Australia's Science Forum

Hi All
Just wondering what rate per hour everyone gets. I am on $27 per hour for a 56 hour fortnight. I am told that I am paid very well. They have changed my contract - my salary is now unaveraged. Which means I am not paid in the holidays and when students are not at school. They are cutting me back on hours all the time. I am in an Independent Catholic School of close to 1400 students. There are two of us both part time - 4 days a week each. The work load has really skyrocketed this year.

I receive $29.15 / hour for a Step 5 wage. I do 76 hours a fortnight. Our pay is also averaged so that we are only paid really for school term times.
I am really fortunate to be on Step 5 - as i was originally employed at that level. In the new Enterprise agreement draft for the Catholic system I would have to have a degree or diploma to reatin this level - so I completed an Advanced Diploma of Laboratory management last yer at a cost of $900. Same Diploma is over $20,000 now due to the State Government changes to TAFE fees.

BUT the CEC have still not changed the point in the documents where they want to reduce our wages by 20% which means I would drop to $23.32 an hour.. I would be better getting at job at Bunnings than work here for that!
The IEU is a bit weak but we need to be members and all keep pushing the Science technicians barrow - if we don't keep complaining then we will not keep what we have.. DO NOT trust that the teachers will support us, the moment they get what they want from the agreement, then they will accept it and we will be lost....

Thanks Sunray for your comment.
You certainly are paid well. On qualifications -
I really don't think having a degree (Science teaching) without experience in industry qualifies you! Most of the teachers ask me how to do everything. I have the old Chemistry Cert plus many years in industry. I had no idea they were going to reduce the pay to that level.
Adrianna

Unless I have worked mine out wrong (it's not stated on our pay slips) I am on $34 an hour! However, I am at the top of my pay scale and have a science degree and two decades of industry experience. But I didn't realise it was that much. When I started it was $29. I haven't had a pay rise as such, just governmental and department wage agreement rises across the board.

Sunray it really scares me, I'm on $27+hour 65 hours fortnight averaged out over the year. No qualifications 20 years here 8 in private enterprise any courses that are at Tafe in the area are geared towards the wine industry. I'm still on the same hours and students have doubled in the 20 years.

What really scares me is that even if we do win the right to stay the same, they will slowly make us all redundant and re-hire under different job descriptions; we have already seen that happen in our area.

It's the lack of communication from the IEU.

Hi All,
this is the email I sent to our union head, during our recent MEA negotiation.... this was dated sept/14

I was interested to see whether support staff progression can be negotiated to years of service rather than levels.
There are many support staff which have been in the same job for many years (or decades) and have never been able to progress up a level.
They are still on the same level because the criteria for moving up a level is not reliant on qualifications or service years but rather a complex (which is different for all types of support staff) unachievable and dependant on the schools giving us supervisory duties. Which will never happen in most cases, as that is what the teachers do ie heads of faculty or teachers in general.

So I would therefore like the criteria for support staff to be based on years of service or a better criteria being developed for progression (one that is achievable and preferably not dependant on the school to decide).

The reply by union head ...
We did manage to negotiate progression for support staff employed in Catholic schools about 8 years ago. Interestingly the Catholic employers have recently proposed to withdraw that progression. Our members have resisted this and it looks like the employers will back down on this point. We have much greater membership density in Catholic schools even among support staff.

I am sorry to say that while the IEU supports your position there is no chance of negotiating any improvements to these agreements unless they are voted down and only then if members get together and are prepared to take collective action in support of the Union's claim. If the agreements are voted up then I guess we will need to look at these issues again in two years time when the agreements are due to be re-negotiated.

I will forward your enquiry to our industrial negotiators.


Superbug

useless!!!!!

I sent off an email yesterday to our IEU rep.regarding the less 20% the reply was as follows.

The short answer is no — under Fair work you cannot be paid below your current rate …. What they would have been referring to is the first document from April 7 th last year were the original proposal stated a new structure would have new employees doing the same job as current employees but at rates of pay that ranged between $4000 and $17000 less.
This has been taken off the negotiating table ..

They will keep us informed as things progress.

Hope that helps

I am also on step 5, but despite an applied science degree , TAFE qualifications, and 20 years industry experience, I was originally employed at step 2. I am also on 60 hours per fortnight, during school hours, although I am expected to do things that can't possibly be done IN school hours.

