Salaries settlement achieved

By Maree O’Halloran

Federation has achieved a sound salaries settlement endorsed by 99 per cent of members who attended Sky Channel meetings on October 26.

Thank you to those members who were able to attend the meetings. Council unanimously determined on October 22 to recommend the Director-General's salaries offer dated October 21 to members. It is important that Federation members continue to demand and achieve the right to meet across worksites. The Federal Government's proposed industrial laws would seek to confine bargaining to individuals or, at best, a worksite.

A collective contract such as a salaries award requires the opportunity for the people covered by the contract to meet to question and debate the details of the contract. Such debate and questioning informs everyone present. Moreover, the meeting should be in the employer's time both to maximise attendance and because the employer benefits from a collective contract. Instead of spending resources bargaining with 60,000 individuals or small groups, the employer achieves security and stability by an award ("collective contract") that covers the whole workforce.

The salaries settlement was preceded by a lengthy process within the Federation to develop a salaries claim that was in the interests of the whole membership. The claim was initiated at Annual Conference 2004. A survey about the claim was then sent to all workplaces for discussion at Federation meetings. Informed by this process and other public sector wage movements, Annual Conference 2005 finalised the claim.

Throughout this whole process the claim was always configured so that more was claimed for top of the scale teachers ($75,000 [13 per cent] from January 1, 2006 maintained in real terms through the life of the award) and less claimed for the bottom of the scale ($50,000 [eight per cent] from January 1, 2006 maintained in real terms).

The claim recognised that for beginning teachers the salary entry level to the profession was relatively good compared to other professions. Beginning teachers have told the Federation that what was not good was the inadequate support provided by the State Government for teachers in the beginning years. Newer teachers to the profession require more release time, more mentors and more professional development. This is a campaign that Federation must return to with renewed vigour.

It is not unprecedented for Federation to claim differential wage outcomes for different sections of the membership.

While seeking flat percentage increases for all members has the advantage of apparent unity, it also means that serious structural anomalies cannot be addressed.

Prime Minister John Howard seeks through his new industrial regimes to confine employees in an industry like ours to thousands of different individual "bargains". Such a regime allows for no ordered and structured systemic changes. It also means that no debate can occur about the changes.

Howard's new regime may also confine some employees to one standard contract prepared by the employer and presented to each individual in turn to sign. This type of "pattern bargaining" will be allowed to employers but expressly rendered unlawful for employees and their union. In this type of industrial relations environment, employers have the luxury of developing a "claim" and targeting particular "groups" for structural change in wage levels without any discussion or consultation with the whole of the workforce.

The strength of the last two awards (the 2004 arbitrated award and 2006 negotiated award) is that first payment has been achieved on each occasion from the expiry of the previous award. Federation has spent many previous salary rounds fighting to remove the employer's proposed trade-offs from the negotiating table, sometimes many months after the expiry of the last agreement.

Federation's high profile commitment to the concept of "full funding" from Treasury, particularly in the campaign for the 2004 award, has also been important. Former Treasurer Michael Egan announced in his 2004 Budget speech that teacher salaries were "fully funded". Such a statement was unprecedented and delivered by teachers taking industrial action.

Federation members indicated their preparedness to take industrial action in this campaign. One of the reasons that action was rendered unnecessary this time was the fact that Federation members have consistently proved their willingness to take such action where warranted. It was only last year that members took two 24 hour strikes within the space of a week to protest the Carr Government's re-opening of our salaries case, and to achieve full funding.

The early settlement of the 2006 salaries award is particularly important for TAFE members. The Federal Government's proposed industrial laws will affect TAFE members first. If TAFE is found to be a "constitutional corporation", then the TAFE award current at the time of implementation of the new law will be moved to the Federal jurisdiction as a transitional agreement.

It does not matter whether the TAFE and schools awards are joined or separate. The federal law will apply regardless and the sections pertaining to TAFE will be transferred.

The separation of the schools and TAFE award in the salaries settlement has nothing to do with the federal laws. In fact, it was raised by our employer (the NSW Government/Department of Education and Training) in the earliest stage of negotiations. No matter what legal "bucket" is used to codify conditions, Federation will continue as always to wage campaigns across the sectors.

The negotiated settlement achieved for the 2006 award reflects the known strength of the Federation membership. It is also a reflection of the State Government's desire to settle our dispute while it faces other political difficulties. It should be recognised that the Iemma Government has committed itself to collective bargaining in contradiction to the Federal Government.

The new Premier should be applauded for being willing to take a risk in this salaries round. In the past the State Labor Government would have continued to offer Federation members three per cent per annum, knowing that the Federation would fight and achieve more. Morris Iemma was prepared, with the Federation, to truncate the long drawn out process and reach a settlement. Let us hope this round sets a precedent in this regard.

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November 2005 contents