TAFE teachers line up to individually deliver letters of protest to MP Noreen Hay's electorate office.

Pressure on Minister to end TAFE salary dispute

TAFE teachers take local action over the ongoing TAFE salary dispute.

More than 100 TAFE teachers from Dapto, Nowra, Wollongong and West Wollongong colleges joined together at a stopwork meeting outside the office of local Labor MP Noreen Hay on June 17.

The teachers' aim was to send a clear message to Education and Training Minister Verity Firth that she must intervene in the ongoing salary dispute between the Department of Education and Training and the NSW Teachers Federation.

Although the local MP was away at State Parliament, each teacher lined up and individually delivered to her office a letter of protest.

TAFE TA President Rob Long said: "We need a public statement of support from Noreen Hay. She is generally very supportive of TAFE and we need her to stand up now."

"The Department of Education and Training's demand for an increase of 57 hours teaching a year for head teachers, permanent and temporary teachers, is an insult. Our message to the Local Member, the Education and Training Minister and the NSW Government is that TAFE teachers will not tolerate any increase in their teaching hours to pay for their just pay increase," Mr Long said.

Illawarra teachers called for the Minister to immediately resolve the dispute that will see part time casual teachers lose work and increase the workload of already stretched TAFE teachers.

The meeting was addressed by local teachers Tony Barnes, Kerry Stratton and Peter Sullivan who highlighted the impacts these proposals would have on their students, their head teachers and in particular their part time casual colleagues.

Wollongong commercial cookery teacher Tony Barnes told the meeting how the increase of 57 teaching hours would be equivalent to losing in excess of 400 new permanent TAFE teaching positions.

"Many part time teachers will have reduced take home pay or potentially no work at all. At a time when the local economy is suffering from increasing unemployment the State Government must intervene to save jobs," Mr Barnes said.

Wollongong teacher Peter Sullivan said: "We are concerned if this happens, quality teaching will suffer. TAFE teachers will have less time to address the special needs of their students, less time for planning lessons, and we will lose many of our valuable part time casual teachers, increasing the work load for existing staff."

"The demands on TAFE and TAFE teachers increase every day. We not only have our usual groups of students to look after, we now have to ensure we provide for young people who are guaranteed a place at TAFE as a result of the Youth Compact, for workers made redundant, and to build Green Skills in our economy," Mr Sullivan added.

Mr Long concluded: "As the Government has done for other groups of workers, TAFE teachers deserve to have their salary increase without these excessive trade-offs. We are concerned that if this demand for 57 hours goes ahead, many teachers in TAFE will lose their jobs at a time of rising unemployment, and this will have a negative impact on the local economy."

The meeting unanimously passed a resolution that called on the Minister to settle the dispute with Federation immediately.

Teachers will meet again early in semester 2 to consider further industrial action if their demands have not been addressed.

New course for TAFE non permanent teachers

Students funding TAFE expenditure

Honk and holler - protect the TAFE skills dollar

Hornsby TAFE teachers say no

Invitation sparks MP's letter to Minister

Long campaign brings results

57 teachers get message across

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