You have to read between the lines with the IEU response. It will only be a decrease to NEW employees. So what's to stop them pushing us out to get someone cheaper? And if we can get another job in the system, we have to take a pay cut.

I also find it a problem that I seem to be losing skills and knowledge I brought to the position, (that were never recognised and rarely utilised

I just got a IEU News Extra campaign update, for those who haven't seen it yet. copied below wouldn't let me upload.

What has been achieved.
The withdrawal of proposed support staff salary cuts of up to 20% (between $6000 and $17,000 pa)
The prevention of loss of a public holiday for support staff working 48 weeks per year.
The removal of proposed junior rates for support staff
The retention of incremental progression within a classification for support staff.

Outstanding issues
Although the employers have backtracked from the savage reductions in pay and conditions applying to support staff in the original enterprise agreement, there are still some outstanding issues. These include the arrangements around working during school holidays for staff not currently required to do so, permanency for school assistants, rates of pay for IT staff and the transition to new classifications for maintenance and outdoor staff.

In SA...my salary equates to $34.90 per hour for a 75 hour fortnight. I work 48 weeks per annum with 4 weeks paid leave.

Wow $34.90 an hour that is fabulous!!

DET staff just got a small pay rise - it is now $27.77 per hour.
I remember when I was a new grad from uni and earning $12.36 per hour!! and it only went up to about $18 per hour and it was the usual 40 hour work week, 1 RDO per month, 10 sick days and 4 weeks annual leave..... now I love my conditions

the latest scales we have been emailed starts Jan 2016 . Depends on your level. For those who don't work or get paid for school holidays Step 1.1 is $19.58, step 2.1 is $21.14, Step 3.1 $25.06, Step 4.1 $25.59, Step 5 30.56, and Step 6 $34.73. The only people who get Step 6 in this diocese are Principal's secretary and Finance officer.. so I reckon I will forget to aspire to that wage. There are 2 stages in Step 1, 3 in Step 2, 4 in Step 3, 3 in Step 4. I remember when...sigh.. I worked in Industry and was getting $35 an hour, and left jsut before it all went up to over $40 and hour.

This is an old discussion, and having just joined Chemtalk I would be interested to hear what lab technicians are earning in 2018 - if there's any difference? I work at a small Christian School and have been paid $25 per hour as a casual (no holidays, sick leave etc) for 6 years.

In the DoE we are not labbies, but School Admin Officers, SAO but us working in science have been known as Labbies for years. We are all paid the same as the front office ladies. As I have retired I can not say the amount, but believe it is about $26.90 per hour.

Below is the pay scale for Lab Techs in Catholic schools in Tasmania. This new scale was brought in last year. Level one is only a "lab assistant", so majority of people are on level 2 or above. I am permanent (get sick leave etc) and on level 2.1 which equates to $37.651 per hour.


level salary point 1 March 2018
1 1 $61 274
2 $62 805
3 $64 376
4 $65 985
5 $67 635
6 $69 326
2 1 $72 835
2 $74 657
3 $76 523
4 $78 436
5 $80 397
3 1 $82 407
2 $84 467

Damn, that table looked nice before I submitted it!!

The first row is level 1, salary point 1. Second row is still level 1, but salary point 2. Continues down until we get to row 7 which is level 2, salary point 1. Second last row is the start of level 3.

Hope that makes a bit of sense.

LOL , I don't even know what I get ...but my Mrs says it more than I earn as a TV technician on the days I don't work as a Labbie

Sarah B wrote: ↑19 Oct 2018, 11:55 This is an old discussion, and having just joined Chemtalk I would be interested to hear what lab technicians are earning in 2018 - if there's any difference? I work at a small Christian School and have been paid $25 per hour as a casual (no holidays, sick leave etc) for 6 years.

Hi Sarah
Each education system (DoE, Catholic and Independent) have their own agreement or award. This will then vary between states. So you really need to find the agreement relevant to your workplace otherwise you are comparing apples with bananas!
For yourself, I would be asking when they plan on making you permanent? Do you work regular hours? Have you been working the same hours for the six years? In some jurisdictions, your employer may be obliged to offer you a permanent job if you have been working the same shifts for a certain period of time. You would need to ring the relevant state government department or the union to check. As for the $25, I am paid significantly more than that as a permanent employee with my pay averaged over the year. You should check your pay rate against the award/agreement.