State Council report: 6 November 2021
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 127 No 1, 11 February 2022, page no.4
QTU State Council was convened in Brisbane on Saturday 6 November and considered a range of business.
Vale Warren Barry
QTU General Secretary Kate Ruttiman addressed Council on the passing of QTU Life Member and former officer of the Union, Warren Barry, on 9 September. Warren was a colourful character who was one of the Union’s early itinerant industrial officers travelling the state.
EB10
QTU Council endorsed the EB10 draft log of claims and the interest based bargaining approach for the upcoming negotiations.
COVID-19
Council received a report on the ongoing discussions with the department and government around the management of COVID-19 in schools, with the QTU’s focus remaining on member health, safety, wellbeing and workload.
Discussion with the department centred around developing a plan to manage ventilation in classrooms and other work spaces, and scenario planning in the event of increased community transmission once domestic and international borders reopen.
A further report was provided about the challenges faced by members and school communities impacted by the hard closure of the NSW border.
Teacher shortage issues
Council received a report on ongoing meetings with the department to discuss current teacher shortage challenges. There has been a misalignment of department data, which means that it potentially fails to identify teacher shortages when schools put alternate solutions into place, such as deploying school leaders (HoD, deputy principals and principals) in classrooms.
Council endorsed a campaign which will see self-selected schools taking industrial action in cases where they face teacher shortages in 2022.
Union governance
QTU State Council endorsed the Union’s Revenue and Expenses statements as at 31 July, 31 August and 30 September 2021.
It also considered the draft QTU budget and endorsed proposed budget initiatives that arose from the Union’s budget planning day. The final 2022 QTU budget will be considered for approval at the next meeting of Council on 6 March.
Special guest speaker: Don Luke from QSuper
Council was addressed by the current chair of QSuper, Mr Don Luke, about the proposed merger with SunSuper. Mr Luke answered a number of delegate questions about the proposed merger of the two funds.
Federal election
Council received a report on the Australian Education Union’s Every School, Every Child school funding campaign and Rebuild with TAFE campaign, and the Australian Council of Trade Union’s Secure Jobs campaign.
QTU engagement in these campaigns will be guided by the QTU 2021 Biennial Conference Statement and come under the broader campaign banner of “For our Profession”.
Council noted that the ACTU campaign will focus campaign activity in the three federal electorates of Leichhardt, Flynn and Longman.