education.vic.gov.au

School Council Employment

Policy last updated

19 March 2025

Scope

  • Schools

Date:
March 2020

On this page:

Overview

Overview

Refer to Policy and Guidelines tab for:

  • Legal basis of employment
  • Employment of staff
  • Pre-employment requirements
  • Conditions of employment
  • Grievances
  • Payroll
  • Record keeping

Relevant legislation

Contact information

Policy and Guidelines

Policy and Guidelines

Part 2.3 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 authorises a school council to employ any person to do anything it is authorised to do under that Act.

The conditions of employment for school council employees are set out in Part 2.3 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, Regulations and Ministerial Orders made under that Act.

Other relevant legislation includes:

  • Public Administration Act 2004
  • State Superannuation Act 1988
  • Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013
  • Equal Opportunity Act 2010
  • Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006
  • Worker Screening Act 2020
  • Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)

Employment of staff

As school councils are defined as public entities under the Public Administration Act 2004 they are required to comply with the requirements of that Act in respect of public sector employees. Section 8 of the Public Administration Act 2004 requires the establishment of employment processes that ensure that:

  • employment decisions are based on merit
  • public sector employees are treated fairly and reasonably
  • equal employment opportunity is provided, and
  • employees have a reasonable avenue of redress against unfair or unreasonable treatment

Under Section 62 of the Public Administration Act 2004 the Public Sector Standards Commissioner has determined that the following standards apply to the merit in employment principle:

  • employment decisions are to be based on the proper assessment of individuals’ work-related qualities, abilities and potential against the genuine requirements of the employment opportunity,
  • decisions to appoint new employees or promote existing employees are made on the basis of relative ability. Processes are to be transparent and designed to identify a suitable field of qualified candidates,
  • decisions to appoint new employees or promote existing employees from a limited field of candidates are only to be made where candidates are identified based on objective criteria,
  • decisions to assign duties or transfer employees (to roles at an equivalent level) are to be based on proper assessment of the employee against the genuine requirements of the duties or role

As a Public Sector employer, the school council (or the principal if the school council has delegated its employment powers to the principal) must also take action to avoid Conflict of Interest wherever possible and manage COI appropriately. Further information can be found in the conflict of interest policy and at the Victorian Public Sector CommissionExternal Link website.

In addition to the obligations under the Public Administration Act 2004 the school council (or the principal if the school council has delegated its employment powers to the principal) is required to comply with Regulation 49 of the Education and Training Reform Act Regulations 2017 in relation to the advertisement of vacancies.

As public bodies, school councils must also adhere to the Victorian Government's Public Sector Industrial Relations Policies which outline the Government's policies on a number of important public sector industrial relations matters, such as redeployment, redundancy and related employee entitlements.

In general school council employees will be employed in one of the employment classifications set out in Ministerial Order 1389 (that is, casual relief teacher or education support class). There may be circumstances where it is not appropriate for a school council to employ in one of those employment classifications.

Pre-employment requirements

It is the responsibility of the school council to ensure that only suitable and eligible persons are employed by the school council. Prior to employing a person, the school council (or the principal if the school council has delegated its employment powers to the principal) must be satisfied that the person:

  • has had a Working with Children Check and an Assessment Notice or, for teaching positions, the person is registered or has permission to teach from the Victorian Institute of Teaching under Part 2.6 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006
  • is an Australian citizen or a permanent resident in Australia under any law of the Commonwealth or entitled to permanent residency in Australia under any law of the Commonwealth or is entitled to be resident in Victoria for sufficient periods to enable the person to undertake the duties of the position
  • is a fit and proper person to be an employee, and is suitable for child-connected work, and
  • fulfils the qualification requirements of the position
  • is not within a non-employment period of any Victorian government departure package
  • meets the pre-employment medical requirements, and
  • does not have any employment or re-employment restrictions issued by the Department of Education. To ascertain this, a pre-employment check should be done on eduPay. Any enquiries arising from this check should be made to the department’s Conduct and Integrity Division.

To avoid future disputes it is strongly recommended that selected candidates are provided with a written offer of employment. Sample letters of offer are available from Forms — Teaching Service and HR Administration in the Schools Policy and Advisory Library. Refer also to the Resources tab for this topic.

