Peninsula Grammar ‘impacted greatly’ by virus amid restructure
Further details of the Peninsula Grammar restructure have been revealed as the school was taken to Fair Work over stand downs and redundancies, while the campus admits it has been “impacted greatly” by the pandemic.
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An emergency meeting has been called over Peninsula Grammar’s decision to stand down or lay off more than 60 staff despite students returning within two weeks.
The school will meet with the union on Monday as it fights to save jobs, claiming that the standing down of 63 staff amid the coronavirus pandemic had been “unlawful”.
Of those stood down, 13 have been targeted for redundancy after the school revealed its restructure plan on Wednesday.
A school spokesman confirmed the “overwhelming number” of staff stood down would return when it reopens.
He said: “Like so many Independent Schools, we have been impacted greatly by this unprecedented global pandemic.”
A restructure slide show shown to staff stated that the school forecasted a more than 10 per cent drop in enrolments by 2021 due to coronavirus, and a 40 per cent reduction for some departments.
The slide show stated the current school structure was “unaffordable” before highlighting each role that would be made redundant across administration, property and marketing.
It included outsourcing the four-person marketing team to an external agency, cutting two roles from finance, five people from the administration team and two people from property.
The school outlined that it also anticipated hours to be cut for music staff as music tuition faced a “dramatic drop”.
In conciliation at the Fair Work Commission this morning, the school agreed to extend its redundancy consultation period by a week, to May 29.
Independent Education Union general secretary Deb James said Peninsula Grammar was “the only Victorian school” to persist with standing down a large number of staff during the pandemic.
“We maintain that these stand-downs are unlawful, as there has not been a genuine stoppage of work at the school,” she said.
“There is legitimate work for all staff to be undertaking, both during this period of remote learning and once students return to campus in less than two weeks.”
Ms James called on the school to “show the same decency and compassion as other schools and to provide employment security to hardworking staff”.
A Peninsula Grammar spokesman said the school decided to launch consultation as part of a response to coronavirus “to ensure the school’s continued viability”.
“Those discussions continue and we make no further comment at this time as we respect the confidentiality of that process and are disappointed that information provided in good faith has been released by the Independent Education Union,” he said.
He said the decisions had been made with “the best interests of our entire school community including our students and our staff”.
Peninsula Grammar was not eligible for JobKeeper funding.
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