ACT Educator Term 4 2019 by Australian Education Union ACT

ACT EDUCATOR TERM 4 2019

ACT EDUCATOR MAGAZINE | TERM 4 | 2019

ON THE COVER

Alysha Nebelung, Heidi Livermore, Lorelie Choy and James Czarny cut the cake at Canberra High School Sub-Branch's Happy Pay Rise celebration.

OUR STORIES

ARE YOU READY TO NEGOTIATE?

HAPPY PAY RISE!

It's almost time to make the changes in the new teaching staff EA real. Are you ready?

Sub-branches all over town have been celebrating the wins in the new teaching staff enterprise agreement.

PATHWAYS TO OUR FUTURE

ACT teacher Meredith Regan shares her experience of the 2019 Garma festival.

EDUCATORS TAKING THE LEAD AND CHANGING THE WORLD

20 AEU ACT Secretary Glenn Fowler reports back from the Education International World Congress.

AEU ACT FOUNDATION YEARS

DEAR MINISTER

ACT TRAINING AWARDS

Why do we often find it so hard to refuse an ask? Our Women's Network had the chance to find out.

We're compiling a history of the AEU ACT Branch in the leadup to its 50th anniversary.

The peak body for working people wrote to Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter ahead of his planned review of the Fair Work Act. Meet the two AEU members up for the 2019 ACT VET Teacher/Trainer of the Year award.

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

Year 10 student and climate strike organiser Zain Brown tells us why students are taking to the streets - and what educators can do to support them.

BRINGING JOY TO THE WOMEN'S NETWORK

A MEMBER'S GUIDE TO WORKERS' COMPENSATION

Industrial Officer Patrick Judge fills us in on your right to compensation if you suffer an injury or illness at work.

THE REGULARS PRESIDENT'S REPORT

UPCOMING EVENTS

SECRETARY'S REPORT

DISCLAIMER: The assertions and opinions expressed in articles reflect the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the AEU. We do, however, think that these issues are worthy of discussion in our union.

CORRECTION: The article For a top-shelf education, students need school libraries in the Term 3 2019 issue of the ACT Educator incorrectly stated that Holly Godfree is a teacher librarian at Erindale College. She is, of course, a fantastic teacher librarian at Lake Tuggeranong College! This article was an edited extract from Holly's acceptance speech when she was presented with the 2019 Teacher Librarian of the Year Award by the Australian School Library Association (ASLA), reprinted with ASLA's permission.

Photo: Ida Kubiszewski

22 3

President's Report

s this is the last edition of our magazine for this year, it is worthwhile reflecting on what a great year we've had. The approved enterprise agreement represents a positive conclusion to an enormous amount of work from all members acting in soldarity to achieve excellent

outcomes. While this is evidence of the strength behind our membership, I would like to pay tribute to some of the work that goes on behind the scenes to make these outcomes happen.

You may have some idea of the amazing work undertaken by our small, dedicated and highly talented team of office staff. Led by our Secretary, Glenn Fowler, these are the people who handle thousands of member calls each year. They clarify, console and explore all possible avenues of support for our members. As a matter of course, they go above and beyond in their work for members – that’s just the way it is in the office. This is their everyday work, which can sometimes be overlooked in a year dominated by the signing of a new enterprise agreement. As a regular visitor to our office, I’m always struck by the atmosphere. It oozes energy, confidence, passion and commitment, balanced with a healthy dose of banter and absurdity. By way of example, my recent surprise at the appearance of fully-frocked office dogs was met with the deadpan explanation, “It’s a health and wellbeing initiative.” Another group of regulars to the office is our Branch Executive. These unpaid officers meet monthly in a governance capacity to oversee our union’s strategic and financial direction. Each month we pore over our membership statistics. We cannot resource our activities without money, and our finances are almost wholly dependent on membership fees. Pleasingly, we have enjoyed a few years of really solid membership growth. This year alone more than 439 people have joined us, and we are now more than 3750 members strong. This is yet another record level of membership for the ACT. If it seems that we are fixated on recruitment, that’s why. Having a growing membership base means we can provide even more services for our members, as well as continue to win improved workplace conditions. Finances grow our power, and that improves our working lives and public education. From next year, as part of the wins in the new enterprise agreement, your membership brings with it the added value of shaping your workplace conditions through the negotiation of a workplace EA Implementation Plan. Make sure have your say at sub-branch meetings as part of these negotiations. For now, enjoy Term 4 with all that it brings, and particularly enjoy the well-deserved holiday that follows.

Angela Burroughs AEU ACT President

2019 TERM 4 Upcoming Events RSVP at aeuact.org.au/events

WEEK 1 BRANCH EXECUTIVE

Wednesday 16 October 5.00pm - 8.30pm AEU Office, 40 Brisbane Ave, Barton

WEEK 2 WOMEN'S NETWORK MEETING Wednesday 23 October Keep any eye out for details!

BRANCH COUNCIL

Saturday 26 October 9.00am - 12.00pm J Block Theatre, CIT Reid

WEEK 3 NEW EDUCATOR NETWORK MEETING Wednesday 30 October 4.15pm - 6.30pm Kingston Hotel Function Room

WEEK 4 SUB-BRANCH LEADER TRAINING Wednesday 6 November 8.30am - 3.30pm Yarramundi Cultural Centre

WEEK 5 BRANCH EXECUTIVE

Wednesday 13 November 5.00pm - 8.30pm AEU Office, 40 Brisbane Ave, Barton

SCHOOL LEADER TRAINING Thursday 14 November 8.30am - 12.30pm Melrose High School

WEEK 6

BRANCH COUNCIL

Saturday 23 November 9.00am - 12.00pm J Block Theatre, CIT Reid

WEEK 8 UNIONS ACT END OF YEAR DRINKS Thursday 5 December 5.30pm - 8.00pm Location TBC

WEEK 9 BRANCH EXECUTIVE

Wednesday 11 December 5.30pm - 8.00pm AEU Office, 40 Brisbane Ave, Barton

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END OF YEAR DRINKS THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019 THURS 5 DECEMBER 2019 FROM 5:30PM â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 8PM LOCATION TO BE CONFIRMED RSVP unionsact@unionsact.org.au by 3 Dec

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Secretary's Report It has been my great pleasure in recent weeks to visit numerous sub-branches, celebrating our School Teaching Staff EA outcome with a "Winning is Sweet!" cake and acknowledging union members of 30 years' standing. The service and solidarity of this special group continues to inspire me. It has been important on these visits to take a few moments to recognise our achievements. We have an enterprise agreement of which we can be very proud. It is the product of a sophisticated member-led bargaining strategy, and the formidable size, density and unity of our record membership. The agreement will be remembered for a number of reasons, creating a number of "firsts" - on workload and EA compliance, digital communications, occupational violence, class sizes and superannuation. It has also made a mockery of any lingering suggestions that union membership does not pay off financially. Statisticians tell us that union members on average earn $342 more per fortnight than non-members, that male members earn 12% more than male non-members, and female members earn 18% more than female non-members. In our context, the recent salary outcome more than accounted for union fees, whether you consider average wage rises in Australia or the difference between the government's first offer to unions and the final outcome of 3%+. For those employed after July 2006, the superannuation benefit is more than double your union fees for the remainder of your working life. And all this without considering the conditions we win, the funding and extra positions we secure, the silly policy thought bubbles we are forced to kill off, or the vital protections we provide to members when things don't go smoothly.

