NHACE Collective Agreement 2010

To download the pay tables associated with this agreement visit this link.

Neighbourhood Houses & Adult Community Education Centres Collective Agreement 2010
In principle agreement has now been reached for the new Neighbourhood Houses & Adult Community Education Centres Collective Agreement 2010 to set pay and conditions for your organisation’s employees. You now have an opportunity to enter into this Agreement if it suits your organisation.

This article outlines what the 2010 Agreement does, and explains the process that needs to be followed if you decide to be covered by the 2010 Agreement.

The 2007 and 2008 Agreements
As you may be aware, 271 organisations including Neighbourhood Houses, Learning Centres, Adult Community Education Centres and Neighbourhood House Networks across Victoria are covered by either the Neighbourhood Houses & Learning Centres Workplace Agreement 2007 or the Neighbourhood Houses & Adult Community Education Centres Collective Agreement 2008.

The aim of the 2007 and 2008 agreements was to protect minimum entitlements for employees, and to provide some modest improvements in conditions as part of a strategy to improve recruitment and retention of workers across the sector. Recruitment and retention is seen as a growing problem for the sector in a tight labour market, and with employers in other areas able to offer much more generous employment conditions.

What is the 2010 Agreement?
The 2010 Agreement builds on the conditions provided by the 2007 and 2008 agreements and once lodged replaces them for organisations that chose to sign onto the new Agreement. A detailed summary and a copy of the proposed Agreement are attached. The key points to note are:

• No employee can be worse off as a result of the Agreement. The Agreement protects minimum entitlements based on existing awards. But it also ensures that no employee can lose existing conditions which are above award, and it does not prevent an organisation choosing to provide more generous conditions in future.

• The Agreement is based on and replaces the SACS (Victoria) Award 2000, the Adult & Community Education PACCT Award 1999, and the Children’s Services (Victoria) 2000 Award. One of the aims of the Agreement is to move toward a single set of conditions, where practicable.

• The Agreement also meets the standards of the relevant modern awards which have come into effect in 2010. The relevant modern awards are: the Children’s Services Award 2010, the Educational Services (Post-Secondary Education) Award 2010 and the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award 2010.

• The Agreement provides for an initial adjustment to rates of pay of 3% from 1 July 2010, with a further 2% from 1 December 2010. These increases are intended to keep pace with the national minimum wage increase for 2010 as well as providing some catch up in light of the period of 18 months since the last increase.

• Given the timelines that will be involved in getting the agreement approved by Fair Work Australia, the parties have agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding that encourages employers to pay the July increase of 3% as soon as practicable, rather than waiting for formal approval later in the year. This will provide a benefit to employees and also minimise the administrative burden of calculating back pay that will occur if we wait for formal approval by Fair Work Australia.

• Some of the problems with the previous agreements, such as the complex long service leave arrangements, have now been rectified.

• Changes to the classification and pay rates for ACE tutors and teachers, to ensure that the standards set by the modern Educational Services (Post-Secondary) Award 2010 are met.

• Minor improvements in conditions including an increase to 6 weeks paid maternity leave for SACS and childcare workers, and maintaining the 12 weeks paid leave for PACCT workers.

The 2010 Agreement is a multiple employer agreement. The negotiations were facilitated by ANHLC and included ACE (Vic) and Jobs Australia, on behalf of employers. The relevant unions – the ASU, LHMU and NTEU – negotiated on behalf of employees.

We encourage your organisation to enter into this Agreement, but there is no compulsion to do so. If you do not enter into the agreement you will simply continue to be bound by the relevant awards, or by the 2007 or 2008 Agreement if one of them currently applies to you.

However, we believe the 2010 agreement will assist with positive employment relations across the sector, and is sustainable given the current funding environment. The more organisations that are bound the stronger position we will be in collectively when talking to Government about funding requirements across the sector.

Process for the 2010 Agreement
If you wish to be covered by the Neighbourhood Houses & Adult Community Education Centres Collective Agreement 2010, you must follow this process:

1. The Committee of Management should pass a formal resolution that it intends to be part of the agreement, subject to approval by the employees.
2. The Agreement will apply to a number of employers, so we also need to nominate one employer who will be authorized to sign documents on behalf of all the other employers. We have arranged that ANHLC will perform that role on behalf of all interested employers. The minuted resolution needs to be along the following lines:
   "[Name of Organisation] resolves that it intends to be bound by the Neighbourhood Houses & Adult Community Education Centres Collective Agreement 2010, and authorizes Association of Neighbourhood Houses and Learning Centres Inc to act on its behalf in relation to the lodgement of the Agreement.”
3. Provide your employees with access to the NHACE Collective Agreement 2010 and the Summary of Clauses (these documents are attached and you can provide these in either hard copy or by email/intranet). The employees also need to be provided with a Notification of Bargaining, and a Notice of Employee Representational Rights (these documents are attached, and you will need to add the name of your organisation at the relevant place in each form. You can provide these in either hard copy or by email/intranet once you have inserted the organisation name).
4. Advise the relevant peak body (ANHLC or ACE (Vic) as appropriate) that you have completed steps 1,2 &3 via the brief online Committee Resolution Survey you can access by clicking on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Resolution_NHACE_2010 by no later than Friday 17 September 2010. Your organisation can then be added to the list of employers for the final version of the agreement which will then be sent to you.
5. Reissuing of Agreement Upon receipt of the names of employers who will be bound by the Agreement, a new Agreement will be issued. When you receive the final agreement with the listed employers bound you should then conduct a staff ballot.
6. A formal ballot of employees cannot commence until 21 days after you have provided your employees with access to the NHACE Collective Agreement 2010, the Summary of Clauses (either hard copy or by email/intranet) and the Notification of Bargaining, and a Notice of Employee Representational Rights.
7. Ballot period. Then there is a ballot period of at least 8 days during which staff can formally review the Agreement together with the Summary of Clauses (either hard copy or by email/intranet);
8. The steps for the ballot include:
   1. Hold a vote – secret ballot, with the ballot opening any time between Friday 8 October 2010 and Thursday 21 October 2010.
   2. The ballot should then close by Friday 29 October 2010;
   3. Advise your peak body (ACE (Vic) or ANHLC) of the results of your staff ballot via the brief online Staff Ballot Survey that you can access by clicking on this link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Staff_Ballot_NHACE_2010 within 7 days of the vote.
   4. Complete Employer Information form (attached) and post to ANHLC at 7/289 Flinders Lane Melbourne 3000 within 7 days of the vote (no later than 5 November).

Please do not hesitate to contact ANHLC if you have any questions or concerns about this process. If your organisation is a subscriber to the Community Sector Industrial Relations service of Jobs Australia or a member of ACE(Vic) or you are a member of a union you can also contact them for further information.