Know your conditions, manage your workload

Recent surveys undertaken by the QTU have confirmed that the intensification of workload is a primary area of concern for members, while the Union has also been receiving reports that members are being given directions that fly in the face of departmental policy.

The increasing pressure on members to reach the next data cycle, to develop plans in a certain way or to not take sick leave seriously erodes members’ rights and working conditions.

While the simple answer may sometimes be to simply say “no”, members have indicated that they feel that their professionalism is questioned when they attempt to assert their rights and that at times the statements and requests are made so convincingly that the assumption is that they must be based in fact.

That’s where the QTU Fact Checker comes in. This online resource allows you to look up instructions or statements and determine whether they are factual or not.

You can use this information to approach the decision-maker and discuss the issues. Strategies that may be used include:

• establishing the facts by accessing the Fact Checker, departmental policy, QTU brochures etc
• speaking with the school Union Representatives or the decision maker about the issues
• providing copies of the information to the decision maker to enable them to familiarise themselves with the issues
• negotiating an outcome that protects the conditions of members.

It is important to recognise that the person making the request is often only the messenger, and that providing them with the information will empower them to resist some of the extreme requests being made of schools.

QTU officers and organisers are currently conducting working conditions workshops for members. These workshops take members through the basic conditions and allow members time to seek clarification of issues occurring at the workplace.

The QTU is also in the process of developing a red tape reporter – this online tool will allow members to identify those matters that act as barriers to teaching and leading schools and the actions that can be taken to address them. For example, changes were recently made to the application process for meritorious sick leave. Previously the application was made and workforce relations would review a member’s service to determine its meritorious nature. Under the new process, members are being asked to provide a written statement as to why they believe their service is meritorious – this is just another layer of administrivia that takes members away from teaching. The solution would be to return to the former process.

In reality, the only way we will be able to redress the current intensification of workload is to work together to ensure that our conditions are protected. It is our profession, it is time that we reclaim it and stop the government’s attempts to take it away.

Kate Ruttiman
Deputy General Secretary

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 119 No 4, 23 May 2014, p8