New Aerospace agreement

By Peter de Graaff

The NSW Industrial Relations Commission has approved an enterprise agreement for TAFE teachers at the National Aerospace Training Centre of Excellence (NATCOE) at Forest Hill.

NATCOE is a unique campus of the Riverina Institute of TAFE that provides training in aerospace trades to the Defence Forces under contract to the Commonwealth Government at the RAAF Forest Hill Base.

The enterprise agreement, which has been reached between the NSW Department of Education and Training and the NSW Teachers Federation, provides certainty of employment for the part time casual teachers at Forest Hill who will now become fixed term employees for the life of the training contract. It also provides the teachers with minimum guaranteed annual salaries, annual leave, and access to a range of other leave conditions.

For the NSW Industrial Relations Commission to approve an enterprise agreement, it must meet a number of objective criteria, including that there should be no net detriment to employees.

In approving the enterprise agreement, Commissioner Murphy congratulated the parties on having reached an agreement which very clearly improved the conditions for teachers at Forest Hill.

Peter de Graaff is a TAFE Organiser.

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November 2004 contents