The other aspect to my message in subbranches has been that we cannot afford to be complacent. We lose members every week to retirement, to other professions or to interstate teaching positions. We must recruit at least the equivalent if we want to boost our stocks. For some time we have been doing this, but it is not easy and your efforts in signing up colleagues are more important to us than you could imagine. There are battles ahead. School funding in Australia is fundamentally unfair, made worse by special deals to the richest private schools in the country, and we must continue to press for change. The Federal Government's persistent refusal to guarantee 15 hours of preschool for 4-year-olds must be countered. In some jurisdictions, TAFE is fighting for its very survival, and we must be there for our colleagues. NAPLAN continues to be a blight on the education landscape, kicking more administrative own goals every year, and allowing some politicians and the usual suspects in the media to draw lazy, simplistic and damaging conclusions about our work as public educators. We won't rest until NAPLAN's inevitable replacement has a measure of confidence within the teaching profession. For that to occur, governments will need to do things with us, not to us. The struggle never ends, and this union wouldn't have it any other way.

RECOGNISING AND REWARDING NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR THE

ARTHUR HAMILTON AWARD This is your chance to celebrate AEU members who are making an outstanding contribution to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. The Arthur Hamilton Award commemorates the achievements of Arthur Hamilton, a Palawa man who was active in promoting cross-cultural awareness, recognition of Indigenous peoples and the right for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to access a high quality public education. The winner will receive a $1500 prize and be flown to Melbourne to accept the Award at the AEUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual Federal Conference in February 2020. All nominees will receive a certificate from the AEU.

The 2018 Arthur Hamilton Award went to the Aboriginal Education Team at Briar Rd Public School.

GET NOMINATING!

The Award was presented by Correna Haythorpe, AEU Federal President (centre), to Jessica Scott (l) and Samantha Rangaiya (r) from the Aboriginal Education Team, at the 2019 AEU Federal Conference.

Download your nomination form at: aeufederal.org.au/our-work/indigenous or request a nomination form from Suzanne Lowndes: (03 9693 1800) or slowndes@aeufederal.org.au

FIND OUT MORE

Visit aeufederal.org.au/our-work/indigenous or contact Darcel Russell, Indigenous education officer: aeu@aeufederal.org.au

ARE YOU READY TO NEGOTIATE?

It's almost time to make the wins in the new enterprise agreement real in your school, writes Lead Organiser VINCE McDEVITT.

s a direct result of AEU member feedback over many months in the leadup to the commencement of enterprise agreement (EA) negotiations, we developed a range of bargaining claims that would substantially improve the working lives of our members. Then, with the collective and united strength of our membership, we negotiated hard and won a range of specific measures and improvements to employment conditions for school teachers and their colleagues. Central to this is a document confirming EA compliance at the school, addressing workload planning, moderation and enforcement; reduced face-to-face teaching hours for primary school; established maximum class size limits; professional development, including the integration of 2 professional learning days and the scheduling of PLC programs (during the school year) and PL activities each term; enhanced support and training for HSRs; new educator specific arrangements including reduced face-toface teaching hours and 6 days release; mandatory occupational violence training and refresher training, minimum 30 minute break (other than release time) scheduled every day, during which teachers are not required to be on duty and may do as they wish; and at least 40 hours of paid time over the school year for AEU sub-branch representatives to undertake their union duties.

All of these improvements must now be covered off and agreed in writing during Term 1 each year at each school by negotiation between the school principal and their school's elected AEU SubBranch President. To facilitate this process, the Directorate and the AEU are finalising our agreed template document for use at the school level. This document will be known as the School Annual EA Implementation Plan, and this plan will, amongst other things, replace pre-existing School Workload Committees. Whilst the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;winsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from our bargaining are great to have in the enterprise agreement, to make them real in your school it is necessary and essential that AEU sub-branch members take an interest and support their elected sub-branch representatives and principals in reaching an agreement in Term 1 each year. To ensure principals and AEU representatives are fully informed and ready to consult with staff and negotiate their school EA implementation plans in Term 1 next year, the union is providing dedicated training in early Term 4 2019. If you are a current AEU representative, an aspiring 2020 AEU representative or a school principal, you are encouraged to attend the training. For more details and to RSVP, visit aeuact.org.au/events

SUB-BRANCH LEADER TRAINING

SCHOOL LEADER TRAINING

Wednesday 6 November 8.30am - 3.30pm

Thursday 14 November 8.30am - 12.30pm

Yarramundi Cultural Centre

Melrose High School

HAPPY PAY RISE! Sub-branches all over town were on a sugar high in term 3, taking the opportunity to celebrate the wins in the new teaching staff EA with a huge AEU cake!

What a momentous win for all teachers across the system! That’s what I think when I reflect on the Enterprise Agreement (EA) that we’ve just won. With this mindset, I wanted to make sure that everyone at Canberra High School (members and especially non-members) knew that this was definitely a reason to celebrate. My sub-branch team and I set to work to convert the staff common room into ‘Party Central’. The theme was black and red in homage to the AEU. We decked the walls, noticeboards, chairs, tables, pigeonholes and every available space with streamers, balloons and black and red AEU paraphernalia. (I almost felt like I’d missed my calling as an interior designer!) No-one could possibly have missed the point that we should party like it was 1999. I looked upon our Happy Pay Rise event as another opportunity to lift the profile of the AEU at our sub-branch. It was another way to promote comradery amongst our staff. Staff wore red (just as they do each Friday for RED Friday) to show support for each other and to celebrate our win. This simple act was very powerful. Looking across the staff room, it was a sea of red! I am sure non-members felt completely outnumbered. This allowed us to extend an invitation to them to join us, as this EA win typified the strength of the collective members of the union. Our Happy Pay Rise event was held on 22 August and our decorations are still up as I write this! Every time I walk through the staff common room, I can’t help but smile. I’ll think about taking the decorations down in Term 4, (once I start promoting our next exciting subbranch event). If you are prepared to inject a little fun into your sub-branch, please join my team and me for breakfast at The Pedlar on Constitution Avenue at 7:45am before each scheduled Council Meeting. Members from all sectors welcomed!

LORELIE CHOY, CANBERRA HIGH SCHOOL SUB-BRANCH SECRETARY

PATHWAYS TO OUR FUTURE I

t’s time to stop standing at the crossroads and address the deep inequalities that continue to exist and divide post-invasion Australia once and for all. This was the sentiment of this year’s Garma festival, which I was fortunate enough to attend in East Arnhem Land from 31 July to 3 August. It is difficult to capture in words the profound effect attending Garma had on me. With this year’s theme of ‘Pathways to our Futures’, I listened to some of the giants of thinking share their ideas on how best to move forward and their urgency for it to happen - quickly. Djawa Yunupingu, a senior Gumatj man who is a director of the Yothu Yindi Foundation and Gumatj Corporation, spoke about living in a nation that has never recognised his people and the impact of living in impoverished conditions. He spoke of the urgency to stop as a nation and sort things out. Djawa Yunupingu challenged non-Aboriginal participants to consider that many non-Aboriginal children continue to grow up without a whispering in their hearts that this nation was built on killing fields. 14

His thoughts were echoed by Professor Marcia Langton, an anthropologist and geographer who, since 2000, has held the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne. She spoke about wanting every Australian child to know the history of this country and the richness and value of indigenous knowledge systems and culture. Professor Langton shared a well-developed set of curriculum resources ‘Indigenous Knowledge’ to support all teachers in this task. (https://indigenousknowledge.research. unimelb.edu.au/) Professor Mick Dodson spoke in his role as the first Northern Territory Treaty Officer of the need for a treaty that recognises the rights of First Nations people, noting this land was never given up. The fact that the Australian constitution still does not recognise all Australians was widely discussed, and the expectation that this needs to change imminently was a widely held view.

