The status of teaching

By Maree O’Halloran

Annual Conference this year developed claims to raise the status of the teaching profession and improve the working lives of teachers.

In our society remuneration and status are inextricably linked; hence the continued need for Federation to achieve guaranteed salary increases for the whole of the profession. If the Federal Government's discredited "performance pay" schemes were to be implemented, the status of the teaching profession would diminish. Under the Government's schemes, a few teachers may receive meagre bonuses in some years. The profession as a whole, however, will not have its salary uplifted. In fact, the existence of so-called "performance pay" schemes will inevitably be used by governments of all persuasions to mitigate against across-the-board salary increases. Thus, individual teachers would increasingly be reliant on a salary which is not guaranteed and, in all likelihood, arbitrarily distributed.

Annual Conference initiated a salaries claim for the next awards to begin from January 1, 2009. The claim rejects "performance pay" and pursues guaranteed increases for all members. Members will be asked via workplace surveys and individual sample surveys to provide feedback about the claim. This will leave 2008 for campaigning with the aim of receiving a first percentage increase from the beginning of the new awards.

The current awards were achieved without Federation being forced to call industrial action to support the claim. This achievement is one to be celebrated and, of course, we would hope to emulate it. Unfortunately, at this stage I believe it is most unlikely that a breakthrough will be achieved in the next round without industrial action. In the face of State Government MPs receiving a 6.7 per cent salary increase in one year (awarded by the Statutory Remuneration Tribunal), the State Government has offered public sector employees 2.5 per cent per annum with additional increases to be found from "efficiency" measures. That means cost-cutting and "trade offs". Federation members have fought long and hard over the last decade to ensure that our salary increases have been fully funded from Treasury. We must not stop now. Cuts to public education funding or job losses are not acceptable.

Already there are rumoured Department of Education and Training job cuts arising from the State Budget in June. This is despite assurances from NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca that the Budget allowed for a maintenance of effort by the Government in education, and despite Director-General Michael Coutts-Trotter advising that the one per cent "efficiency dividend" required by the Government would be found in procurement processes. The one per cent "efficiency dividend" is actually a cut in government funding to all departments. Federation intends to pursue the issue of rumoured job cuts in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, if necessary.

In common with many other workers, teachers face the problem of excessive work overload. This issue affects the health of teachers and potentially has a deleterious effect on educational outcomes for students. Moreover it directly affects the status of teachers as professional workers. One of the concepts behind the word "professional" is the element of control or autonomy over one's work. For teachers, constant (and sometimes educationally unsound) dictates from governments/departments often increase workload with no perceived benefit for students. One obvious example is the highly politicised annual school report required by government.

New teachers considering leaving the profession often cite workload as the reason. Federation has achieved an extra hour of preparation time for beginning teachers. It has been 20 years since the last such gain for teachers was made. A campaign for more teachers in schools and more preparation time for all teachers is necessary and timely. The campaign will be long and difficult but worthwhile.

Meanwhile media reports have surfaced that the West Australian government is considering substituting para-professionals for qualified teachers to address the teacher shortage in that state. The United Kingdom has taken a similar pathway. Governments propose this pathway as an alternative to professional pay and better working conditions for teachers. They must be opposed.

The report commissioned by the Federation You're gold...if you're fifteen years old was an important analysis of the balance between work and school life for young people. The skills students learn in the workplace and the level of maturity they develop is of undoubted value. However, the potential for young people to be exploited or pushed into longer hours of work needs to be highlighted. It was predictable, if slightly pathetic, to hear Federal Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey criticise the methodology and motives of the researcher. It seems to be his only line of defence to numerous reports outlining the disastrous effects of the WorkChoices regime on many workers. Mr Hockey made the same criticism of researchers from the University of Sydney who released a report on August 1, finding that many low-paid women had been made to feel powerless and afraid by a cultural change favouring managerial prerogative. Mr Hockey's response was that the report was a sham. What was a sham was the pretence of "fairness" in the so-called Fair Pay Commission's decision on July 5, 2007 to award 1.2 million employees on minimum pay scales a two per cent increase from October 2007. That increase is less than inflation.

At the recent World Congress of Education International in Berlin approximately 2000 teachers met to debate educational and industrial issues. The struggle in defence of public education and for the status of the teaching profession is a worldwide one. The need to be vigilant in defence of democracy and trade union rights was also highlighted at the Congress. In Colombia, Ethiopia and Botswana we have teachers imprisoned, missing or mistreated because of their trade union activities.

The Australian delegation moved a very strong resolution condemning the actions of the Australian Government in relation to Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. The resolution was passed unanimously.

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August 2007 contents