If you are a Shop Steward, grab a cup of tea or coffee and keep reading. If you work in a store where there is no Shop Steward, grab a cup of tea or coffee and keep reading. If you are a member who is interested in learning more about your rights and entitlements, keep reading. If you are a member who likes doing quizzes, keep reading. If you are bored, keep reading because I know you have a zest for knowledge and you want to know more about your rights.

• What are my rights as a Shop Steward in the grievance procedure?
• My boss says I have to be a ‘silent witness’ in counselling or disciplinary meetings. Is this correct?
• A member works 7.5 hours on her shift. What breaks should she receive and what length are these breaks? Also, does the break include ‘walking time’?
• What is the longest number of days in a row a fellow member can work before they are entitled to overtime payments?
• What rate of pay does a casual receive if they work on a Sunday?
• If my mother is diagnosed with a life threatening form of cancer, can I use my personal leave to assist her if I’m not providing care?
• Does a roster posted up on a wall constitute appropriate ‘notice of a roster change’?
• If I started with my company in December 2008 and since then I’ve had nine months off on Maternity leave (unpaid) and one week of approved unpaid sick leave, when is my 10 years up so I can access my Long Service Leave?
• If I’m sick and run out of my paid sick leave entitlement, can the company make me use my Annual Leave?
• If a public holiday falls on my 8 hour day and the company says they only want me for 4 hours, what are my rights?
• Do I have the right to talk to SDA members about their issues during work time?

If you’re a Shop Steward and you don’t know the answer to any one of the questions above, you’re overdue for an Enterprise Agreement Training course.
The actual answers to these questions differ depending on which employer you work for. Each Agreement training course methodically looks at each clause of the Agreement.
Stewards find the courses interesting and informative and each course enables the Stewards to be more confident in their role. After all, an educated Steward can assist the members more capably in their workplace compared with a Steward who doesn’t attend any training course.

The course runs over two days and we go through the particular company’s Enterprise Agreement from cover to cover, to make sure Stewards know all the ‘in’s and outs’.
These courses are held regularly because the union places a huge importance on having trained Shop Stewards. As a result, they are more confident to represent the SDA members in their workplace.

Thank you

Training 2017 was very successful. I trained hundreds of Stewards throughout the year and I was very impressed with their willingness to learn so they could represent their members in the best way they possibly could.

Those Stewards who attended their first training course in 2017 told me that they enjoyed the relaxed learning atmosphere and best of all, there were/are no exams at the end of the course!
Our courses are held in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and regional towns and I look forward to seeing you in 2018.