ACT teacher MEREDITH REGAN shares her experience of the 2019 Garma festival, and a hope for how we can all help forge a better future. in his address, Australia’s Governor General David Hurley correctly pointed out that constitutional change is hard, and to be successful there is a need to grow a positive and truthful understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait history and cultures amongst all Australians. This comment, placed alongside those of Professor Marcia Langton and many others, crystallises the important role that education and teachers must play in this process. In between listening to speakers, I had many rich conversations and made what I hope to be lifelong connections during informal gatherings around the fireplace, in the meals line and at the phone-charging station. It was here I learnt about ring trees, listened to the experiences of a colleague who spent 10 years teaching in remote communities and shared comradeship over the footy scores. There was never a dull moment as I revelled in just being there. I attended Tai Chi lessons with Jack Thompson, watched movies, chatted with rangers, viewed incredible art works, watched and joined in with traditional dancers on Bunggal grounds and was welcomed to join a women’s circle where the daybreak was welcomed with traditional song overlooking the Arnhem Land escarpment. This was a soul-stirring moment. What struck me as I sat in the company of Yolgnu women was the ancientness of their songlines and traditions. I was experiencing the most ancient form of spirituality on earth and it was mind-blowing. We walked on country with rangers who generously shared knowledge about connection, stories, tradition and bush tucker. “To do this job on Yolgnu land,” we were told, “you need 50 years on Yolgnu country and another 50. This is our university and PhD”. The fact that this is an ancient country throbbed through the heartbeat of Garma. The red dust of Arnhem Land has a way of ingraining itself not only in your clothes, but also in your soul. I would like to pay my deep respect and thanks to our Yolgnu hosts whose warmth and generosity was second to none. They provided a forum for robust discussions, challenges to action and accountability. It was an incredible privilege to be there. Now, as I walk on the frost of Ngunnawal-Ngambri land and look into the Snowy Mountains of our Ngarigo neighbours' country, I ask what next? I have brought back many questions, not just for myself, but also for other non-Indigenous AEU members to respectfully consider, discuss and act on. The most important being: what will you do to help create a fair and just Australia? How do we, as teachers and as people, be culturally appropriate, receptive and sensitive? Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in Canberra are, like their counterparts across the country, over-represented in incarceration and underrepresented in higher education. As portrayed in the ABC series ‘Will Australia Ever have a Black Prime Minister?’, young Indigenous males are more likely to enter prison than parliament.

As Merrkiwuy Ganambarr, language champion, author, advocate and currently co-principal of Yirrkala School so aptly pointed out, Yolgnu people care about all, and I think that’s what all Australians should do. She also spoke about teachers as frontline healers, invoking the reality that we are powerful change agents. It is up to us. Our schools and classrooms are vital spaces that have the potential to pave pathways to the future. Change is shamefully overdue. We can use our creativity and curiosity to invoke change. We cannot rely on the small number of people in our schools who elect to be on cultural integrity committees. Many are on a learning journey themselves. More voices are needed, and talking needs to be actioned.

The dust of Arnhem Land has a way of ingraining itself not only in your clothes, but also in your soul. Ask, ‘What can I do today to make a difference?’ Have the courage to teach history truthfully to children of all ages. Try to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into all that you teach. Doing nothing is a choice which can inadvertently contribute to making matters worse. Be brave, ask questions, and don’t use ignorance or fear as an excuse. As teachers we have a responsibility to educate ourselves. There is a wealth of books, public talks, events, exhibitions, theatre, media resources, films and dedicated TV channels such as NITV available. Encourage your school to subscribe to the Koori Mail. There are quarterly cluster book clubs available to every teacher in the ACT Education Directorate to explore how we best use Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature in our classrooms. If something is not right, speak up and have difficult conversations when necessary. Across the education sector, we have a broad range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, families and students. Listen to, value and use their lived experience. Respect families as first educators. The Imagination Declaration, read on behalf of Garma festival’s Youth Forum, articulates a vision, a challenge and a hope for the future. It brings a powerful voice which we can deliver across our school communities. It is as follows: To the Prime Minister & Education Ministers across Australia, In 1967, we asked to be counted. In 2017, we asked for a voice and treaty. Today, we ask you to imagine what’s possible. The future of this country lies in all of our hands. We do not want to inherit a world that is in pain. We do not want to stare down huge inequality feeling powerless to our fate. We do not want to be unarmed as we confront some of the biggest problems faced by the human race, from rising sea levels, which will lead to significant refugee challenges, to droughts and food shortages, and our own challenges around a cycle of perpetuated disadvantaged. It’s time to think differently.

With 60,000 years of genius and imagination in our hearts and minds, we can be one of the groups of people that transform the future of life on earth, for the good of us all. We can design the solutions that lift islands up in the face of rising seas, we can work on creative agricultural solutions that are in sync with our natural habitat, we can re-engineer schooling, we can invent new jobs and technologies, and we can unite around kindness. We are not the problem, we are the solution. We don’t want to be boxed. We don’t want ceilings. We want freedom to be whatever a human mind can dream. When you think of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander kid or, in fact, any kid, imagine what’s possible. Don’t define us through the lens of disadvantage or label us as limited. Test us. Expect the best of us. Expect the unexpected. Expect us to continue carrying the custodianship of imagination, entrepreneurial spirit and genius. Expect us to be complex. And then let us spread our wings, and soar higher than ever before. We call on you and the Education Ministers across the nation to establish an imagination agenda for our Indigenous kids and, in fact, for all Australian children. We urge you to give us the freedom to write a new story. We want to show the world Aboriginal genius. We want to show the nation Aboriginal leadership and imagination. Over the coming months we’ll be sharing the declaration with thousands of Indigenous kids across our nation and together we’ll stand to say, “set an imagination agenda for our classrooms, remove the limited thinking around our disadvantage, stop looking at us as a problem to fix, set us free to be the solution and give us the stage to light up the world.” We want the Imagination agenda in every school in the nation, from early childhood learning centres through to our most prominent universities. To our Prime Minister & Education Ministers, we call on you to meet with us and to work on an imagination plan for our country’s education system, for all of us. We are not the problem, we are the solution.

Photo: (l-r): Meredith Regan, Belinda Whyte, Caitlin McGarvey, Elinor Archer, Peter Kent.

Meredith Regan is a teacher at North Ainslie Primary School. Meredith, along with Belinda Whyte, a Murrawarri woman who teaches at Kingsford Smith School, were the recipients of an AEU ACT grant to attend the 2019 Garma Festival in East Arnhem Land. They were joined by Elinor Archer, a Palawa woman who works at Dickson College, Caitlin McGarvey, a Bundjalung woman, and Peter Kent from Birrigai Outdoor School, who were sponsored by the ACT Education Directorate.

