University of Tasmania Library

CAUL Survey – Library staffing for evening and weekend work

Background

On 15 January 2007, Linda Luther (University Librarian, UTAS) requested information from CAUL members about staffing models for evening and weekend work.

UTAS Library was particularly interested to hear from other librarieswith an employment pattern similar to UTAS, where Library staff employed fulltime on a continuing or fixed term basis were regularly working overtime on evenings and weekends, often in a different area of the library from their substantive position.

The University of Tasmania Library would like to thank the University Librarians and their staff who responded to our request for information.

Survey questions

In relation to the staffing pattern described by UTAS Library (above), CAUL members were asked to respond to 4 questions:

  1. Whether your library or university has developed any guidelines to limit the total number of overtime hours, or the number of consecutive days, that continuing or fixed term staff can work?
  2. Whether you have experienced a need to address any service quality, staff performance or OH&S issues as a result of this work pattern?
  3. Do you have a system in place that allows you to be aware of the total number of hours being worked by these staff on a library-wide basis?
  4. Is there any other information or advice you can offer us?

UTAS Library received 24 responses to the survey. The list of responding libraries and their answers to questions 1 to 3 is reported in the table below.Answers to question 4 were too diverse to report, but will be considered by the University Library in developing their staffing model for evening and weekend work.

Information provided by university libraries about their employment models is summarised in the ‘overview of employment models’ below.

Overview of employment models

In addition to answering the survey questions, many libraries provided a brief description of their staffing model for evening and weekend work.

There were a few common threadsto the staffing models described:

  • Most libraries described working under enterprise agreements that defined their modes of employment, spread of hours, and the number of hours in the standard working week.
  • Most libraries indicated that they paid some form of additional remuneration for evening and weekend work, whether undertaken as shift work, overtime, or as part of the normal spread of hours.
  • Many libraries reported a decision to stop using liaison and reference librarians for evening and weekend work, in response to falling demand for information services at these times.
  • The majority of responses and issues identified related to weekend work, which generally seemed to require more complex staffing arrangements than evening work. Most libraries reported that evening work was managed as part of an employee’s daily shift with appropriate allowances.

From the 24 responses received, it was possible to identify6 broad models in use for after-hours staffing. Some libraries indicated that they employed more than one of these models, and even within each model there were individual library differences in the types of employment used, types of remuneration paid, and conditions imposed by enterprise agreements.

Model 1.Evening and weekend work is undertaken by all client services staff as a requirement of their position, or as a result of being classified as shift workers in an enterprise agreement. Evening and weekend rosters may be spread evenly across these staff. Remuneration options within this model include staff paid overtime, paid for shift work, or taking time off in lieu.

Model 2.Continuing and fixed term staff who work on a fulltime basis do not work on evenings and weekends, either because of restrictions in an enterprise agreement or as a result of library policy and practice. For these libraries, after-hours work is undertaken by casual, part-time or sessional/term staff using one of the models below.

Model 3.Libraries have created some staff positions that have an alternative spread of hours – usually Tuesday to Saturday or Sunday to Thursday – to manage evening and weekend work.

Model 4.Libraries have created part-time and/or sessional staff positions whose hours of work include evenings and weekends. These staff usually work at least one weekday shift alongside continuing staff, to help manage issues of training, service quality and continuity.

Model 5.Evening and weekend work is offered first to part-time continuing and fixed term staff, up to the equivalent of a fulltime load.

Model 6.The bulk of evening and weekend work is done by casual staff, often with a rostered continuing or fixed term staff member as shift supervisor.

Survey responses

Library responses to questions 1 to 3 are reported in the table below. Where libraries had a staffing model that differed significantly from UTAS, and so could not meaningfully answer questions 2 or 3, this is indicated in the table as N/A.

