The Government's staffing procedures untested, unsound and unsupported

For the future of public education in every NSW community President MAREE O'HALLORAN urges your participation on May 22.

Congratulations and thank you to every member who stopped work on April 8. Support for a strike on Thursday May 22, about school staffing and TAFE qualifications, was overwhelming at 99.4 per cent of the more than 20,000 in attendance. For the future of public education in every NSW community NSW, I urge your participation on May 22. The deregulation agenda must be stopped, an improved industrial agreement about staffing achieved and for TAFE teachers, qualifications maintained. Most important of all, teachers' voices must be heard.

The Minister, John Della Bosca, has developed a well-repeated media line that his staffing procedures are "a modest proposal". Perhaps he is using the term in the same vein as Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal" for dealing with the problem of poverty amongst the Irish. For, of course, the government's unilateral staffing procedures are the opposite of "modest". They are organisationally-unsound procedures with grave equity implications imposed by an arrogant and duplicitous government.

Not only has the Minister broken the Government's election promise given two weeks before the election in 2007, but he advised principals they would have to "suck it and see" - Not with our students, our communities and our professional lives.

Despite the Minister's media spin, the Government's procedures will:

• phase out teacher transfers in practice
• offload the government's responsibility for finding teachers onto schools
• lead to large class sizes or unqualified teachers in some schools because they find it harder to attract and retain teachers
• establish the pre-conditions for the full deregulation agenda as in Victoria

The Department has written to Federation "offering" to put all the new procedures into an agreement for five years. An industrial agreement is a legal document which contains mutually acceptable conditions. Both parties may compromise, but one does not impose the conditions of an "agreement". The critical issue is, however, that after five years of the procedures a future government would be in the position to implement the full deregulation agenda. That would include devolving notional salaries budgets to schools and loss of tenure for Federation members.

In pursuit of managerialist ideology, the Department is prepared to put at risk a curriculum guarantee for all children in this state. It is also prepared to render null and void service transfer points accumulated in good faith by teachers while they contribute to their local communities.

I have no doubt that the Government's staffing changes will make it more difficult to staff some schools. In the face of 16,000 teachers becoming eligible to retire by 2012 and 25,000 by 2016, the real issue for government policy is how to attract teachers, not the method of appointment.

For the purpose of media control, the Department recently pumped out the numbers of teachers apparently waiting for appointments in various parts of the state. It was claimed that 100 teachers were waiting in the wings at Moree. Yet, Moree Secondary College commenced this term with three staff positions unfilled - one science teacher and two special education teachers needed. No permanent, temporary or casual teacher could be found. And this is just one example.

As a result of strong lobbying by our members, many Members of Parliament have taken a stand supporting the teacher transfer system. The National Party has chosen to support the Federation's position because it is in the best interest of country constituencies.

There is no Government policy in place about the impending teacher shortage identified by the Auditor-General in February 2008. Instead there are procedures for staffing schools which reward teachers with permanent appointments for going to the locality of their choice, becoming known to the interviewers and waiting for a job advertisement. Federation believes the inevitable consequence of Government policy is that some schools will have to increase class sizes and have teachers teaching outside their subject areas.

Federation has written to the Department requesting that all current staffing formulae, entitlements and class sizes be given the legal status of an award. This could be easily achieved by the agreement of both parties. The advantage of an award is that it is binding on both parties, the terms cannot be changed by one party and the terms are enforceable. It would be tangible evidence of the Government's oft-repeated line that it will retain responsibility for staffing schools. The Department has rejected Federation's request and the matter will go to the Industrial Relations Commission.

If the Minister's staffing changes are "modest" why does he refuse to allay teacher concern about equity and a curriculum guarantee for all students?

It was heartening to see Victorian teachers achieve a salaries settlement after prolonged action. While the details of the settlement are unclear at this stage, teachers on the first step and top of the incremental scale have reached the current NSW salary rate from May 2008. That is a significant increase and shows the effect of well-supported industrial action. The anger amongst Victorian teachers has been palpable with their last salary increase occurring in October 2006 and their agreement expiring in September 2007.

The Victorian union's breakthrough demonstrates that Michael Costa's 2.5 per cent "offer" is not sustainable and will be defeated.

At the national level, Federation is lobbying alongside the Australian Education Union for increased funding to public education, in particular, in the Federal Budget.

While there is no doubt that the 2020 Summit represented a cultural shift in Australian politics and had the appearance of exciting change, the final recommendations for education were neither new nor exciting. In particular, the proposal for a HECS-style loan scheme for TAFE is fraught with danger.

It is important to note, however, that as of March 28, the federal Labor Government has expunged the requirement for individual employment agreements (contracts) to be offered in TAFE. This is a very welcome move. The issue of contestable funding for TAFE is being hotly debated at the national level with Federation and the Minister, John Della Bosca, being in accord about our opposition.

Finally, please visit the Students@Work website on studentsatwork.org.au. It is a great information service provided by the Federation.

Maree O'Halloran is the President.

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May 2008 contents