New Early Childhood agreements pass final hurdle

Teachers and assistants in local government and community-run preschools return to work today covered by new enterprise agreements, with back pay and significant salary rises on the way.

The Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Assistants Agreement 2009 (VECTAA) for the community-run sector came into effect yesterday after being approved last week by Fair Work Australia.

It follows FWA's approval of the Local Government Early Childhood Education Employees Agreement (LGECEEA) in December. It came into effect on December 18.

Both agreements provide for significant pay rises, plus back pay and lump sum payments for many employees dated back to last May.

Implementation kits for both agreements are now being developed by the AEU for members. In the meantime, detailed advice has been mailed to members at home.

The Local Government Early Childhood Education Employees Agreement 2009 (LGECEEA 2009)

On Friday December 11 Senior Deputy President Kaufman of Fair Work Australia approved the Local Government Early Childhood Education Employees Agreement 2009. The Agreement came into effect on 18 December 2009. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is 30 April 2013. An implementation kit will be provided shortly to members employed within the 24 Councils party to the Agreement.

The Victorian Early Childhood Teachers And Assistants Agreement 2009 (VECTAA 2009)

Early childhood teachers and assistants in Victorian community-managed preschools voted 99-to-one in favour of the new agreement for the sector. The outcome of the ballot which concluded on 7 December was 98.7% in favour of the Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Assistants Agreement 2009.

An application for approval of the Agreement by Fair Work Australia was lodged on Thursday 9 December 2009 and on Tuesday 19 January Senior Deputy President Kaufman approved the Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Assistants Agreement 2009. To expedite the process this approval was given without a formal hearing. The Agreement will operate from 26 January 2010. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is 25 January 2013.

For easy reference a copy of VECTAA can be found here. Please note that VECTAA is structured in three parts -- Part A provides conditions which apply to both teachers and assistants; Part B to teachers; and Part C to assistants.

A detailed implementation kit will be sent to members shortly. (However in the meantime some information on key issues of hours, salaries and back pay were provided to members in this bulletin sent to their homes).

Back pay: For those services utilising Payline, the payment of Back pay has been scheduled for the pay of 18 March 2010.

Lump Sum: For those services utilising Payline, the Lump sum payments has been scheduled for the pay of 18 February 2010.

KPV has produced a Wages Implementation Kit for its members. The Kit will be available in the members-only section of the KPV website.

Effective communication -- what will you choose? You must act now.

In the November Early Childhood Newsletter an article with this title asked members to confirm whether or not they wanted their communication by email. The request is repeated here and we will act in accordance with this in relation to further communications with members.

If you have provided your email address to the AEU (either home or work) email Martel Menz and confirm either:

• "I want to remain on the email list and receive bulletins and other information by email only". (NB The early childhood newsletter and AEU News will continue to be sent via post (unless you also elect to have the AEU News sent by email by notifying aeunews@aeuvic.asn.au of this)

• "I want to remove my email address from the list and receive my bulletin and other communications by post."

In either case be sure to put your name on the email as it is not always possible to determine this from your email address.

*Important note: In the absence of confirmation that you wish to be removed from the list we will assume that you wish to continue to receive your bulletins and other communications via email.

AEU Professional Development And Early Years Conference

The AEU professional development program is off and running early this year with two workshops targeted at early childhood students and beginning teachers (teachers within their first 3 years of teaching). The sessions will be held at the AEU offices Abbotsford from 5.30-7.30pm Wednesday 17 February (Environments in Early Childhood Education Settings) and Wednesday 3 March (Using portfolios to observe, plan for and assess children). Further details can be found here.

Set aside Saturday 17 April for the inaugural AEU early years conference, "Early Years Education: Taking the lead in a time of change'. To be held at the Rydges on Swanston, it will be a conference for both early childhood and primary members. It will be a great opportunity to get together to investigate, discuss and pursue our common agendas and issues. More details will be posted here.

Shayne Quinn
Vice President (Early Childhood)

Martel Menz Deputy Vice President (Early Childhood)