Conditions of employment

The conditions of employment for all school council employees are set out in Ministerial Order 1389, including rates of pay for casual relief teachers and education support class employees.

School councils are responsible for ensuring relevant human resources policies are in place for school council employees on matters such as employment, leave, salaries and allowances and any training requirements, such as first aid, Occupational Health and Safety etc.

Generally, the human resources policies that apply to the teaching service which are available from the Schools Policy and Advisory Library, can be adopted by the school council to apply to their employees if they choose to do so.

Any human resources policy developed or adopted by a school council must be consistent with the public sector employment principles and standards and the Victorian Public Sector Industrial Relations Policies and communicated to employees.

Classifications not provided for in the Ministerial Order

Where a person is employed in a classification other than those provided for in Ministerial Order 1389, the school council must ensure the employee is paid at least the applicable minimum rate applicable under the appropriate industrial award as follows:

  • where the employee is engaged to perform duties as part of the operations of the school, at least the minimum rate applicable under the Victorian Government Schools Award 2016
  • where the employee is engaged to perform duties as part of the operation of an early childhood service operated by the school council (such as a kindergarten or pre-school program), at least the minimum rate applicable under the Victorian Government Schools — Early Childhood — Award 2016

Where the school council is a party to an enterprise agreement the school council must ensure it complies with that enterprise agreement. Where the minimum rates under an applicable award exceed those provided in the enterprise agreement, the school council must ensure employees are paid not less than the minimum rate applicable under that award.

Fixed term employment

In accordance with Section 2.3.8(1)(a) of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 a primary, secondary or special school teacher performing duties in the school may only be employed for a fixed period not exceeding 1 year or on a casual basis. Education support class employees may be employed on an ongoing, casual or fixed term basis (consistent with the reasons below).

An early childhood teacher, performing duties in a kindergarten or pre-school service may be employed either ongoing, casual or fixed term, consistent with the reasons below.

Subject to the above limitations on the employment of teachers on an ongoing basis, the council may employ employees on a fixed term basis in the following circumstances:

  1. When a person is employed for a fixed period of time to replace an employee who is absent on leave (other than parental leave) for 12 months or less;

  2. Subject to subparagraphs (c) and (d), when a person is employed for a fixed period of time to replace an employee during a parental absence, that person will be employed for 7 years;

  3. If the employee absent on leave associated with a parental absence returns to duty or the employee’s period of fixed term employment expires, the replacement employee’s employment may cease prior to the expiration of the 7 years only if the employee is provided with at least 12 weeks’ notice of termination;

  4. If the employee absent on leave associated with a parental absence is ongoing and does not return to duty at the school, the employee employed to replace the ongoing employee absent on leave associated with a parental absence will be offered ongoing employment subject to a probationary period;

  5. When the council has a reasonable belief that a surplus staff situation will arise if a person is not employed on a fixed term basis provided that the period of the fixed term is less than 2 years;

  6. When a person is employed for a fixed period of time not exceeding 3 years to undertake a specific project for which funding has been made available for a specified period of time of more than 2 years, provided that the vacancy is to be advertised for the duration of that funding and there are no reasonable prospects of the funding being renewed after the end of that period;

  7. Other fixed term employment that would be permitted under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) or regulations made under that Act.

For information on casual relief teachers see: Casual Relief TeachersExternal Link

Grievances

School council employees have access to procedures to resolve grievances that may arise. These grievance procedures are set out in Ministerial Order 1389.

Payroll

School council employees are paid through eduPay.

For payroll information regarding school council employees, refer to School Local PayrollExternal Link on eduPay.

Record keeping

The provisions relating to the creation and retention of employment records for teaching service employees also apply to school council employees. In particular, records relating to the details of hours worked must be retained in the school. For information on record keeping requirements, refer to Records Management — Employee Information under Related policies in the Overview tab.

Resources

Resources

Procedures and forms

Information sheets for casual employees

Information sheets have been developed for schools to provide to casual employees employed by school councils. It is strongly recommended that the relevant information sheet be provided at least once a year to each person employed on a casual basis by the school council. Schools should record the date that the information sheet is provided to each casual employee.

Reviewed 26 February 2020