Relocation trial underway
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 124 No 2, 15 March 2019, page no. 19
The pilot of classified teacher relocations has commenced on principles negotiated with the QTU as the industrial representatives of teachers and principals.
The department communicated the changes to the relocation process on 13 February via a message from the Director-General. Any employees with a current relocation application should have received an email advising of the changes to the process and asking them to upload a CV of no more than two or three pages. Principals have also been emailed with an outline of the changes.
The 2019 pilot, which was developed in response to the 2018 evaluation of the IPS system, involves trialling changes to the department’s recruitment and relocation processes for classified teachers (including heads of school and heads of campus, excluding principals).
These are some of the changes.
- Monthly regional director vacancy meetings will be held to decide how a vacancy is filled (relocation or merit). When determining the method for filling the vacancy, regional directors will consider factors such as how a vacancy was previously filled, information about relocation applicants and individual school environments.
- Vacancies will be advertised throughout the year rather than in bi-annual rounds.
- If a role at a school was most recently filled through relocation, the next time that role becomes vacant it can immediately proceed to merit (a principal can still nominate for the role to be filled by relocation).
- A changed role for the vacancy review panel (VRP) – it will still meet each term but will focus on oversight of the recruitment and relocation processes (the QTU will still use the VRP to raise issues regarding member’s seeking relocation).
- A suitability assessment process – if a decision is made to fill the role through relocation, the principal will be required to undertake a suitability assessment process to consider those relocation applicants who have nominated their school. The regional director will approve the suitability report recommendation. If no relocation applicant is assessed as suitable, the role can then be filled through open merit (advertised on SmartJobs).
- Changes to service eligibility criteria for relocation application - for all applications received from 2019, the following service criteria must be reached in order to submit a relocation application:
- TR 6-7: two years’ service
- TR 4-5: three years’ service
- TR 2-3: four years’ service
- TR 1: six years’ service.
The QTU will be monitoring this pilot very closely to ensure that a fair and transparent relocation process is available to all our members and is currently developing resources about the new process.
If you are experiencing issues with relocations, you can contact the QTU so that we can identify issues with the pilot as well as raise these issues with the department. To contact the QTU about any relocation issues, email services@qtu.asn.au