1

University of Tasmania Library

27 February 2007

University / Q1 - Guidelines / Q2 - Issues / Q3 - Monitoring systems
AustralianCatholicUniversity / Employ part-time continuing staff as shift staff, who are contracted to work less than 35 hours per week and during semester periods only. / Shift overlap for staff brings continuity and provides shift staff with an opportunity to attend meetings, briefings etc. / N/A
AustralianDefenceForceAcademy / Permanent part-time sessional staff work evenings and weekends, with available hours distributed as equitably as possible between the staff. / No issues reported. / Hours worked are tracked by having the standard pattern fixed to a fortnightly pay period, plus an 'Extra Hours' form.
AustralianNationalUniversity / After-hours staff (dedicated continuing positions) have hours of work which are individually negotiated, and terms and conditions of employment are in accordance with the Enterprise Agreements. / The approach at ANU still leads to issues associated with the currency of skill levels, level of supervision etc. / N/A
BondUniversity / General university guideline limits total weekly working hours to 45 hours a week - this is 7.5 hours overtime in addition to a fulltime load of 37.5 hours. The Library tries to ensure that staff have 2 consecutive days off each week although this is not always possible when allocating weekend shifts as overtime during extended opening hours. / No issues experienced. / All overtime and casual hours claim sheets are checked by the same person who monitors claimed hours across the Library on a weekly basis.
CharlesDarwinUniversity / No formal guidelines relating to overtime, which is covered by the Collective Union Agreement. / Training of casual staff requires a large investment in time and has to occur regularly. There is a rigorous training program for casuals which includes things like OH&S awareness and training checklists. / Casual staff are still paid from timesheets which makes it difficult to track - CDU is investigating online options but this would require casuals to have userids and passwords to the HRIS and has yet to be implemented.
CharlesSturtUniversity / CSU's enterprise agreement states that staff cannot work beyond 7pm on more than 3 occasions per week, and should have not less than 10 consecutive hours off duty between work on successive days. Library staff are not rostered more than 6 days straight. / The Library has not had to address any service quality, staff performance or OH&S issues. All casual staff work rostered shifts during the week to ensure skills and knowledge are kept current. These staff are involved in all relevant training and staff development activities. / There is no library-wide rostering system in place. Rostering and monitoring is done on a campus basis.
University / Q1 - Guidelines / Q2 - Issues / Q3 - Monitoring systems
CurtinUniversity / Library Assistants who undertake evening and weekend work are either part time or casual. We also have a couple of continuing fulltime staff who work Tuesday to Saturday during semester. Technicians who supervise the desk on weekends and evenings take time in lieu on either a Friday or a Monday to ensure they still continue to have a two day 'weekend'. / N/A / N/A
DeakinUniversity / No guidelines are required as overtime is not offered to continuing staff. / Deakin employs casual staff and provides training to these staff, so overall, there have been very few issues relating to service quality or staff performance and none in the OH&S area. / N/A
GriffithUniversity / Hours worked outside the normal span of ours is managed as part of the weekly or monthly hours (i.e. within the 36.25 hours/week). For example, a staff member might work their 36.25 hr week from Tuesday to Saturday. The span of hours can be varied so long as it doesn't exceed 145 hours in the 4-week work cycle. For staff who work more than 145 hours in a work cycle, time off in lieu is available. / With careful rostering there hasn't been an impact on service quality or staff performance. Lending services has a designated Training Officer who covers OH&S matters as well as policy and procedural changes for all fulltime, part-time and casual staff to ensure quality standards are maintained. / No automatic system in place to highlight total number of hours being worked on a library-wide basis. Monitoring can be done on an individual basis through the timesheet and payroll systems.
La TrobeUniversity / There is no official policy or guideline. In the main campus library La Trobe avoids rostering continuing or fixed term staff on both Saturday and Sunday in the same weekend and there is an informal limit of no more than 1 after-hours shift per month. In the regional campus libraries all library staff work weekends and the load is spread evenly across all staff participating. / No issues reported for the main campus library. Adhering to flextime guidelines improves staff performance and reduces stress. / All overtime is done within the same work area so the total number of hours library-wide is not relevant. All continuing staff submit monthly timesheets. An in-house program manages weekend rosters and leave for regional campus libraries.
MacquarieUniversity / Enterprise Agreement requires staff to have 10 consecutive hours off duty between shifts, and 4 non-working days in a fortnight. / No issues experienced. / Staff complete timesheets which are then entered into an online personnel system from which reports can be generated.

