Aussie Childcare Network Forum

The company I work for requires staff to complete compulsory training in their own time without pay. Is this ok or is training considered work and thus should be paid/completed whilst at work? And can they enforce it if it is required to be done in our own time?

Thanks, Lorina

Hummm interesting alright. I am a diploma educator at a Council run kindergarten and often have discussions with my team leader about this. She told me that as a diploma educator there is an expectation that we complete a certain number of hours of professional development. Most of the time unfortunately it is in my own time. I work 2 full days with the children and have 3 hours planning per week. If we attend professional development outside of our working hours we are supposed to take it out of our planning time. However, if we do this, then the planning does not get done. I have already attended about 30 hours of professional development this year in my own time. Also I have completed about 10 hours of online training. As well as all of that, like everyone else, I complete a lot of work at home.. learning stories etc. My Part Time job ends up as being full time..... Frustrating.... I love working with the children but am becoming disillusioned with all of this extra work. I am actually thinking of giving up my diploma position to do a cert3 position next year because the work load is becoming too much.

Jules.

I just received a reply from Fair Work Australia and this is what they said:

Training needs to be paid if it is considered work. If it is compulsory that would make it more likely to be considered work.

Ultimately you may need to seek legal advice to determine whether training is considered work or not.

Whether they can enforce the training really comes down to disciplinary matter, the government does not regulate employers disciplinary procedures.

So, as far as from what the above is saying, you will need to be paid for any training that you are doing for work...

,
Lorina

Thank you Lorina.

I thought my company might have been doing the dodge... And it's the kind of thing that people question, but feel obliged to follow through with so that they don't lose their job. Thanks for looking into it, Lorina. I'm in the process of looking around for other work as I don't really like a lot of what my company stands for, but I'll keep that piece of info in mind.

Hope you're able to figure something out, Jules. Sounds like you've got a lot on your plate. I'm not sure whether we're safe from all the extra workload even as a Cert III though as the Cert III's at my centre have very similar responsibilities to the Diploma staff. Might be a matter of finding the right company to work for. Hope you're able to sort something out so that you can keep doing the work that you love