TAFE teachers from Newcastle's Hunter Street campus march to the offices of local MP Jodi McKay on November 11, after voting to strike for 48 hours.

WorkChoices by another name

By

Joan Lemaire and Phil Bradley

Howard was defeated but another show of teacher solidarity is required in NSW.

In her inaugural speech to Parliament in 2007 Verity Firth described WorkChoices as "devastating" for women workers. Yet under her watch the Department of Education and Training's (DET's) application for productivity offsets to fund 1.5 per cent of the salary increase for TAFE teachers slashed conditions in a manner reminiscent of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) under the Howard Government's WorkChoices legislation.

Federation presented evidence to the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to show that the reforms agreed to in negotiations in February and other savings made from TAFE's commercial activities more than paid for the salary increases.

Federation's expert witness was Robert McVicar, who held the position of Assistant Director (Internal Audit) of TAFE in the 1990s. Based on data subpoenaed from DET, he presented evidence to the IRC showing that in order to satisfy DET's application, 4746 full-time equivalent teachers would be required to attend (for directed duties) an additional five hours a week for 41 weeks per year; DET costed the savings from this at $2.8 million in 2010 and $2.87 million in 2011.

According to a simple calculation, the salary increase provided to work those additional hours amounts to $2.88 per hour in 2010 and $2.95 per hour in 2011 before tax.

Our expert estimated that based on standard TAFE costings, the true value of the extra five hours per week for 2010 and 2011 would be $157 million, not DET's figure of $5.67 million. In negotiations in February, the agreed amount of cost savings was in the order of $54 million.

But the attack on working conditions did not stop there. In provisions similar to AWAs under Howard, DET sought and won the ability to direct TAFE teachers to work any time between 6am and 10pm, Monday to Saturday, to teach up to 35 hours face-to-face per week and to have their teaching load averaged over a year. TAFE teachers are also required, as part of their normal load, to teach an additional 36 face-to-face teaching hours per year.

Ms Firth failed to mention any of these conditions when she argued that the IRC increased TAFE hours to only 35 per week. Nor did she mention that TAFE teachers who take long service leave (LSL) before and after a vacation will, in effect, have to pay for their vacation out of their LSL.

The additional hours and the averaging provisions could result in hundreds of permanent and/or temporary TAFE teacher positions being lost.

School and TAFE teachers stood together with other unions in their campaign against WorkChoices. We condemned employers who sought AWAs that removed penalties and allowances and allowed work hours to be averaged over a year for a tokenistic amount. If the Department succeeds in implementing WorkChoices for TAFE teachers then clearly the working conditions of school teachers will be under threat in the next award.

The union campaign succeeded in defeating Howard and WorkChoices federally. We must continue to campaign together to defeat NSW WorkChoices for TAFE Teachers.

Joan Lemaire is the Senior Vice President and Phil Bradley is the Assistant General Secretary (Post School Education).

Thousands stop work

Court agrees to expedite TAFE appeal

Granville teachers demand answers

Protesters plan ambush but Rees springs the surprise

Part-time casual TAFE teachers and the IRC decision

School teachers join TAFE colleagues in fight

Queensland teachers likely to settle salaries