Today’s announcement from the Victorian Department of Education – that the state’s public schools will be allocated an additional $130m for their budgets, across four years, to resolve the long-running school camp time in lieu ‘off duty’ dispute – is welcome news for Victorian educators.
Earlier this year, the industrial dispute affecting school camps in Victoria had been taken to FairWork Australia, after the Australian Education Union (AEU) accused the Andrews government and the Department of Education and Training of reneging on a hard-won improvement to working conditions for teachers, who were awarded hour-for-hour time in lieu for attending school camps in 2022.
Teachers attending school camps in Victoria will now be regarded as being on call for eight hours and will receive a payment for this time. For the remaining school camp hours, outside of normal hours of duty and overnight hours, employees required to meet student supervision ratios will also accrue time in lieu for performing duties, or being on call.
AEU Victorian Branch President, Meredith Peace, called today’s successful settlement of the dispute has been called an “important win”, which she said had been “achieved as a direct result of the actions of AEU members, including those who lodged local grievances, and builds on the improved entitlements achieved in the Schools Agreement last year”.
“The significant new funding will reduce the pressure on schools to provide time in lieu to staff where they are required to work outside of their normal hours of duty while enabling schools to plan their camps programs with certainty,” she said.
