Adult and Community Education (ACE) Staff in Schools' Collective Agreement

Effective 1 November 2008 to 27 January 2010

Part One: Application

1.1 Parties to this Agreement

The parties to this agreement shall be the Secretary for Education, acting under delegation from the State Services Commissioner made pursuant to Section 23 of the State Sector Act 1988 and acting in accordance with Section 74(5) of the State Sector Act 1988, and the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers’ Association (hereafter “the NZPPTA” or "the Union").

1.2 Application of this Agreement

This agreement shall be binding on:

Each employee defined in the coverage clause (“the employee”), who is employed by a board of trustees of a state or integrated school (excluding the Correspondence School) and who is, or who becomes, a member of the NZPPTA and who is entitled under the Employment Relations Act 2000 to be bound by this agreement.
Each board of trustees (or Commissioner, where relevant) of a state or integrated school (excluding the Correspondence School), hereafter referred to as “the employer”, that employs an employee that is bound or entitled to be bound by this agreement.

1.3 Coverage

This collective agreement covers work undertaken by tutors, co-ordinators, professional supervisors and liaison assistants (“ACE personnel”) (as those terms are defined in this agreement) employed by boards of trustees in the provision of adult and community education (ACE).

1.4 Employees bound subsequent to settlement

1.4.1 New employees whose work falls within the coverage clause of this agreement shall, in accordance with the Employment Relations Act 2000, be advised of the existence of this collective agreement and be offered the opportunity to join the NZPPTA and thereby become bound by this collective agreement.

1.4.2 Employees whose work falls within the coverage clause and who join the NZPPTA subsequent to 29 November 2007 and thereby become bound by this agreement shall only be entitled to have the provisions of this agreement apply to them from the date on which they joined the NZPPTA.

1.5 Variations

The parties agree that the terms and conditions of this agreement may be varied by written agreement between the NZPPTA on behalf of its members, and the Secretary for Education, acting under delegation from the State Services Commissioner made pursuant to Section 23 of the State Sector Act 1988.

1.6 Term of this Agreement

This agreement shall come into effect on 1 November 2008 and shall continue in force until 27 January 2010.

1.7 Appointments

The parties recognise the strong predominance of fixed term employment under the agreement, however, for every appointment an employer is required to determine whether it is fixed term or permanent, applying s.66 of the Employment Relations Act as printed below:

66 Fixed term employment

(1) An employee and an employer may agree that the employment of the employee will end---

(a) at the close of a specified date or period; or

(b) on the occurrence of a specified event; or

(2) Before an employee and employer agree that the employment of the employee will end in a way specified in subsection (1), the employer must---

(a) have genuine reasons based on reasonable grounds for specifying that the employment of the employee is to end in that way; and

(b) advise the employee of when or how his or her employment will end and the reasons for his or her employment ending in that way.

(3) The following reasons are not genuine reasons for the purposes of subsection (2)(a):

(a) to exclude or limit the rights of the employee under this Act:

(b) to establish the suitability of the employee for permanent employment

(4) If an employee and an employer agree that the employment of the employee will end in a way specified in subsection (1), the employee’s employment agreement must state in writing:

(a) the way in which the employment will end; and

(b) the reasons for ending the employment in that way.

(5) Failure to comply with subsection (4), including failure to comply because the reasons for ending the employment are not genuine reasons based on reasonable grounds, does not affect the validity of the employment agreement between the employee and the employer.

(6) However, if the employer does not comply with subsection (4), the employer may not rely on any term agreed under subjsection (1):

(a) to end the employee’s employment if the employee elects, at any time, to treat that term as ineffective; or

(b) as having been effective to end the employee’s employment, if the former employee elects to treat that term as ineffective.