Teachers' rights at work - worth fighting for

By

Maree O'Halloran

Congratulations and thank you to all members who have stopped work, lobbied Members of Parliament or written letters in support of the campaign to maintain statewide staffing.

Federation had planned for 2008 to be a year of negotiation with the State Government to ensure:

1. Secure and stable staffing of public schools. Federation has been seeking improvements to the current industrial agreement about staffing including an "on the job" assessment before promotion and better incentives (in addition to incentive transfers) for rural, remote and difficult-to-staff schools.
2. The employment of additional permanent teachers in public schools, the Department, TAFE, AMES and Corrective Services.
3. A salary increase of at least five per cent per annum for all classifications plus one per cent per annum superannuation.
The industrial agreement about schools staffing and the salaries awards all need to be re-negotiated in 2008. However, Federation had to lodge a dispute in the Industrial Relations Commission just to get the Department of Education and Training to schedule meetings about the industrial agreement on staffing.

Then on February 4, while Federation Officers were actually sitting at the negotiation table with Department officers, the Government announced by media release the effective deregulation of staffing.

The Government's move on school staffing came on top of its decision to remove the longstanding requirement for permanent TAFE teachers to have university teacher education qualifications. This is a major attack on the profession as a whole.

The disputation at state level also comes at a time when the State Government and Federation should be single-minded in a concerted effort to achieve more federal funding for public education. Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has declared that she would like to apply a "socio-economic status" index to the funding of public schools (The Australian, March 15). At face value the proposal could result in significantly more dollars for public schools.

Possibly as a result of heavy lobbying from private school interests, Minister Gillard has begun to retreat already. Unfortunately her clearest statements continue to be about the Government's funding promises to private schools. Currently 60 per cent of private schools receive more funding than even the formula entitles them. This represents about $2.7 billion over four years. This calculation does not include any rorting of enrolment numbers by private schools as was recently exposed at Lakeside Christian College in the Tweed.

The Federal Government's promise to private schools sits oddly with the comments of National Curriculum Board head Professor Barry McGaw, who has argued that the rapid growth in religious schools under the previous federal government "threatened the social cohesion of the nation" and that Australia's funding model has created the "worst of all worlds" (West Australian, February 25).

On March 20, the Federal Government's bill to ban Australian Workplace Agreements was proclaimed. While this step is to be celebrated, the substantive bill to be debated in 2008 has serious implications for the existence of the state industrial relations system. Significant pressure must be mounted on the Federal Government to ensure that no worker has rights at work eroded in any new system.

In this political and industrial context, the Director-General has moved to diminish the rights at work of teachers, including executive staff and principals, by proposing to phase out the transfer system and end the expressions of interest system. In doing so he has also jeopardised the rights of our students to a curriculum guarantee. In this regard, Federation has sought commitments from the Department that staffing numbers and class sizes will be guaranteed in an award. Federation is waiting for a response.

With no industrial agreement about staffing, Department policy applies. This policy can be changed at any time and almost certainly will be.

Perhaps even worse is the fact that the current Director-General has no idea what will happen under his proposed new arrangements. Speaking at St Clair High School it is reported that he said words to the following effect: no corporations or big business have a staffing agreement, the CEO determines the staffing of the company?. We will monitor the situation every three months and I must say this is not proven practice but theoretical therefore we will keep an 'eye' on how it is going.

In the face of this type of public policy planning, Federation has a responsibility to expose any underlying agenda. Federation believes the pre-conditions are being set for the complete deregulation of staffing and the devolving of salaries budgets to schools. The Victorian experience is salient as is the current NSW government's attempt in 2004 to put principals on contracts.

The Director-General's removal of Federation representatives from interview panels for executive staff and principals is contemptible. It symbolises a position that is both anti-union and anti-teacher. Perhaps the Director-General is unaware that unlike the rest of the public sector, school teaching staff have no appeals access to the Government and Related Employees Tribunal (GREAT) which has union representation.

The first industrial agreement about staffing was signed in 1993. It committed the parties to:

"a more collaborative process, and is made by the parties in the interests of achieving industrial stability, building a relationship of trust, enhancing teacher morale, and providing the expectation of a stable learning environment for the students in the NSW public schools."

Still laudable objectives in my view. I urge you to attend the Sky Channel meeting on April 8.

Finally, in early term 2 Federation will launch a valuable information service for students, parents, teachers and employers about "Students at Work". Please visit the website www.studentsatwork.org.au after May 1.

Maree O'Halloran is the President.

For further information

April 2008 contents