APR

MAR APR

MAR

FEB MAR

FEB

JAN FEB

JAN

MONTH

WEEK

Branch Executive

School Assistant Network (South)

School Assistant Network (North)

Branch Executive

WEDNESDAY

Canberra Day

Australia Day Holiday

TUESDAY

MONDAY

FRIDAY

Good Friday

Union Industrial Retreat

International Women’s Day Trivia Night

New Educator Conference

THURSDAY

TERM 1

Easter Saturday

Council

SAT

2020 Easter Sunday

Int’l Women’s Day

Australia Day

SUN

JUN JUL

JUN

MAY

APR MAY

APR

MONTH

WEEK

Queen’s Birthday

Reconciliation Day

Easter Monday

MONDAY

TUESDAY

Women’s Network

Branch Executive

School Assistant Network (South)

School Assistant Network (North)

New Educator Network

Branch Executive

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

TERM 2

Year Planner

Public Education Dinner

FRIDAY

Council

ANZAC Day

SAT

Mother’s Day

SUN

Council

SAT

Father’s Day

SUN

DEC

NOV DEC

NOV

OCT NOV

OCT

SEP OCT

MONTH

WEEK

TUESDAY

Labour Day

MONDAY

Branch Executive

School Assistant Network (South)

School Assistant Network (North)

Branch Executive

New Educator Network

Women’s Network

Branch Executive

WEDNESDAY

Christmas Day

FRIDAY

Boxing Day

Council

SAT

School & Public Holidays

THURSDAY

SUN

fFAC E B OO K. CO M / A E UAC T

T W I T T E R . CO M/ A E UAC T

(02) 6272 7900 www.aeuact.org.au

40 Brisbane Ave Barton ACT 2600

For events held during working hours, you are eligible to apply for industrial leave. If you’d like more information about industrial leave, speak to your sub-branch reps or contact the AEU Office. Although every effort is made to ensure these dates are correct, they are subject to change. Keep an eye on our Facebook page and emails for any updates to event dates.

School Assistant Network & National Week

FRIDAY

Women’s Network

THURSDAY

New Educator Conference & Network

Branch Executive

Women’s Network

School Assistant Network (South)

School Assistant Network (North)

Branch Executive

New Educator Network

Branch Executive

WEDNESDAY

Public Education Week

TUESDAY

MONDAY

Union Industrial Retreat

WEEK

TERM 4

Branch Council, TAFE Council & Executive

SEP

AUG SEP

AUG

JUL AUG

JUL

MONTH

TERM 3

EDUCATORS TAKING THE LEAD AND SAVING THE WORLD

y virtue of being an AEU member, you are also a member of Education International (EI), the global federation representing 32 million educator unionists across more than 400 education unions in 173 nations. Together we comprise one of the largest democratic organisations on the planet. A few years ago, EI successfully campaigned for a standalone United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) which calls for free (not “affordable”, as our opponents would have us accept) quality education for all of the world’s children. We have achieved a lot together and we are more ambitious and determined than ever to create a better world for our children to inherit.

From 19-26 July, I was one of 20 Australian delegates at the EI World Congress in Bangkok, Thailand. We were joined by 800 delegates from 151 nations, along with almost 600 observers and guests. The scale of the event was overwhelming. It is always sobering to meet people doing a similar job to me who are facing intimidation, imprisonment, torture, violence and death threats. (Indeed, educators were being murdered in Duterte’s Philippines whilst the Congress was occurring.) The solidarity these brave people experience by attending Congress represents more than feelgood value – it gives them the strength they need to continue to represent the interests of educators in the face of extreme challenges.

AEU ACT Secretary GLENN FOWLER reports back from the 8th Education International World Congress. Over the course of five very long days, EI’s 8th quadrennial Congress resolved, among other things, to: • Affirm quality public education and free trade unions as the cornerstones of democracy • Advance the profession by reasserting the critical role of teachers and education support personnel in education and society • Ensure the right to free quality public education for all • Secure quality early childhood education for all • Prioritise the future of vocational education and training • Provide specific additional supports for school leaders • Preserve and protect teacher professional autonomy • Ensure that teaching standards are owned by the profession, with teacher unions at the heart of their creation via designated positions on relevant boards (the AEU is currently prevented by the Morrison Government from sitting on the AITSL Board) • Prioritise teachers’ mental health, recognising the workplace factors that can contribute to poor mental health • Champion the universal eradication of corporal punishment in schools (yes, it still exists) • Expand and sustain the global response to the commercialisation and privatisation of education • Ensure that technology is a tool for teachers rather than a substitute for them • Insist on academic freedom in higher education and research • Work for the decolonising of education by promoting indigenous perspectives • Organise and be inclusive of education support personnel • Oppose the military’s recruitment of students in schools and promote peace education (“books not bombs”) • Ensure refugee children are educated, noting that 4 million refugee children currently do not attend school at all • Fight against modern day slavery and child labour • Promote and defend democratic values and principles

• Advocate for women’s and girls’ rights • Secure LGBTIQ rights • Address multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination • Realise the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG4 (free quality education), SDG5 (gender equality), SDG8 (decent work), SDG10 (reducing inequality), SDG13 (combatting climate change) and SDG16 (peaceful societies) • Denounce austerity plans and advocate for massive increases in investment in the public sector • Advocate for a minimum of 0.7% of gross national income for development assistance for developing countries (only five countries currently meet this threshold and Australia, at .021%, is in the bottom third of donors) • Take the lead in fighting for a just transition to sustainable energy and assert the pivotal role of education and trade unions in confronting the climate emergency • Urge affiliates like ours to support EI members increasingly affected by natural disasters • Do what so many national governments are failing to do and “take the lead” in promoting democracy, human and trade union rights, equity and social justice. Our very detailed policy positions will be pursued in unions like ours for the next four years until they are revisited at the next Congress in South America in 2023. The Asia-Pacific Regional Congress will be held in 2021. Further to the policy resolutions, Congress passed five urgent resolutions, namely: • Condemning the Brazilian government for seeking to privatise and commercialise education through a voucher system • Condemning the attacks by extremists on schools in several African nations and the kidnappings and murders of teachers and students • Calling for the immediate release of six unjustly imprisoned teachers in Djibouti • Expressing solidarity with protesters against the extradition bill and in favour of self-determination, democracy and the rule of law in Hong Kong • Condemning US President Trump for his racist attacks on congresswomen of colour.

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT A

s I write this, we are just a few days away from the September 20 Global Climate strike. The Canberra School Strike 4 Climate organising team is buzzing with cautious optimism, as well as a bit of frantic panic. We are likely about to lead one of the largest protests in the ACT – and Australia – in decades as part of an international movement which will bring millions of students, workers and activists from across the globe to the streets to demand meaningful and necessary action on Climate Change. School Strike for Climate Action is a rapidly growing grassroots network comprising selforganised groups of primary and high school children aged 7-17, in hundreds of locations across Australia. I am a Year 10 student and have been involved in organising with SS4C since the March 15 School Strike, doing so within my own school, as part of the ACT team, and in national discussions.

Australia is already on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Prolonged drought cripples farming communities, flash flooding is creating chaos in cities, catastrophic bushfires and severe cyclones threaten people’s homes, and heatwaves swept the nation over the summer. We are hurting from these impacts of Climate Change and young people, first nations people and workers are disproportionately affected. My generation is the last generation who can possibly stop climate change, or at least limit its worst effects.

