13 OctHow to cover meal breaks under the VECTEA
Have you ever wondered how to cover your teacher’s meal break under the VECTEA? We have you covered.
The VECTEA 2020 has different provisions for minimum engagement (minimum daily hours) and non-contact time for external casual (relief) and internal staff. We have outlined this for you below.
Early childhood teachers
Part-time early childhood teachers do not have a minimum engagement time for lunch covers and can work additional hours by agreement. The teacher will be paid for actual extra hours at their ordinary rate plus a 25 per cent loading (clause 15.4(f)) – unless you have agreed to accrue annual leave entitlements instead of the loading for these additional hours.
Casual teachers (casual relief teachers) have a minimum engagement period of 3.5 hours per day (clause 15.6). In addition, they must be given 20% of their contracted hours for the first five consecutive working days of each engagement as non-teaching time (clause 54.6).
You must provide all early childhood teachers with 30 minutes of non-teaching (non-contact time) for each hour of teaching time, including the lunch cover time (clause 54.5). It is important to consider that lunch coverage is not excluded from the requirement for teachers to be given non-teaching (non-contact time) for each hour of face-to-face time with children.
Educators
Educators are not required to be provided with additional non-contact time after covering a teacher’s lunch break (clause 63.2).
Part-time educators do not have a minimum engagement time for lunch covers and can work additional hours by agreement. However, casual educators (casual relief) have a minimum engagement period of 2 hours per day (clause 15.6).
Part-time educators are paid for additional hours at their ordinary rate plus a 25 per cent loading under clause 15.4(f)), unless they accrue entitlements instead of the loading.
Educators who work above 38 hours per week to cover a lunch break must be paid overtime rates under clause 61.
Still, have questions?
Contact our Member Solutions Advisors during our phone operating hours (10 am – 3 pm) or email us at membersolutions@elaa.org.au.
