IM Bulletin Term 1, 24 February 2021 | DOWNLOAD PDF
Instrumental Music Teachers' Bulletin - Term 1, 2021
New leadership
As school resumed for 2021, the QTU welcomed a new leadership team. Kate Ruttiman is our new General Secretary and Cresta Richardson is our new President.
Kate has a strong connection with instrumental music from her previous role as Deputy General Secretary, including driving the negotiations for the 2019 Memorandum of Agreement and subsequent Joint Communique. In accordance with the QTU’s Rules and Constitution, QTU State Council will elect a new Deputy General Secretary to replace Kate in March.
Cresta also supports the continued campaigning of QTU members who are instrumental music teachers and instructors. QTU members may recall Cresta’s video Unpacking the Joint Communique from when she was Vice-President. The seven-minute video is a good reminder of your working conditions. Cresta is joined by our newly elected Vice-President Leah Olsson, a former primary music specialist from Far North Queensland.
2021 priorities
Recent QTU communication to all members has included a link to our 2021 priorities, which can be found here. Reducing workload and workplace health and safety, including COVID-19 and occupational safety, are two priorities that impact upon all QTU members. For instrumental music teachers and instructors, there are two additional pieces of industrial work to be undertaken this year.
EB10 claim development will commence this year, and the department and the QTU have a commitment to review and/or renew the existing Memorandum of Agreement. These will be the focus of the next Instrumental Music Bulletin, early in Term 2.
COVID-19
In January, the QTU was advised about the Queensland COVID planning framework, which is a colour-coded table outlining four potential response levels (it can be found here – instrumental music appears on page two of the hyperlinked table). The new COVID framework contradicts the Department of Education’s Instrumental music program guidelines for managing hazards associated with COVID-19, which was issued in November and was the subject of a stage three dispute in Term 4 of 2020 (it is still available on the department’s website here). The contradiction relates to physical distancing and the one person per four square metres requirement, which has been removed from the new planning framework.
The QTU asserts that the health, safety and wellbeing of instructors and teachers must be a consideration in implementing COVID safe plans. We also acknowledge that physical distancing to accommodate a 50-member ensemble risks a conductors’ health and wellbeing. The QTU believes that, in the event of inconsistency, the most recent advice should be followed. That means there is no longer a requirement for physical distancing, except for the two-metre separation between performers and audience.
It was the QTU’s understanding that the department was to communicate this to employees.
Workload
One of the ways to reduce workload is to avoid workload creep. Remember, your industrial entitlements include:
- commencing no earlier than 8:00am, and finishing no later than 4:00pm
- ensuring you have a rostered 45-minute meal break each day
- ensuring you have 150 minutes of non-contact time each week (for a fulltime teacher/instructor)
- ensuring adequate travel time is included in your circuit so that you do not have to travel during your meal breaks or rostered non-contact time
- rostered duty time in any one day should not exceed seven hours
- not conducting ensembles for more than five hours per week
- class sizes of an average four-six students, and no more than ten.
Throughout Term 3, the QTU and the department engaged in a process of consultation and agreement on 12 specific actions to reduce workload. QTU members might have seen the A2 workload review poster in schools, which you can also download from the QTU website here.
Registration
The 3 November Instrumental Music Bulletin addressed the inclusion of a Return to Teach condition on Queensland College of Teacher registration and reported that the matter had been raised with the Minister for Education. The Minister’s faith in the bureaucracy exceeds that of the 48,000 members of the QTU. The department and QCT have assumed responsibility for finding a way forward. The QTU is closely monitoring this space and will continue to report on the matter.
Thalia Edmonds Craig Wood
Deputy General Secretary Research Officer
Authorised by Kate Ruttiman, General Secretary, Queensland Teachers' Union
21 Graham Street, Milton, QLD, Australia, 4064