Though some people can claim we are puppets of various groups, it is clear that young people really are keenly aware of climate change. We know what is causing it, and we know that Australia is not doing enough to stop it. Surveys show that over 86% of High Schoolers view climate change as a threat to their safety (UNICEF). And the mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of students that has occurred under the Climate Strike movement shows that we are passionate about stopping Climate Change and fighting back against inaction.

My generation is the last generation who can possibly stop climate change, or at least limit its worst effects. Climate Change is an important and relevant issue to most young people which means it must be relevant to educators. While student-led, SS4C wants as much participation and solidarity from the broader community as possible in environmental campaigns. We want as many people as possible on the ground at our actions like the September 20 Global Climate Strike. So spread the word and organise your personal networks. People can also volunteer and support environmental groups we work with, or help facilitate climate strikes when we put out a call for adult volunteers.

Year 10 student and climate strike organiser ZAIN BROWN tells us why students are taking to the streets - and what educators can do to support them.

Photo: Ida Kubiszewski

As educators, you have a unique opportunity to support students campaigning for climate justice. Centring discussions about climate change is an important method of engaging students and building support for school strikes. Even small actions can help make it easier for students to attend protests, such as not scheduling tests or important lessons on the day of a climate strike. The recent directives of the ACT Education Directorate in regards to School Strikes provide opportunities for teachers to support the protests. You could promote later actions by, when they are announced, putting up flyers for them in your rooms, as some of my teachers have done in the lead up to September 20. All ACT public servants, including teachers, were given permission to take leave to attend the Climate Strike this time. If that is a policy approved for later actions, organising attending the strike as a teacher or a contingent of teachers could be an incredibly powerful act of solidarity. Schools have also been given permission to organise excursions to the September 20 rally which - if done widely - could increase numbers at climate strikes massively.

Teachers could take the lead on organising excursions like this in the future. Educators who care about climate action should communicate with others at their workplaces to support studentled and other environmental activism and push school leadership to do the same, and this could be done through the Unionists for Climate Justice working groups which Unions ACT are building. With the September 20 Global Climate Strike, SS4C is seeking to build on the success of the March 15 School Strike by bringing even more students to the streets, as well as rallying adults, workers, unionists, and the entire environmental movement. We are championing a rapid and fair transition to net zero emissions by 2030, with the specific demands of: 1) No new coal, oil and gas projects, including the Adani mine. 2) 100% renewable energy generation and exports by 2030 3) Fund a fair transition and job creation for fossilfuel industry workers and communities. But we are not done yet. We will be back and we will keep fighting until we win. And in this fight, we will need your support as workers, unionists, and possibly most importantly, as educators.

A member's guide to Workers' Compensation What is workers' compensation? Workers' compensation is not just a "payout". Workers who make claims may receive rehabilitation, treatment, assistance with returning to work and other services. The goal of workers' compensation processes is to get you well and back to work, not to pay you to sit at home. For AEU members, the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (Cth) (the SRC Act) is administered by the ACT Government as a selfinsurer. It covers employees when their workplace causes them to become ill or injured.

Why should I make a claim for compensation? Making a claim is the best way to get the support you need and get back to work. You'll be paid for your treatment and time you have had to take off work in accordance with the approved liability and your doctors' recommendations. Some workers think that they will not benefit from making a claim because they only needed a short period away from work, or they are only receiving treatment such as physiotherapy. Others try to self-manage their condition by using services like the Employee Assistance Program. While people have a range of reasons for making their choices, the best support available to ill and injured workers comes through the workers' compensation process.

How do I make a claim for compensation? Both the ACT Government and EML provide details on their websites about how to make a claim for workers' compensation. The first steps are reporting your injury and seeking medical treatment - your treating medical practitioner may even suggest workers' compensation as an option. The claims process can seem a little daunting at first. However, we can help to demystify the process, and most AEU members find that the required forms and other processes are relatively simple to complete once they have received our advice. If you aren't claiming for time off work, but just for treatment such as physiotherapy, the claims process may be simpler.

Is it true that a workers' compensation claim can be held against you/the school? Absolutely not. Some people are afraid that making a claim will reflect negatively on them or their workplace. However, workers' compensation sits under a "no fault" scheme, and making a claim may actually benefit your school in the long run if the alternative is that you take extended leave or struggle to return to your pre-injury duties. It's important to take the time to heal and act on your doctors' medical advice.

Industrial Officer PATRICK JUDGE gives us the rundown on your rights to compensation if you suffer an illness or injury in your workplace.

Are there any reasons not to make a claim for compensation? Can the AEU office help with my compensation claim? Some claims are excluded by the SRC Act and will not be approved. For example, claims in relation to reasonable administrative action, such as:

• • • •

performance; appraisals; counselling action; disciplinary action; or failure to obtain a promotion

are excluded under the SRC Act, Other reasons a claim might be denied include: • •

• •

injury that is intentionally self-inflicted injury that is caused by serious and wilful misconduct (except where the injury results in death or serious and permanent impairment) injury while travelling between home and the usual place of work disease, where there has been a wilful and false representation that an employee did not or had not previously suffered from that disease, in connection with their employment or proposed employment.

Absolutely! We're here and available to support members through the workers' compensation process. We can help you the through the claims process and, if necessary, provide you with a referral for legal advice about your matter.

Suffered an in injury or illness at work Had to take time of work Suffered a psychological injury because of your work Had an existing injury exacerbated by work

It is important that you do not assume that you cannot make a claim for compensation. If you have suffered an injury or illness in your workplace, you should speak to your doctor and seek advice from the AEU office. 25

BRINGING JOY TO THE WOMEN'S NETWORK: LEARNING TO SAY "NO" It’s the end of a long school day. Your inbox is overflowing, you have reports to write, lessons to plan, meals to prepare, appointments to keep. The weekend can't arrive soon enough. On your way out the door, your boss asks for a quick chat. She’s looking for volunteers to help staff the school fete on Saturday. Do you say feel like you can say no? For many of us, saying no to a request like this is harder than it sounds. Joy Coates has been looking at why this is, and what we can do to get better at saying ‘no’. A teacher of 25 years and winner of the 2017/18 AEU Federal Rosemary Richards Scholarship, Joy describes people who are drawn to the education profession as being driven by altruism. “We want to please, be agreeable and to help other people,” she says. “We often satisfy the needs of others before our own. And so, for those and other complicated reasons, educators usually find it very difficult to say “no” when asked to take on more workload or implement new pedagogies, curriculum or programs.”

Joy’s scholarship work was based on female-dominated workplaces that reinforce and amplify traditional “female” models of engaging with others. But although the focus throughout her study has been on women, she doesn’t suggest that all men find it easy to refuse extra tasks or that women are overly meek in the workplace. “It can be difficult for anyone to comfortably and confidently refuse an ask, but for teachers, who generally have a high degree of empathy, saying no to an extra ask can make us feel like we are really letting someone down.” Part of Joy’s research looks closely at teacher retention with direct links to stress and workload. “It’s not just the more experienced teachers who are leaving the profession,” she points out, “but sadly, new educators are leaving the job in alarming numbers.” Current estimated figures show that between 30-50% of Australian teachers leave the profession in the first five years. Teacher retention, stress, high levels of anxiety and guilt are causing long-term consequences for the profession. In Term 3, the AEU ACT Women’s Network offered members an exciting opportunity to participate in a one-day workshop with Joy to uncover why it is women especially can find it difficult to refuse an ask, and to gain the skills to start saying “no” more often.