1

University of Tasmania Library

27 February 2007

University / Q1 - Guidelines / Q2 - Issues / Q3 - Monitoring systems
MonashUniversity / Fulltime staff do not generally work outside the spread of hours and 36.75 hour week, with the exception of shift workers who receive an additional shift allowance. / No issues experienced. / Overtime hours are recorded centrally in automated system, and TOIL is recorded locally by the supervisor/manager.
MurdochUniversity / Staff work evenings and weekends as part of their total hours, and take time off in lieu. / N/A / N/A
QueenslandUniversity of Technology / ALL Library staff can be asked to work across Library opening hours. The Library does not ask staff to work both weekend days - they either work Tuesday to Saturday or Sunday to Thursday. All staff must have 2 consecutive days off, but these need not be weekend days. / N/A / N/A
RMIT / Under the guidelines staff are not rostered to work more than 6 days in a row. / Guidelines introduced because as staff accepted shifts away from their 'home' site they were working more than 7 days in a row, which led to OH&S and quality issues. / The Library introduced a common roster where each Library's roster writer could check who was working when and where.
Southern CrossUniversity / Generic Library Technician positions at 80% fraction work a maximum of 28 hours per week over 4 or 5 days - including a 4-hour Saturday shift. Staff employed as permanent part-time are sometimes required to work additional hours but no more than 35 hours per week. / No issues experienced. / Overtime, shifts and additional hours are recorded in the University payment system. We are then able to calculate hours work and costs incurred.
University of Canberra / Canberra has a policy of not allowing general staff to be contracted to work more than 35 hours per week unless with the specific approval of the executive head of the respective Division. Exceptions are usually for specific timeframes. Fulltime staff are also required to disclose any other paid work they undertake on a regular basis. / No issues experienced. / Being a single campus Library means that all HR paperwork processes concerning contracts and overtime authorisation are managed by administrative staff in the University Librarian's office. Admin staff can identify when someone working in part-time positions in different teams has worked more than 35 hours per week.

1

University of Tasmania Library

27 February 2007

University / Q1 - Guidelines / Q2 - Issues / Q3 - Monitoring systems
University of Queensland / All staff are meant to have 2 consecutive days free so this means they cannot work more than 5 days in a week. . Staff in the library are not permitted to accumulate more than 2 days VBT and can't take more than 2 days VBT off at a time. / N/A / N/A
University of South Australia / Number of weekends were limited to 2 per month & staff prevented from working more than 7 days in a row. / Before hours were limited OH&S issues included repetitive strain injuries and stress related problems. Use of casual staff presents service and training issues. / Have instituted a rule restricting casual from working at multiple campuses and at different HEO Levels.
University of Southern Queensland / EBA states that number of days worked will not exceed five in a seven day cycle. Some fulltime staff work Tuesday to Saturday or Sunday to Thursday as normal working week, and part-time staff who work weekends are rostered to have at least 2 consecutive days off during the week. / By having part time staff work some of their hours during normal weekday hours, it ensures staff performance can be monitored and service quality is maintained. / N/A
University of TechnologySydney / Weekend work for Library staff is included in a 35-hour week in a 7-day roster. Staff work no more than one weekend in four and are guaranteed two consecutive days off when they work at the weekend. / No report of such problems. Where overtime is worked it is not for many hours and/or is not regular. / Normally cross-departmental overtime would be avoided as it would be complicated to manage from a budget perspective and probably more expensive than employing agency or casual staff.
University of the SunshineCoast / Evening and weekend shifts are incorporated in to regular work patterns for the staff involved, eg. Staff who work Sunday to Thursday or Tuesday to Saturday. / N/A / N/A
University of Western Australia / Enterprise bargaining agreement prevents fulltime staff taking casual employment, but some part-time staff also hold casual appointments. There are no restrictions on the number of regular hours a casual can work. / No service quality, staff performance or OH&S issues with the employment model. / N/A
University / Q1 - Guidelines / Q2 - Issues / Q3 - Monitoring systems
University of Western Sydney / UWS has guidelines which prohibit continuing staff from working more that 1 in 4 weekend shifts (overtime). UWS also limits evening shifts to 1 per week. Total number of consecutive days worked is 6. / No issues following introduction of the guidelines. Systems have been established to ensure monitoring of service quality with casual staff, and training is provided to casual on a regular and ongoing basis. / Monitoring occurs through supervisors' scrutiny of monthly timesheets submitted by all continuing staff. Rosters are prepared prior to the commencement of each semester.

Deborah Wright

Policy & Planning Librarian

University of Tasmania Library

27thFebruary 2007

1

University of Tasmania Library

27 February 2007