After almost two years of negotiations, the signing of the Heads of Agreement and a challenging 2020, we’ve now arrived at the time when you get to vote on the new VECTEA and EEEA.
These agreements that the AEU has won truly value the work of teachers and educators in the early childhood sector, delivering significant salary increases and improved working conditions. This is a great outcome in recognising and respecting the work of early childhood teachers and educators.
Not only do the agreements deliver salaries that are in-line with school staff, but they also acknowledge the workload that comes with providing high-quality education and care for the children you educate.
You are to be congratulated on your campaigning, commitment, support and patience, which has enabled the union to reach in-principle agreements worthy of member support.
Thank you and well done – this is thoroughly deserved. We now need you to get involved in the final steps to ensure these agreements come to life. We need you to exercise your right to vote and VOTE YES!
The Voting Process
Over the past few weeks ELAA and MAV have contacted relevant employers to confirm that they want to be formally respondent to the applicable Agreement.
It is really important that you check with your employer that they have given their written approval to ELAA or the MAV to be formally respondent to the relevant Agreement.
Access period
All employees proposed to be covered by an agreement are required to be given access to a copy of the proposed agreement, sufficient time to read through it and to seek clarification on any clauses prior to the formal vote.
This access period must be at least seven (7) clear calendar days and notification of the vote must occur by the start of the access period.
The access period will be from Monday 15th February to Tuesday 23rd February.
Voting
It is critical that we ensure members and non-members alike VOTE YES on these agreements.
If a ‘NO’ vote is returned, we will be forced to go back to the beginning and start the process again, running the risk of having these hard-won pay and conditions withdrawn.
This is why we encourage all members to attend the forthcoming meetings and to explain to non-members the benefits of joining the union and voting YES.
EEEA
The MAV will conduct the ballot for the EEEA. This will be an online ballot.
In local government, it is critical that members exercise their right to vote, as votes are counted separately for each of the 22 local councils.
A majority ‘Yes’ vote of 50% plus one must be achieved in each of the 22 councils for the Agreement to then apply to that local government.
The ballot determines if the employees to be covered by the agreement endorse the new EEEA by voting yes in favour of the agreement.
The online ballot will commence on Wednesday 24 February and will close Wednesday 10 March.
VECTEA
ELAA will conduct the ballot of eligible employees for the VECTEA.
All teachers and educators at relevant workplaces will be invited to participate in the ballots.
This will be an online ballot. All staff are encouraged to exercise their powerful right to vote.
A ballot is successful when 50% plus one of eligible employees vote ‘YES’. For VECTEA, this is taken across all VECTEA workplaces (as it’s a single-interest Agreement).
The online ballot will commence on Wednesday 24 February and will close Wednesday 10 March.
What happens after the ballot?
The ballots will be counted, and the results will be declared via our respective communications with members.
• If a successful ‘YES’ vote is generated,
the Agreements will be lodged with the
Fair Work Commission for approval.
• The Agreements will come into force
seven days after approval at Fair Work. The AEU, ELAA and MAV will continue to provide information to the sector throughout the entirety of the process.
Once approved, pay increases for existing employees will be backdated to 1 October 2020.
It is important that members continue to look out for further communications so that no steps are missed along the way and so members don’t miss out on having these agreements govern their pay and entitlements.
