meeting No 2 – Staffing in Catholic Schools 2019
While the recently held ECC meeting addressed several issues on its agenda, the topic of most interest to members will be Staffing in Catholic Schools 2019.
Previously the IEU had been advised that due to the restructuring of year 7 into the secondary schooling environment and a continuing “softening” of enrolments that redundancies mayl be necessary in some of the schools operating under the umbrella of Catholic Church Endowment Society (CCES). That is schools that are part of the Archdiocese of Adelaide.
Employer representatives at this meeting identified that as many as a third of CCES schools may be affected by redundancies and to date only 9 teachers have been relocated from primary to secondary sites under the Priority Recruitment Scheme.
Which schools are affected and how many positions are to be made redundant is still not clear. While it is hoped this will occur during third term some sites may not be in a position to determine staffing requirements till fourth term.
Staff at St Francis of Assisi have already been advised the school will need to reduce teaching staff by 5.6 full time equivalent positions for the 2019 school year. Six staff whose positions are proposed to be made redundant have already been notified.
While Employer representatives pledged to do what is right both industrially and ethically its response to questions specifically about redeployment opportunities at this meeting did not satisfy the IEU.
For example the employer refused point blank the proposal that it should consider negating the need for or mitigating the effects of proposed redundancies through the use of replacement, temporary and or casual work.
The employer has also made it known to staff at St Francis of Assisi it will not consider the use of leaves (such as Long Service leave) or reducing the fraction of employment to negate the need for or mitigate the effects of proposed redundancies.
This is incredibly disappointing. Support for permanent employees should be a priority.
Should your principal inform an individual, a group of employees or the whole staff of the prospect of redundancies occurring at your school please contact the IEU office immediately.
8410 0122
