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by Phil Bradley
Supplementary guidelines for new TAFE head teachers have been agreed to by Federation and the Department of Education and Training.
Arising from the 1996 Teachers and Other Educational Staff Award, a working party examined the criteria for establishing new head teacher band 1 and band 2 positions. These criteria were published in the TAFE Commission Gazette No. 49 of December 16, 1998. Implementation of these criteria has caused numerous disagreements as a result of inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate interpretation.
Section 9 of the agreed criteria states, inter alia, that implementation "will be regularly monitored by the TAFE Award Steering Committee" and that "where anomalies arise that cannot be resolved at the local Institute level they will be referred to the TAFE Award Steering Committee". As a result of consideration of the resulting referrals and ongoing monitoring, agreement was reached between the Department and Federation on supplementary guidelines. Federation has asked that the Department publish these agreed guidelines in the Gazette, but in updated form by incorporating the need to:
o restore the priority of normal transfer policy over state-wide merit selection, after the first round of filling new head teacher positions;
o include the agreement that point 9 clarifies clause 6 of the agreed criteria, so that automatic progression to band 2 in any round is only applicable to "those who hold the substantive head teacher position"; and
o clarify that any August review of hours is to be based on semester 1 of that year and semester 2 of the immediately preceding year.
Phil Bradley is the Assistant General Secretary (Post-School Education).
Agreed guidelines on promotions positions
The following is the current agreed document. These guidelines must be read in conjunction with the relevant industrial agreements and awards.
In these guidelines, the term head teacher is used to refer to senior head teachers and head teachers under the old classification, and band 1 and band 2 head teachers under the new agreement.
The parties have agreed to monitor the operation of these guidelines.
1. Consultation
Institutes must be able to show that satisfactory consultation has taken place with those staff directly affected.
All promotions positions must be established in accordance with the agreement.
Every effort should be made to involve all teachers in the section in the consultation process. Where there are disagreements, they will be dealt with under clause 13 of the supplementary guidelines.
2. Institutes should be aware of the following:
2.1. Educational issues and good management of the section should be the prime consideration when conducting the review of promotions positions.
2.2. The educational needs and workload of the section should be considered when deciding upon the number of B1 and B2 positions in a large section. Every effort should be made to consult with all appropriate teaching staff in making this decision.
2.3. The initial review is based on semester 2, 1997, and semester 1, 1998 hours.
2.4. Maximum weighted hours do not need to be achieved to create a new position, for example 276 weighted hours would allow for the creation of a band 2 and band 1 position. The establishment of both positions could be considered earlier in the range of 206 to 276.
2.5. More than one band 2 position can be created in a section.
2.6. The creation of head teacher positions must follow the priority order set out in 1.3 of the agreement.
3. Institutes should be aware that, as per the agreement, if existing promotional positions are not retained on the new criteria, then the old criteria will be applied. There is no time limit on this application. However, this provision holds as long as the position is substantively filled by the original incumbent.
4. This agreement on TAFE NSW promotion positions is about a new state-wide process for creating promotional positions. It is not to provide an opportunity for Institutes to restructure and reclassify promotions positions overall. The use of a RAM basis for establishing promotional positions has not been agreed.
5. The creation of new supervisory areas and new nomenclature for promotional positions, that are not common state-wide, is to be avoided. This will only make the matter of transfers and state-wide processes difficult to maintain. The current approved nomenclature and designations on the Lattice system are to be used when determining the title of a position.
6. The location factor does not include direct supervision across a college, campus or sites where teachers are not supervised directly through regular visitations. In determining the number of locations, Institute personnel should be able to identify direct visitations to secondary sites as a regular occurrence and/or requirement of the program. The location factor is applied to correctional centres, workplace training and assessment locations, and as a single factor for work placement/practicums.
7. The responsibility of a head teacher is the educational supervision of a teaching section. Consequently the creation of multi-campus positions where the head teacher cannot easily travel between campuses is to be discouraged. In this case, teachers in charge (TICs) should be used, with appropriate teaching release and allowance.
8. Only permanent positions should be established under this agreement. There is no classification for temporary head teachers in the award.
9. In the initial round of creation of positions, automatic progression to band 2 should be applied for those who hold the substantive head teacher position which has the appropriate number of weighted hours.
10. Positions will be filled in the following order in the first round:
10.1. direct appointment for incumbents where the positions have remained following the review. Salary level will depend on the total weighted hours;
10.2. redeployment of those head teachers on the redeployment list;
10.3. consideration of compassionate transfers;
10.4. merit selection process state-wide.
11. Forced transfers
Any head teachers who receive a forced transfer for a variety of reasons will retain their head teacher classification and salary until such time as they are promoted or apply, and are subsequently transferred or appointed to a different position as a result of that application.
12. Advertising for positions
Advertising to fill positions on a merit basis will only occur through the TAFE Gazette on a state-wide basis. Before any agreed position proceeds to advertisement, Institutes must have the position cleared by the Redeployment Unit.
13. Disagreements
Where disagreements arise in relation to creation and filling of promotions positions, the following steps should be undertaken:
13.1. discussions at the local level with parties involved to include a Federation Representative, as agreed by the Teachers Federation.
13.2. if a satisfactory agreement is not arrived at, the matter is to be referred to the Award Steering Committee.
13.3. if the matter is not resolved at the Award Steering Committee to the satisfaction of the parties to the Agreement, the dispute resolution procedures in the TAFE Teacher Consent Award could be involved.