Does your workplace have an Agreement?
Find out here.
Post-secondary education, ELICOS & RTOs
The IEU is the union for anyone delivering an educational program in a non-government post-secondary setting. This includes ELICOS Colleges, Registered Training Organisations, language schools and a number of other private providers.
We’ve built up a strong presence in the sector, negotiating Agreements across previously Award-based workplaces and winning several high-profile back-pay and entitlements disputes for our members.
This is a challenging sector with a mixed track-record in terms of pay rates and employment conditions. The best way to ensure fair and decent pay and working conditions is to get your colleagues to work together with their union!
Independent Sector
As an employee your conditions of employment may be determined by a few documents read together.
Enterprise Agreement
Many workplaces have made collective Agreements, usually with the involvement of the Union. This is the first place to look to ascertain your conditions of employment. Below is a list of Enterprise Agreements - look here to see if your workplace has an Enterprise Agreement and to get a copy of it. An Enterprise Agreement is the most secure and efficient way of improving conditions of employment in your workplace. If your workplace has such an agreement, it is legally binding and the Modern Award does not apply.
Modern Awards
In 2010 Modern Awards replaced the old Awards with streamlined and stripped back conditions. Modern Awards are not as comprehensive as old Awards and, although some conditions were retained, inevitably some were lost. If your workplace does not have a collective Agreement covering you, your basic conditions are set by the relevant Modern Award. These conditions are way below the industry standards and are only an absolute minimum intended as a merely “safety net” to prevent exploitation. For details see the links below.
National Employment Standards
Modern Awards and Enterprise Agreements operate in conjunction with the National Employment Standards (NES), which are 10 minimum conditions that all employees are entitled to. These include annual leave, public holidays, personal leave and parental leave. The NES are minimum conditions which are not usually as good as current industry standards.
Contracts and Policies
The workplace may also have issued you with a letter of employment (or contract) and may also have adopted policies which provide certain terms and conditions of employment. Importantly, these are unenforceable if they are not at least as beneficial to you as the Enterprise Agreement, Modern Award or NES (whichever applies to you), and some provisions may not be enforceable at all. All members should contact the IEU Victoria Tasmania for advice prior to signing any new employment contract.
What to do
Check the conditions in your Enterprise Agreement (or the relevant Modern Award, if your workplace has no Agreement). Unfortunately, the way the Agreements, Awards, NES and contracts interact is complicated. Before you come to any conclusions about your rights, contact the IEU Victoria for advice. You may not want to take any action at all, but at least we can ensure that you know your rights.
ELICOS
The IEU has put together an advice sheet for ELICOS teachers covering issues that we’re often asked about. We also have an advice sheet for VET Trainers.
We’ve also made a flyer – ‘6 reasons to join the IEU’ to encourage non-members to join. Check them out and contact us if you have any questions and/or would like hard copies for you and your colleagues.
Want to know more about how to organise in your ELICOS workplace?
Check out our flyer here.
A draft ‘log of claims’ for ELICOS colleges. These are some of the conditions we would like to win in Enterprise Agreements across the industry! Get in touch with the IEU to learn more about how to make this happen.
We have put together advice around wage theft, which is rife in these sectors. Find out how to organise around wage theft - ELICOS and RTOs.
