Compulsory Online Training Completed in Own Time

[Lems]

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?

[Lorina]

Hmmm... interesting! I'm not too sure!

I will contact Fair Work Australia and let you know...

,
Lorina

[Lems]

Thanks, Lorina

[JNP]

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.

[Lorina]

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

[JNP]

Thank you Lorina.

[Lems]

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

[Lorina]

I feel that since the EYLF Framework has come into place a lot of educators are being bombarded with extra paperwork as management claim they implement the highest standard of care and learning due to the framework. Educators doing a lot of paperwork and training doesn't mean that the standard of care changes for each educator. I mean doing training and professional development course is a great way to acquire skills and knowledge but a lot of the times these skills don't get shared or passed along to other educators and it just becomes a waste.

Jules, the amount of training you have already been on, is full on, especially when you have to do it in your own time. No where, I can find does it say educators need to complete a certain number of hours of training... It's encouraged to enable staff to develop their skills but not how much... It gets frustrating I'm sure because it will definitely interfere with a lot of personal time which can create rifts in relationships and you end up hating the job you much loved.

Lems, you're spot on when we are told we HAVE to do it how can educators say no. They do it because they have to and if they don't they scared of losing their jobs. Some of these educators had spent months trying to find the job, then get thrown into the deep end in their work and social life.

After all the complaints, issues and concerns from educators that I have received, I'm saddened to hear what's happening in the childcare industry nowadays... It's harder than before...

,
Lorina