5.0 Prioritise safe schools
The QTU believes that public schooling should provide a quality education in a safe, caring, and supportive environment, and that all Queenslanders are entitled to the opportunity to learn and to develop socially. The benefits of engaging young Queenslanders in education and training are social and economic, and these benefits flow to young people, their families, and our communities. These positive outcomes arise in areas such as education, employment, health, social welfare, economic wellbeing and youth justice.
Safety is the primary duty of care for all employers to their workers and others. The QTU recognises that the Department of Education has a duty to ensure the physical and psychosocial safety of all staff, including teachers and school leaders.
5.1 Safety
Since 2020, the QTU has actively participated in the department’s “root and branch” review of its safety culture. The department states that it is committed to enhancing due diligence and safety awareness and significantly strengthening its safety culture. The QTU commends the department on the work so far. The findings of the review indicate that significant funds need to be committed to ensure the incident reporting infrastructure is fit for purpose and can be easily accessed and used to report on hazards, incidents and near misses. Presently, this is not the case. Further, the department’s safety culture can only be enlivened by ensuring that all workplaces have a Treasury-funded allocation for work health and safety officer positions. Such officers should hold at least a Certificate IV in Work Health and Safety. In addition, the QTU asserts that all workplaces should be monitored by workplace health and safety committees and that all representatives on safety committees should receive appropriate training, with the cost of training and support being centrally funded by Treasury. Recognising that the duty to consult is a fundamental duty under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), the department should be proactive in demonstrating the value it places on the role and expertise provided by supporting the election of health and safety representatives (HSRs) for the varying work groups within specific sites. All HSRs should be allocated appropriate levels of release time, reflecting the requirements of the specific site.
5.2 Occupational violence
The QTU calls on the Queensland Government to commit in its 2023/24 budget to allocating funds from Treasury to ensure that the Department of Education can deliver its declared zero-tolerance stance towards occupational violence. The QTU calls on the Department of Education to place a greater emphasis on prevention. To deliver on this, the department must meet its legal obligation to ensure all regional directors, regional safety advisors, school leaders and WHS committee members have the requisite information, training, and instruction to eliminate or significantly mitigate the risk of occupational violence occurring. Given the alarming levels of occupational violence against education leaders, the Queensland Government needs to raise public awareness of specific criminal offence provisions in relation to violence toward staff in schools.
5.3 Gendered violence
Gendered violence can take many forms, including sexual, physical, and psychological harm, verbal threats, and/or demeaning comments based on gender. Gendered violence can impact upon the health, physical and psychosocial safety of staff and students, as well as impact on educational outcomes of all genders. However non-gender conforming people and women are far more likely to experience gendered violence.
Following an increase in the volume of gendered violence incidents reported to the QTU, the Union conducted a survey of its members (Expect Respect Survey) to examine the extent of such violence in state schools and TAFE campuses, including harassment experienced and witnessed. This survey was conducted, in part, to gather data that could not be supplied by the employer. An alarming 32 per cent of responders reported that they had experienced gendered violence at work. Of those who had experienced it, more than a quarter (26 per cent) did not report those incidents to their employer. Responders identified significant barriers to reporting, including a lack of information regarding processes, a view that no action would be taken, as well as concerns that there would be repercussions (QTU 2022). These barriers prevent employees from being safe in their workplace and, in some cases, allow incidents of these types to continue. The QTU calls on the Queensland Government to allocate funds to the Department of Education and the Department of Training to reduce the barriers to reporting, which would allow the necessary collection of data to facilitate a thorough investigation into the prevalence of gendered violence in state schools and TAFE campuses.
5.4 Positive learning centres
QTU members are at the frontline of quality education in this state, and we know that some young people and their families need alternative education programs to best support them. The role of education and training in alternative education programs adds value to the experience of young people and provides the opportunity for the provision of wrap-around services by whole-of-government and non-government organisations in the support of young people and their families. The QTU supports alternative educational programs, specifically Department of Education-run positive learning centres. Positive learning centres tailor learning to individual students’ needs and support young people and their families in achieving educational goals, as well as meeting wider needs that might include health, justice, relationships, and vocational training. The QTU calls on the Queensland Government to open additional positive learning centres and other alternative education settings to address student behaviour and cater to student need.
5.5. Provide funding for the employment of specialist teachers to deliver consent/respectful relationships education
Significant attention has been given to the need for children to have access to education and support in developing knowledge of how to build healthy relationships in their lives. Respectful relationships and consent education must be delivered to students by teachers who have specific training, to ensure that this type of program is undertaken with fidelity and that those providing the training are equipped to manage the complexities involved in delivering such education to students. Respectful relationships and sex education should be inclusive of all sexualities and not be heteronormative, and the training for this should be fully funded.
5.6 Health and safety in a post COVID-19 world
QTU members’ response to the issues that arose in Queensland schools as a consequence of the pandemic were second to none. They ensured that students continued to access education and training in trying circumstances. Many members have had COVID-19 over the past two years, and as front-line workers, many will have contracted the disease in their school settings. Challenges related to social distancing in school settings, particularly with many young students not understanding the need to maintain healthy social distancing, has added to this problem. Research has shown that air quality and ventilation are key to minimising the contagion (Piscitelli et al. 2022). As such, the department must commit to genuine, ongoing and long-term investment in air quality monitoring and control measures across Queensland’s state schools and training centres.
