I'd like to hear from staff at some of the other Outdoor and environment centres around the state about how the MOA will affect them in their workplaces. I'm imagining that for some centres having an extra teacher will be a massive bonus as will receiving some payment (MTA) for the work that you do staying away from home overnight.
No doubt our union representative Kate Seed has done a fantastic job of listening to the various viewpoints and considerations from across the state and I know that there have been conversations and discussions among the OEEC principals for many years now. I'm particularly keen to hear the perspectives of the teachers on the ground about how this new agreement will impact on them.
A number of staff at MOEC are yet to vote on the MOA proposal and i'm fully aware that we are casting vote without much engagement or knowledge of what the circumstances and effects of that vote will be on other staff around the state.
At present at Maroon we already receive a MTA which has been in place here for many years and it has a rather obscure origin. It is aimed at compensating staff who work overnight on campout programmes with students. It is approximately $80 a fortnight. This is paid throughout the year and amounts to over $2000 per annum in benefits to the MOEC teaching staff.
If MOEC staff are paid for their campout nights according to the proposed MTA rates of $16.85 per night away from home this will amount to approximately $400 per annum for MOEC staff working under the new arrangment.
The balance that we have at MOEC at the moment with our current Time in Lieu arrangments and the current MTA works really well for our centre and our staff. If the proposed MTA is kept at the base rate of $16.85 per night for camping out with kids, this will significantly change the dynamics of our current and future working conditions.
Our exisiting MOEC staff who are currently being paid the MTA of $80 per fortnight will maintain that payment under the new MOA. This will create another layer of complication when staff are completing the same jobs under different conditions.
So in the interests of looking for a better deal for our future staff and in the hope of maintaining the current healthy balance at MOEC i'm inclined to vote against the proposed MOA. I'm hoping that others may be able to share how this proposed agreement will impact on them to help me make a decision that takes into account the impact of this agreement on all OEEC staff, not just our staff at MOEC.
Thanks for taking the time to have a read of this and i'm looking forward to catching up with heaps of our fantastic teachers at our next gathering.
I'm not sure of the ethics of using an Education Queensland discussion list for this type of conversation. I've started a blog with the contents of this email contained within if you would prefer to avoid the EQ network to continue this conversation.
Warm Regards
Mark Munnings
