TAFE: NAT entitlements still apply

Enterprise bargaining negotiations have made it clear that TAFE Queensland has a strong desire to eliminate non-attendance time (NAT leave).

Despite this, current entitlements and arrangements relating to NAT leave as specified in the TAFE Teachers’ Award, the Senior College Teachers’ Award and the TAFE Educational Employees Certified Agreement continue to apply, and members should firmly resist attempts by over-enthusiastic management or HR personnel to diminish their access to NAT leave or to unilaterally set conditions on how it may be accessed or used.

While TAFE teachers and tutors (and other TAFE employees) were transferred from the Queensland public service to the TAFE Queensland statutory authority on 1 July, the TAFE Teachers’ Award, the Senior College Teachers’ Award and the TAFE Educational Employees Certified Agreement (including those provisions relating to NAT leave) continue to apply.

NAT is a personal entitlement which can be taken as leave. It is considered leave because unused NAT is paid out on a pro-rata basis on resignation in the same way that unused recreation leave is paid out when an employee resigns. Staff can be recalled from NAT in the same way that they can be recalled from long service or recreation leave, but the NAT must be re-credited.

There have been instances of QTU members being incorrectly informed that NAT leave is no longer fully available or that the provisions in the award and agreement no longer apply. Any suggestions of this nature should be quickly and firmly rebutted.

Alternatively, some managers in TAFE institutes seek to require teachers and tutors to undertake preparatory tasks during their NAT leave and cite the certified agreement as the authoritative source. This common misunderstanding has arisen because of the wording of the certified agreement clauses about the programming of NAT. In this context, the agreement mentions that it should provide an “opportunity for staff to prepare all necessary work”. The critical word in this clause is “opportunity”, which the Union reads strongly to mean “option” or “choice”, in the same way that teachers in the schools sector have the option or choice to undertake preparation during school vacation periods.

The only obligation that teachers have in relation to NAT is that they must return after their NAT leave prepared to start teaching on day one of the new term or semester. If a teacher has undertaken all necessary preparation for the commencement of delivery at some other time (on week nights or weekends leading up to the taking of NAT), then NAT can be taken as leave.

The TAFE Teachers Award, the Senior College Teachers’ Award and the TAFE Educational Employees Certified Agreement can be accessed on the QTU website (www.qtu.asn.au).

John McCollow
Industrial Services Officer

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 119 No 6, 22 August 2014, p18