Youth detention MOA
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 127 No 2, 11 March 2022, page no.11
On 27 January, QTU General Secretary Kate Ruttiman and DoE Director-General Michael De’Ath signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for Youth Detention Centres and made it operational.
The MOA was required to amend the industrial conditions of teachers and school leaders delivering education programs in youth detention settings, following the Queensland Government’s decision to increase educational delivery from the standard 40 weeks per year up to 48 weeks per year for young people in detention.
It followed six months of negotiations between the department and the QTU, site visits and extensive consultation with QTU members across the three detention centre sites (Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and West Moreton Youth Detention Centre, both in Wacol, and Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in Townsville).
The MOA provides teachers and school leaders with the normal 40 weeks of rostered teaching time, but spreads them across a number of roster patterns at each site.
The final version of the MOA reflects the substantive changes the QTU sought following member feedback, including:
- dispute resolution processes
- local rostering consultation via the LCC
- judicious allocation of rosters
- avoidance of mid-year pattern changes where possible
- authority of the principal to be delegated while they are not rostered.
The QTU also raised the provision of appropriate staff facilities at each site with the department, given the 20 per cent staffing increase that resulted from the eight-week extension to educational delivery in youth detention. We continue to work with QTU Representatives and school leaders across all three workplaces while the minor works to deliver these additional facilities are completed.
I would like to congratulate the QTU members who took part in the broad consultation process, with a special shout-out to our QTU Representatives and the school leadership teams at each site. The QTU will monitor the implementation of the new MOA and continue to support the work of members educating students in youth detention across Queensland.