Joy has created some simple yet effective tools that she hopes can help educators to reduce the workload creep. Her aim is to provide her training to AEU members in every state and territory. During our workshop, Joy shared her research, personal experience in the profession and her tried and true techniques to become more confident in saying no. Our members were able to engage in a variety of scenarios that link directly to the extra tasks teachers are expected to take on, which inevitably lead to a reduction in performing their core business. So how can you start to change your workload with a few simple strategies? For one, Joy says, you should always start by delaying your response to a work request where possible. This, she says, allows you time to evaluate whether the request is something you want to do or something you feel you should do. “There are vast emotional differences between these two things,” Joy says. “The first is positive, and you may want to take on the new role or responsibility, but by delaying your response you can carefully consider if now is the right time or indeed whether you have the necessary time. The second response ought to set off alarm bells straight away; should implies obligation and guilt.”

Why can it be so difficult to refuse an ask? AEU ACT Women's Officer MALISA LENGYEL tells us how we can start doing it more often to avoid overburdening ourselves.

Another tip is to moderate your language when turning down a request. Through her research, Joy discovered that the most powerful statement to use when refusing additional tasks is “I don’t”, because this is much stronger than “I can’t”. When someone says, “I can’t”, others infer that you won't do the task because you are incapable, not because you simply don’t have the time or means to do it. Joy uses the following example to demonstrate the importance of having planned and practical responses: “I can’t stay late tonight because of a dental appointment” allows for the request to be made for another time. “Ok, if you can’t do it tonight, how about tomorrow night?” The statements below do not leave such wiggle room: “I don’t have any spare time this week.” “I have a rule that I don’t read emails at home.”

“It’s important that these responses are planned for and practiced,” Joy says. “Otherwise it is easy to become flustered and to cave in because you can’t think on the spot. Also, spur of the moment excuses tend to sound just like what they are: excuses.” Think about these tips next time you’re faced with an ask that you really aren’t willing to take on. Like our members who attended Joy’s workshop, you can find ways to confidently control your workload and say no more easily to unreasonable or unwanted workplace requests. It was a pleasure to have a fellow teacher and AEU member join our Women’s Network to share her research. The Women’s Network is constantly evolving, so if you have any suggestions about events you’d like to see run, you can contact me in the AEU office – I'd love to hear from you!

“I don’t attend school functions on the weekend because that’s family time.”

AEU ACT HISTORY PROJECT

AEU ACT FOUNDATION YEARS Former AEU ACT Secretary CLIVE HAGGAR is compiling a history of our branch in the leadup to its 50th anniversary.

In examining the history of the ACT’s public education system as an independent education system - leading to the formation of our own standalone education union - there is one event that stands out as probably the most significant in both the systems’ genesis. This was the coalition of parents and teachers and academics that formed around Campbell Primary parents and their dissatisfaction with the NSW Department of Education in 1966. The detailed history of this pressure group and its determination to establish an independent education authority for the ACT is comprehensively recorded and analysed in Elizabeth St. Clair McKenzie’s ANU PhD thesis: A History of the Australian Capital Territory Schools’ Authority, 19661980: A Process of Change Frustrated. Elizabeth, who retired as principal of Melrose High School, produced her thesis over a ten-year period to 1992, building on comprehensive analysis of documentation, earlier studies and interviews with most of the key players in the formation of both the system and the union.

Elizabeth described ACT parents, teachers and other stakeholders as viewing the NSW Department of Education as an ‘unwieldy, inflexible, bureaucratic administration', unable to respond to the local needs, unable and unwilling to staff schools appropriately because of rigid staffing formulae, a shortage of trained staff, and financial constraints. Concerns about curriculum, the examination system and the significant alienation of senior secondary students from the education process was also of concern. By November 1966, a planning group of stakeholders had been set up. It began a process that within a year would lead to the publication of a report entitled An Independent Education Authority for the Australian Capital Territory, which became known as the Currie Report, after its chair Sir George Currie. The report argued not simply for independence from the NSW Department of Education but also that any new ACT education system established needed to be based on community participation, with decision making largely decentralised to school communities.

The next five years saw active lobbying by parents, principals, ACT teacher members of the NSWTF and academics of Commonwealth Ministers of Education, bureaucrats, the ACT community and the press, culminating with the announcement in 1972 by Education Minister Malcolm Fraser that the ACT would have its own education action authority. Members of the NSWTF in Canberra determined at this time to establish their own union separate from the NSWTF and began to organise to that end, with a mass meeting of NSWTF members funding a dollar per head to work towards the creation of their new union in August of 1972. While the Commonwealth now began planning for the implementation of the new system, work was being done to restructure secondary education under the chairmanship of Dr Richard Campbell, with a report Secondary Education for Canberra recommending the separation of the final two years of secondary education into separate colleges. Originally set up by Minister Fraser, the working group was to report in 1973 to PM Gough Whitlam’s Minister for Education, Kim Beasley Sr. In May 1973, the new Whitlam government working party set up to recommend the structure of the new system under the chairmanship of Phillip Hughes, head of the Canberra College of Advanced Education, released the report A Design for the Governance and Organisation of Education in the ACT. By October 1973, the Council of the Interim ACT Schools Authority had been established on the basis of the decentralised, participatory principles outlined in the earlier Currie Report. A significant source of information and analysis used by Elizabeth was an earlier work published by the ACT Schools Authority in 1979, a joint MEd thesis by G.J.(Gwen) McNeill and M.E. (Mick) March: ACT Teachers’ Federation, 19721976. This thesis, as well as Elizabeth’s, provide rich insights into the personalities and issues of the time. These resonate in today's struggles to maintain and improve the place of public education and the teaching profession nearly half a century after the founding of the ACT’s own public education system and its own teachers union.

The voices of some of the founders can still be heard today, with recent interviews having been conducted with Keith Lawler, our first full time membership-elected President and Peter O’Connor, our first full time membershipelected General Secretary (both pictured above); former Vice-President, Schools Authority member and principal of Narrabundah College, Mick March; and former principal of Belconnen and Kaleen High Schools, Lance Chapman. Julia Ryan, a lifelong activist, has provided her perspectives on the early years with commentary on the way in which women had to fight to get their voices recognised as the system and the union formed. Dr Barry Price, an early activist and subsequently a senior administrator has also provided his thoughts through interview and historical papers, again including the voices of founders. As the AEU History Project progresses, other interviews and perspectives will be published in this magazine and on the AEU website to celebrate our past and enrich our future debate and actions.

Dear Minister, I write in response to the federal government’s announcement of a review of the Fair Work Act and our subsequent meeting on the subject. Our nation is in the grip of a low wages crisis unlike any other in the post-war period. Wage theft and underpayments are rampant, too many workers in Australia are now in insecure and precarious work. Women continue to be denied equality in the workforce, resulting in a 14% gender pay gap and a superannuation gap that sees women with 47% less superannuation at retirement. It is in this context that we note the Prime Minister’s comments that reform of our industrial relations system must improve wages, jobs and the economy. It is our view that reform must also improve equality and equity for the nation’s workforce. In his speech of 24 June 2019 announcing the government’s willingness to change our industrial relations laws, the Prime Minister only called on employers for their ideas. This leaves us concerned that the government is only focused on the corporate agenda and not the issues of most concern to workers and their families. It is our view that the wages crisis and inequality can be directly addressed by government policy levers through industrial relations reform. This view is shared by many others. The ACTU, on behalf of 1.6 million members, their families and their communities, expects that any necessary reform proposed by the government in critical areas of workplace policy will be unequivocally in the national interest. We are concerned that some in the business community have already proposed changes that would lead to workers receiving lower pay and having less job security. Here I refer to public comments and policy from some employer groups, supported by Liberal Party MPs such as Senators Amanda Stoker and Andrew Bragg, and MP’s Tim Wilson and Jason Falinski.

