Battle for improved GO permanency ongoing
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 123 No 4, 5 June 2020, page no. 23
The QTU’s long campaign to secure improved permanency for long term relieve-above-level and temporary guidance officers continues.
Many of our school guidance officers (GOs) are permanent classroom teachers who have to seek to have their relieve-above-level arrangements reconfirmed at the end of each school year, while also seeking a further year’s leave from their substantive teaching positions. Some GOs are temporary employees with no permanency.
The QTU recently requested a data set that accurately shows the employment patterns of GOs and requested a meeting to canvas ways of securing increased permanency for GOs, placing an immediate focus on the present staffing cycle.
This request was emailed to the department on 12 May, and the QTU received a very timely response. The department:
- requested the preparation of an updated report to assess progress in relation to the appointment of GOs
- committed to listing the matter of guidance officer employment on the agenda for the central office/regional HR managers teleconference on 19 May (a crucial step as it is the regions that need to identify permanent positions and institute appropriate mechanisms to fill them, and it also means that guidance officer employment will be considered within the 2020 staffing cycle)
- appointed a contact person within central office, so that the QTU can raise individual cases or anomalies directly
- committed to scheduling a meeting after 25 May.
These commitments are welcomed. Importantly, the issue of GO permanent employment will be foregrounded in regional deliberations when considering staffing for 2021, which is crucial.
This issue first emerged in 2016, when a number of members highlighted their lack of tenure in positions they had been in for many years, prompting the QTU to request data on guidance officers’ patterns of employment so as to identify the scale of the problem.
The QTU’s analysis of the data found that more than 60 per cent of GOs were not permanent in their positions and that there were 52 full-time equivalent (FTEs) GOs who had been employed in acting positions for between five and 10 years, with five employed in acting roles for between 10 and 15 years.
As a result of the QTU’s work, approximately 70 GO positions were advertised and filled permanently during the 2017 year.
In 2018, the department:
- confirmed that increased numbers of permanent guidance positions had been advertised and filled by regions
- committed to providing the QTU with an updated data set
- confirmed that it will continue to consider ways of transitioning GOs in long-term acting positions to permanent placements, initially on a case by case basis.
A data set provided in the second half of 2018 indicated that there had been some improvement, from just over 60 per cent of GOs working in non-tenured positions to just over 50 per cent. However, this was still not acceptable.
In 2019, the QTU requested a new data set. This data set was provided but proved to be inaccurate. The QTU has since been awaiting a new data set.
Clearly, since much of the initial addressing of this issue was undertaken in 2018 and early 2019, there are GOs who may now fall into the 10 year plus group. Further, there has been no consultation with the QTU in relation to the larger number of GOs in the group that represents 5 to 10 years in ongoing acting or temporary engagements, nor the issue of large numbers of the guidance workforce not being permanent in their positions.