5.6.1 Sick leave issues
The QTU believes that the current allocation of funds for the Teacher Relief Scheme (TRS) is no longer adequate. The current COVID-19 pandemic has required that those demonstrating any flu-like symptoms should not present at work and instead report through the necessary channels that they will be absent until symptoms cease. As a result, there has been an increase in teachers accessing sick days. Sick days are calculated based on the following:
- Primary classroom teacher (including non-contact time): 6.7 days per year per eligible teacher, rounded to one decimal place, multiplied by the appropriate TRS daily rate.
- Secondary classroom teacher: 2.8 days per year per eligible teacher, rounded to one decimal place, multiplied by the appropriate TRS daily rate.
- Students with disabilities classroom teacher: 5.1 days per year per eligible teacher, rounded to one decimal place, multiplied by the appropriate TRS daily rate.
The QTU calls on the state government to fund TRS at the full rate per teacher of 10 days per year per eligible teacher, multiplied at the appropriate TRS daily rate.
5.7 Provide funding for ongoing support of LGBTIQ+ employees and students
Increasingly, more staff and students are feeling safe to bring their full selves to school and to identify as part of the LGBTIQ+ community. The benefits of LGBTIQ+ inclusion are recognised in the “Queensland Public Sector LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Strategy” (Public Service Commission 2017). The Department of Education has been recognised as a leader in the public service for its support of LGBTIQ+ employees (AWEI 2022), however more can and should be done.
Programs such as Proud@Work should remain, and be expanded. The Rainbow Liaison Officer program offers quality training and connects schools with rainbow liaison officers (RLOs), who are departmental employees who can assist with staff training. Typically, RLOs are classroom teachers. However, the RLO positions are voluntary, and RLO duties are performed in addition to the teachers’ existing duties. The QTU calls on the state government to provide funding, either to provide release time from existing duties to enable the RLO work to be done, or for paid roles to be created for the RLOs in each region. This is particularly necessary in regional and remote areas, where RLOs report having to travel long distances and work in their own time to complete their RLO duties.
The professional development that the Department of Education offers to school staff via external provider True Relationships and Reproductive Health is high quality and should continue. Additionally, the QTU calls on the state government to increase this funding, to ensure that more staff in more schools are equipped to support students with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or intersex variations.
The Department of Education is not required under the Public Service Act to track data on employees with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or intersex variations. This is in contrast to the groups specifically called out under the equality of opportunity (EEO) provisions. While additional EEO groups can be prescribed under a regulation, this has not occurred. Despite being recognised in the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) awards, the Department of Education does not capture specific data on its LGBTIQ+ employees’ experiences. Additionally, numerous state government departments, including the Department of Education, have refused to contribute funds towards the nationally recognised research project run by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, “Writing Themselves In 4”. The centre has conducted large studies on LGBTIQ+ wellbeing and inclusion, and with further funding could provide a Queensland context. Specific reports have been funded and developed for NSW, SA, Victoria and the ACT. State specific data would have been valuable in developing education policy in Queensland. Failure to collect and support significant research projects on LGBTIQ+ employees and students sends the message that these communities aren’t valued.
Increasingly, both public service agencies and private enterprise are providing employees with paid gender affirmation Leave. The QTU asserts this should be introduced across the public sector.
Support for LGBTIQ+ identifying students should also continue. The “We All Belong” program should continue to be funded. There should be greater funding for inclusion teachers, and greater professional development opportunities for those teachers.
Respectful relationships and sex education should be inclusive of all sexualities and not be heteronormative. This will require either specialist itinerant teachers, or additional training for existing staff, which should be fully funded.
RECOMMENDATIONS
27. Deliver a fit for purpose WHS incident reporting system that workers can access from home.
28. Provide a Treasury funded work health and safety officer allocation to every department work site and ensure that such officers are trained to the level of at least a Certificate IV Work Health and Safety.
29. Ensure that all workplaces have a functioning WHS committee and that all members are appropriately trained to undertake the work of the committee.
30. Promote the role of elected health and safety representatives in workplace consultation and fund appropriate levels of release time, reflecting the requirements of the specific site.
31. Develop and deliver occupational violence training for and to all regional leaders and school leaders and employees with designated WHS roles.
32. Provide adequate funding to investigate and prevent gendered violence, including funding to eliminate the barriers to employees reporting gendered violence.
33. Prioritise support mechanisms with reference to workplace health and safety, including prevention of occupational violence and harassment, both online and in workplaces, for staff and students.
34. Deliver ongoing funding for schools to support the rights of teachers, principals, and students in relation to gender equity.
35. Provide funding over the forward estimates for the establishment of additional positive learning centres across the state for students across all year levels, considering their geographical location to ensure rural and remote locations are included.
36. Provide funding for the employment of specifically-trained teachers to deliver consent/respectful relationships education.
37. Commit to genuine, ongoing and long-term investment in air quality monitoring and control measures across Queensland’s state schools and training centres.
38. Provide funding for ongoing support of LGBTIQ+ employees and students via expansion of Proud@Work and TRUE Relationships programs and fully-funded rainbow liaison officer roles.
QTU State Budget Submission 2023-24