It is contrary to the government’s stated objectives in this review to entertain proposals that would make it easier to sack workers unfairly, make it possible to pay workers less than award rates, make it easier to deny workers their rights to protection against unfair treatment in the workplace, reduce the minimum wage, strip awards even further or convert permanent work into casual jobs – yet all of these proposals have been put forward by business advocates. To deliver vital improvements in wages, jobs, economic growth and equality it is in the national interest to focus on four (4) critical areas of reform.

1. Low wage growth crisis

Around 60% of the economy is driven by domestic consumption. Today the volume of total retail sales is at a level not seen since the 1990-91 recession, households are dipping into their savings, personal debt has skyrocketed and over one million children and young people live in poverty. More than one million people are working multiple jobs yet on average they earn less than those working just one job. The only factor that is keeping wages even marginally ahead of inflation is the increases to award rates achieved over the last three years. Ending the low wage crisis requires reform in critical areas including changing the annual minimum wage review to put a greater emphasis on the needs of the low-paid. Awards should improve over time and to do this the modern awards objective should be reformed so that awards reflect community and industry standards. Cuts to penalty rates imposed under the current modern award objective should be reversed. Enterprise bargaining is in decline, especially in the private sector. The consequent growth in individual arrangements has fuelled low wage growth, with average wage growth for employees covered by awards and enterprise agreements significantly outstripping wage growth for workers on individual arrangements. Individual arrangements are clearly not a solution to wages growth, yet the post-GFC economy has seen the emergence of complex corporate structures and supply chains where singular enterprise bargaining is often not a viable collective bargaining model. Reforming collective bargaining to encourage agreement-making between parties at an industry or sector level alongside enterprise bargaining is necessary to give all workers and employers access to collective bargaining. This will achieve the broad wages growth our country needs to stimulate consumer demand and drive our economy forward. International experience indicates that this is also a pathway to improved productivity.

2. Tackling wage theft and the causes of wage theft Wage theft, or underpayment of wages and superannuation, has become an operating model for some businesses. Defeating wage theft requires reform that recognises that there are incentives for non-compliance driving these industry norms. This is not a problem that an advertising campaign can solve. The rewards outweigh the risks for too many businesses. Changing this requires removing the incentives and increasing the deterrents. With 250 FWO inspectors for 1.2 million businesses, the chances of getting caught are low. Many workers do not report wage theft or underpayment until after they leave a job. This is because of the fear of losing their job, especially if they are in insecure work. Those who do take action are faced with the significant cost and delay associated with recovery through the current court system. Even after navigating this costly, technical, protracted process, the most likely outcome will simply be a repayment of stolen money. In this environment, unscrupulous employers have high incentives for wage theft and very low risk of negative consequences. Meanwhile workers are unlawfully underpaid, wage-compliant competitors are placed at an unfair disadvantage, the community suffers lost tax revenue and the nation loses much needed superannuation contributions that would otherwise be available for investment and to safeguard the retirement of the workers involved. The Fair Work Act should be reformed to allow unions to properly fulfil their role in improving employer compliance on wages and superannuation. The legal process for recovering stolen wages through the courts must provide fast, efficient, low-cost, non-legalistic access to justice for underpaid workers. The penalties for underpayment and wage theft must be significantly increased and extended in order to provide effective deterrence. Workers need to be confident that they can freely report wage theft and underpayments without facing recriminations. It is through this combination of fast, efficient justice for the underpaid, increased likelihood of detection and increased penalties for perpetrators that the government can tackle the causes of wage theft and underpayment.

The peak body for working people wrote to Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter ahead of his planned review of the Fair Work Act, urging him to tackle key areas of reform that are holding back working people’s rights and the national economy.

3. Australia needs more secure jobs In 2018, full time permanent employees with entitlements were no longer the majority of the workforce in Australia. With over 700,000 workers unemployed and another 1.1 million workers underemployed and looking for more work, we are nowhere near realising our potential as a nation. The high levels of casual employment, labour hire, rolling fixed term contracts, sham contracting, gig economy workers and other non-standard forms of engagement have radically shifted the balance away from working people and created uncertainty and insecurity among workers and their families. Uncertain and insecure workers are less likely to spend, less likely to borrow, less likely to invest and less likely to engage in their community. We should adopt the solutions that have worked for other successful developed nations who have put reasonable limits on these forms of work. Employers cannot be allowed to unilaterally designate workers as casuals regardless of the objective facts of their working arrangements. All workers need the protection of the Fair Work Act, and it should be amended so that its protections unequivocally extend to all working people.

4. Equal pay for women

The gender pay gap in Australia is currently 14%. Women typically retire with 47% less superannuation than their male peers. Australian women continue to face systemic inequality. Women are undervalued in their work, particularity in female dominated occupations and industries, are disproportionately working in insecure and precarious forms of employment and shoulder the responsibility of caring (for children and family members), which therefore disrupts consistent engagement with paid work. They are also the majority of workers who experience workplace sexual harassment as well as family and domestic violence. Work in feminised industries such as early childhood education and aged care needs to be fairly valued. The Act needs to be amended to ensure this occurs. Australia lags behind international standards for paid parental leave. The work/life collision must be effectively regulated to ensure that those with carers’ responsibilities are not disadvantaged. Both direct and indirect discrimination are holding back our national performance in wages growth, job security and economic growth. Reforming the Fair Work Act to deal with these issues will meet the government’s tests for wage growth, jobs growth and economic growth.

Next steps I urgently seek your assurance that the government will focus on these four areas for reform and will not side with big business against the interests of working people during this review. It is important that as our economy, our work and our country changes, the laws protecting working people and that govern our workplaces are updated. Our economy today is vastly different to the one in which the Fair Work Act was written. We believe that the low wage growth crisis, wage theft and its causes, insecure work and inequality for working women are the four big issues that must be successfully addressed in any review of the Fair Work Act. We look forward to seeing details of the government’s review process incorporating these issues into the agenda together with timelines for consultation and decisions.

Yours sincerely,

Sally McManus ACTU Secretary 31

2019

ACT TRAINING AWARDS Power to the people For Melissa Power, the career path from nursing to teaching made perfect sense. “Part of my role as a clinical nurse specialist was to educate fellow staff,” she explains, “and as a nurse, you are always responsible for education of the person you are caring for and their family. To me education is an extension of my nursing role.” Melissa began nursing in the early 1990s in a small district hospital that had just 12 beds. She came to Canberra in 2003, and began working as a clinical nurse specialist, where she helped teach and mentor her peers. She has also worked in intensive care and is a specialist in surgical orthopaedics. When Melissa started teaching at CIT in 2008, it was initially just to fill in for a few months for a friend who was unwell. “In the first class I taught," she says, "I was so nervous, I went to write “drugs” on the whiteboard and spelt it “durgs” three times before I gave up on the whiteboard!” This shaky start wasn’t a sign of things to come, however. “I found that I loved teaching in VET,” Melissa says, “and especially loved the way that nursing is taught in the diploma of nursing – with a very practical focus. Within 6 months I had a permanent position.”

