More shameful Independent school antics

Staff at a high-fee Melbourne independent school were told in a Zoom meeting their roles were not required during the coronavirus crisis.

The employees of Haileybury's music department were informed they were being stood down in an online video call on Wednesday morning.

Aftqer the meeting, at which a number of teachers were told their hours would be suspended or reduced, the affected staff were sent a five-page document detailing options for temporarily stopping work or reducing hours.

The document, seen by The Age, states: "Unfortunately, at this time, the business does not have capacity to continue operating with a fully utilised workforce."

"There is no certainty about this yet and tentative dates are likely to change as the situation develops."

It also stated that if staff found alternative work during the crisis it would not affect their ability to eventually return to Haileybury.

Principal Derek Scott said it was a "distressing and sad situation".

"Haileybury is in discussions with a number of staff where some may be stood down due to a work stoppage in certain departments," he said.

"These decisions are not being made lightly and impacted staff will have access to their annual leave and any long service leave they are entitled to and these will continue to accrue

The document gave no timeline for when jobs may be reinstated.

All affected staff are highly valued members of our school community.

"When the school operations recommence as per normal, once the COVID-19 global pandemic is contained, and government shutdowns are lifted, we look forward to welcoming our employees back to the school."

Victoria's Education Minister James Merlino said non-government schools "should make every effort possible to retain staff".

"Catholic Education has said its expectation to all their schools is to avoid standing down staff ... no one is losing their job in the government system so my message is to try and avoid that at all costs," he said.

Haileybury is not eligible for the Morrison government's $130 billion JobKeeper subsidy.

The school has four Melbourne campuses, one in Darwin and a partner school in China.

When term two begins on Wednesday next week, the school's classrooms will be open to children of essential workers but the students will be participating in online lessons.

Always remember, when the shit hit the fan, it was the so called elite independent schools that panicked and closed and that have treated their teachers like shit whereas the state school stayed open ( for way too long) and its teachers kept and will keep teaching. Remember that.