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A useful article and resources from our partner- Brennan Law

As widely anticipated, classes have not resumed ‘as normal’ for Australian schools following the term 1 break. Whilst each state and territory government has been allowed final say on school-based restrictions, nearly all states and territories will return for a heavily modified term two and are navigating, in some capacity, the reality of offering a virtual learning environment. Of course, this is foreign territory for all, and schools and principals must be commended for their efforts in coordinating arguably the most fundamental change to schooling ever.

Despite the fact that many staff and students are not physically attending at school, as a principal you must still be discharging your legal obligations to keep your students and employees safe when working remotely.

A continued obligation to protect staff 

 As well as planning for and implementing remote learning, you must also be planning and implementing safe practices for remote working. You, like any employer, need to ensure that your employees can continue to work safely, whether they are at school or working from home. For staff working on site, the previously held obligations must continue, with an added focus on appropriate hygienic practices to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Helpful posters to download and display around your school can be found here, including one on how to generally stop the spread and one specific to washing hands. Interestingly, recently, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy indicated that social distancing measures need not be followed by students at school.

For staff working remotely, however, you must carefully consider your additional obligations to ensure a safe working environment is in place. Notwithstanding that your staff are in their own homes, or another remote location, you must still take steps to ensure that their working environment at home is safe! Your obligations include:

1. To ensure the safety of teachers/staff
   
   This includes providing a safe workplace for them with all reasonable resources available to discharge their employment duties. This includes, but is not limited to, allowing staff to take home laptops, desks and chairs so they can be in a comfortable, safe and appropriate workspace. This may also include providing guides on how to use equipment such as printers and scanners.
2. To monitor their health and provide information
   
   You should be regularly engaging with your staff, staying up to date with Government directives and communicating the practical realities of those directives to your staff. It is also important to manage emotional and psychological health and wellbeing and stress levels. This includes ensuring staff are taking adequate breaks and feel well supported. There is a helpful Government poster hereon managing mental health at this time.
3. To ensure others are not being put at risk by their work
   
   If staff are working from home, they must be doing so in a safe manner that does not pose a risk to themselves or to those around them. Despite work not appearing typically ‘risky’, a note to exercise careful workplace set up should be communicated. One example may be communicating that computer cords need to be placed where they are not a tripping hazard.
4. To consult and engage with staff
   
   This includes continuing to allow staff to contribute to decision making processes, to frequently touching base with staff, to host staff meetings and to consult and engage with relevant parties in decision making.

Confidentiality and School Policies 

It is also important that you emphasise to your staff that obligations of confidentiality, amongst other pre-existing obligations, remain. Accordingly, the utmost discretion when working remotely should be exercised. Furthermore, teachers and staff must understand that even whilst working remotely they are bound by the school’s policies and procedures for best practice. This includes mandatory reporting requirements.

Student Morale 

Whilst the emotional toll on staff is incredible, so too are students affected. A helpful FREE children’s book has been released, which you can print or email to families to support your students through this unusual time. It’s called “Corona Virus: A Book for Children” and can be found here.

A quick note on student safety – Please be aware that whilst we strongly encourage you to share and promote the incredibly valuable support and offerings you are making to your students and families to facilitate the online learning (after all, you deserve all the plaudits coming your way), be mindful that when posting to social media (or any other public forum) any information capable of identifying a student should be removed from the image. This includes blurring out any student names on for example, take home packages.

How can Brennan Law Partners assist?

We strongly recommend, if you have not done so already, that you have an active and implemented Working from Home Plan and regularly touch base with your staff, especially to monitor mental health. To assist with this, we have created a basic Guide and Checklist for teachers and school staff for monitoring staff safety whilst they work from home.

The guide will assist you and your employees to undertake self-assessments of their remote workspaces to ensure they are safe and that you are discharging your obligations as employers. It will also serve to highlight any areas that may need further consideration.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about your existing policies, need a new or supplementary policy or are unsure what you should do at this time let us support you. We are available to talk to anytime, be it during school hours or after hours by phone, email or video conference. We pride ourselves on supporting Catholic schools and principals across Australia no matter how big or small an issue may be. If you are unsure about how to handle a matter at your school, please contact us at any time so that we can assist you with developing an appropriate strategy.  

This article is general in nature only. It is meant as a guide only and is not to be taken as legal advice.