Eleven years on, Melissa has had many proud moments as a teacher. “I am proud when every group of students graduate, I am proud to have made a small difference in the life of many people, and proud to take a little bit of credit for the amazing nurses looking after very complex patients.” She is also a previous recipient of a CIT Student Association Teacher of the Year award, for which teachers are nominated by their students. Melissa considers this her proudest moment, explaining, “I think there can be no better judgment of doing a job than being told by the people you are there to educate.”

Two of our amazing CIT members were nominated for this year's ACT Training Awards. Our CIT Organiser GERARD DWYER caught up with them both to find out more about their work.

Risk and reward Ken Wilson was an apprentice fitter and turner straight out of school. He then joined the air force as a metal machinist on FA18 aircraft for 12 years. In this role, he taught apprentices which helped him develop a passion for teaching with a focus on safety. He’s also worked for ACTEW as a WHS policy officer. It’s a background that has held him in good stead in his teaching career, where he is currently the High Risk/Global Wind Training Teacher/Coordinator, which involves helping to facilitate training, assigning and organising teachers, equipment and facilities, and ensuring the smooth delivery of more than 30 training courses. “It’s pretty full on!” Ken says. “But anyone who knows me knows I’m up for a challenge. Ken also teaches Turbine Rescue and is excited to also be working on the recently initiated Renewables STEM (Mechanical Engineering) VLO program for years 10-12. Teaching in high-risk areas, Ken is trained in the social psychology of risk, which has helped to get students to change their behaviour to normalise safety in the workplace. “Being able to use my skills and training to help others achieve their goals and ambitions is very rewarding and a responsibility that I take very seriously.”

“I work with a great bunch of professionals, who are committed, passionate but also have a fantastic sense of humour. We’re a family and I love coming to work because of it.” Congratulations to Ken Wilson, who was named the ACT VET Teacher/Trainer of the year award at the award ceremony on 12 September! Ken will go on to compete with the winners from other states and territories at the upcoming Australian Training Awards.

Dear AEU ACT team, I wanted to take the time to email you and say thank you for the tireless work you do supporting educators in the ACT, just like myself. The work you do is vital, and I know that’s something you already know. I have always been proud to be involved with the AEU and in light of the events of this year for myself that pride has increased. When talking with people, some have asked me what I would do differently if my situation presented itself again and whether I would still reach out to the union office. My response to them has been YES. I was facing a situation which I felt was hopeless. I couldn’t see any way that it would resolve. I was looking at being one of the beginning teachers who leave teaching within the first few years of their career. After all your support and work, I am beyond happy to say that is now definitely not the case! I am looking forward to a long career in teaching. I want to personally acknowledge and thank [Senior Industrial Officer] Jacqui for her advocacy, professionalism, time, knowledge and passion. When talking with [AEU organiser] Sean about my situation, he told me that I just needed to trust you and that I was in good hands. He was 100% correct! Thank you for going into bat for me and my career. You advocated for me, believed in me and helped resolve a very difficult situation. I now have hope again and feel extremely positive going forward. None of this would have happened without you and the work that the everyone in the AEU office does. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you!

I also wanted to say what an amazing team of organisers you have. Sean and [fellow organiser] Malisa, you both have helped me immensely. You have been nothing but supportive over the past three years and I look forward to continuing to work with you for years to come. You have listened to me both in the good times and the bad, through the celebrations and the tears. You have brought massive cakes and AEU goodies. You empowered me to be the best sub-branch representative I could be. I will always advocate and rally the troops. You have assisted me greatly and your knowledge is outstanding. When in the office, each and every one of you took the time to say hello to me, to offer me tea or coffee and to check in with me. The hospitality and support that you give each and every day is above and beyond and that’s what educators need. Everyone in the AEU office has a passion for our schools, educators and the work that they do. This passion and knowledge you have makes the vital work that we do in schools everyday easier and possible. I could keep going on about everything, but this email is getting long enough. I will continue to sing the praises of the work that the AEU team has done for me. It’s through our personal stories that some people find hope and are empowered to reach out, take a stand or realise that they are worth more than the things that happen to them. I hope that one day my experience can help others to realise that they are not alone and that we can take a stand to ensure our rights and entitlements are adhered to. There is help available no matter how overwhelming or scary a situation appears. You, the AEU, has our backs and is there every step of the way. Thank you for being awesome!

In unity, AEU teacher member

WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS!

Congratulations to our recently joined and re-joined members! By joining our union, you're standing in solidarity with more than 3700 of your colleagues to fight for the best conditions for ACT

public educators.

Emma Abundo; Douglas Amarfio; Sarah Beardsley; Ashley Blount; Lisa Bodger; Anne Brennan; Clare Broadhurst; Micah Chubb; Krystal Coker; Rebecca Cowan; Jacob Cumming; Michael Dalvean; Louise Daly; Nicole Doherty; Maddison Dwyer; Gerard Dwyer; Christine Eldridge-Smith; Barbara Fleming; Marianne Foley; Ashley Gilbertson; Kimberley Godwin; Hayley Goyne; Margaret Hallen; Erlina Hastarini; Stacie Howell; Justin Hughes; Kim-Maree Janszen; Genevieve Johnston; Patricia Kalloo-Garrett; Patrick Kien; Simon Laffey; Stacey Lawson; Angela Liu; Cherie LuggRestall; Carla Magro; Marianne Mann; Matthew Marasco; Katie McCarthy; Jonathan McCaskill; Larissa Mullen; Christopher Nairn; Anthony O'Leary; Joshua Ophel; Ruth O'Reilly; Marijana Pasalic; Annette Pass; Andrew Paterson; Alicia Perritt; Hayden Petersen; Joanne Purcell; Christiane Roth; Daniel Round; Sarah Rutley; Katy Ryan; Tarun Sharma; Elissa Sharpe; Prudence Sheather; David Paul Simmons; Damien Slingsby; Teaka Smith; Katherine Spencer; Joyce Steele; Jennifer Taylor; Bethany Taylor; Kerryn Taylor; Amy Thomas; Damien Trask; Melissa Troth; Raewyn Tuffery; Lillian Van Der Weegen; Melanie Wakeling; Vanessa Whelan; Phoebe White; Ashley Winn; Alexandra Wood; Zahra Yazdi

YOUR AEU OFFICE TEAM

GLENN FOWLER

Branch Secretary

JACQUI AGIUS

ANTOINETTE GARSIDE

VINCE MCDEVITT

Senior Industrial Officer

Business Manager

Lead Organiser

PATRICK JUDGE

MEAGAN PEARCE

MALISA LENGYEL

Industrial Officer

JACOB DUNNE

Communications Officer

Southside Organiser

TAYLAH KOLARIC

SEAN van der HEIDE

Case Support Officer

Membership Coordinator

ELIZABETH LOMAS

LUCY BARRETT

Industrial Support Officer

Northside Organiser

GERARD DWYER

Administration Assistant CIT and School Assistant Organiser

KAYTE FLANAGAN

Organiser Support Officer