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A centralised, statewide staffing system is essential to the provision of quality public education across NSW.
The current Staffing Agreement, which expires at the end of Term One 2008, is the product of more than fifteen years of negotiation between the NSW Government, the Department of Education and Training and the NSW Teachers Federation.
This agreement maintains a transfer and promotion system that ensures teacher supply and curriculum delivery to all parts of the state. It effectively balances the needs of public school communities, teachers and students to provide the stability and security needed in a statewide public education system.
Any moves by the Department of Education and Training to dismantle the pillars of the current staffing system by resurrecting the discredited policies of the Liberal/National Coalition parties will severely undermine the capacity to provide quality teaching and learning in all public schools.
Expansion of local selection at the expense of a transfer system jeopardises the DET's capacity to ensure equal opportunity for all students, as geographical location and other factors significantly impinge upon a school's ability to attract and retain teachers.
This is a fundamental equity issue in NSW public schools. Accordingly, the NSW Teachers Federation will campaign to achieve a continuation of the current Staffing Agreement for a further three years.
Given the DET's refusal to negotiate in good faith on this matter, a dispute notification was lodged with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission on Friday 30 November 2007.
Action:
1. The Federation will fax schools and include in Education information on the latest moves to secure a new Staffing Agreement which maintains the right to transfer in the face of intentions to take it away.
2. Teachers Federation Representatives are to convene a Federation meeting in the first week of the 2008 school year to endorse a motion of support for the continuation of the current Staffing Agreement and advise the Federation of any unfilled substantive teacher vacancies.
3. The Federation will write to all public school principals to outline the Federation's case for the continuation of the current Staffing Agreement. This will include an analysis of the differing position advocated by the Secondary Principals Council and the Primary Principals Association.
4. The Federation will prepare a parliamentary brief advocating the case for the continuation of the current Staffing Agreement, to be circulated to all NSW Members of Parliament. Within this brief the Federation will also outline its policy with regards to Merit Selection.
5. The assistance of Unions NSW will be sought to achieve a resolution of this matter.
6. February Council (9-2-08) will consider a program of industrial and political action to achieve a negotiated settlement on a new Schools Staffing Agreement.
7. The Senior Officers will prepare an article to be placed prominently in the first journal of 2008 outlining the history of the dispute and the implications for the system.
8. The NSWTF will prepare a flyer suitable for distribution to the community that outlines the importance of continuity of curriculum and the educational benefits of prolonged relationships between students and teachers over the course of each student's educational career. This flyer will invite members of the public to contact their State and Federal Members of Parliament in opposition to policies that jeopardize their children's education in this way.
