Relief Funding
The AEU will pay for the cost of relief staff to cover members' absence from their workplace, when they attend AEU training courses, Branch Council meetings and other AEU meetings and activities and some AEU professional development.
Availability of funding for union training will be indicated in the the course details.
The AEU provides assistance to members if a reliever is deemed necessary to release the member from teaching duties to attend the activity on that day - it is not transferable to any other date or any other employee.
When registering for an AEU course for which casual relief staff funding is provided, or when requesting relief support in order to attend an AEU meeting or activity, members should take the following action -
- Advise the AEU whether they require a reliever in advance, or at the time of registering for a course
- Specify for how long a reliever is required, i.e. full day, half day, or in the case of SSOs and AEWs, the total number of hours
- Provide their AEU membership number
- Organise for a reliever, following the usual procedures in place at their worksite.
An AEU Relief Staff Authority Form (fluorescent Pink) will be issued at the close of the course (or in the case of members attending AEU meetings and other activities, the form will be issued at the meeting). Members are responsible for collecting their form and handing it to the school bursar/SSO/administration officer.
Relief staff employed by your worksite to cover AEU members on AEU activities are paid directly by the site. It is the site's responsibility to invoice the AEU to claim back the cost of the relief staff. Invoices must include the AEU Relief Staff Authority voucher no and attach the bottom slip of the pink AEU Relief Staff Authority Return Voucher.
It is members' responsibility to follow these procedures. Relief Staff Forms issued by the AEU are valuable, and unless procedures are followed, the reliever may not get paid. AEU Relief Staff Authority Forms issued to members are valid only for the date and purpose specified on the form, and are not transferable.
AEU relief support is not based on whether members are full-time or part-time, but on whether they have students in their care on the day they attend the AEU activity. Relief funding is given to ensure members' duty of care responsibilities are met, without placing additional burden on staff at their school. Some members do not fall into this category, e.g. people in leadership positions and part-timers. Part-timers may choose to make internal arrangements to swap their working days, so that they are in fact scheduled to teach on the day of an AEU course. Other part-timers can claim hours spent at AEU courses held on their non-working day as out-of-hours T&D, and claim time off in the last week of term 4.
For further information:
Contact Sam Lisle-Menzel or Saniya Sidhwani at the AEU, phone 8172 6300 or email: [email protected]