Director-General breaches teacher trust

By Dennis Long

Federation has condemned Director-General Michael Coutts-Trotter for betraying the "trust and confidence of employees".

On May 17, the Daily Telegraph reported the Director-General had become "the public schools' champion by inviting every teacher in the state to discuss their concerns personally with him".

The Telegraph said Mr Coutts-Trotter, then four weeks into the job, was "working on his replies to 80,000 emails he sent to teachers in 2240 schools across NSW". The Telegraph described it as an "extraordinary move".

There was no suggestion that these letters would be forwarded to school principals with the relevant teacher's name attached.

At Federation Council on August 11, it was reported that members had been called to meetings with their principal to discuss extracts from their letter to the Director-General, and informed that the letter was now on the public record.

Further, it was reported that some of the extracts were not necessarily placed in the context of the whole letter.

Members were concerned about the possible fallout they may experience arising from this, such as the requirement for the principal to be the first referee when applying for positions through local selection procedures.

Council resolved to condemn the Director-General for betraying the trust and confidence of employees "about engaging in genuine consultation and dialogue" and said his credibility "has now been called into question by teachers".

The Council called on Mr Coutts-Trotter to "honour his publicly stated commitment to personally respond to those teachers who wrote to him in good faith" and that no further action be taken against the teachers involved.

The decision also called on the Director-General "to personally apologise to affected teachers".

Dennis Long is the Editor.

For further information

August 2007 contents