Schools Working collectively gives you power
In Term 4, our key focus has been getting involved in the consultation process about your working conditions for the next school year. In the VGSA 2022, this is called Long-Term Planning. which includes Workforce Planning (staffing).
This is the time to get together with your education support colleagues and talk about how the year has gone. What’s worked well? What have been the challenges? What suggestions do you have about ways to support the work of you and your ES colleagues in 2023?
Ideally, the decisions about your working conditions for the next school year should be made as early as possible in Term 4. If you have questions or suggestions about your conditions, now is the time to raise them through your sub-branch and through the consultative committee processes. Finding ways for ES members to continue to connect and support each other to improve your working conditions and implement VGSA entitlements is the key.
For example, there are changes to the ES Dimensions of Work, so now is a great time to work together with other ES at your school to discuss and review your duties and responsibilities, and to help each other consider where your duties and responsibilities fit within the updated dimensions. This is particularly relevant for ES who supervise groups of students of more than four, business managers, and sole technicians.
If you believe you are a candidate for a range review because your work value sits at a higher range, the AEU has resources that can support you through the process, including a template range review request letter. Contact a member of the Membership Support Team for more detail: [email protected] or 03 9417 2822.
We encourage you to check out the recorded webinars located in the training videos section of our website. These videos are available to all members, and we have recently uploaded a webinar focusing on VGSA implementation for ES staff. We will also advise members of any upcoming live webinars via our AEU bulletins.
Working collectively and sharing information, ideas and strategies puts you in the best position to drive constructive change for yourself and your ES colleagues. And that’s union! The action of joining together; a society or association formed by people with a common interest or purpose.
