AWAs already on the agenda for teachers

When will Federation members confront Australian Workplace Agreements? asks PETER WILSON.

The short answer is that two weeks ago the University of Technology in Sydney offered Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) to public school teachers who agreed to supervise practicum students from the university. This is because the university interpreted the agreement that it signed with the Federal Government to get its federal funding as requiring it to offer AWAs to all university employees. Public school teachers supervising practicum are employees, hence they were offered AWAs.

There has been a lot of media coverage around whether state governments will lodge a High Court challenge to Prime Minister John Howard's use of the corporations power in the Australian Constitution to force through Commonwealth Government control of industrial relations in Australia. There has also been much debate about what the outcome of the High Court challenge will be. However, as can be seen by the University of Technology example, the Federal Government is also using its control over Federal funding to force AWAs on state government employees. This strategy is not affected one way or the other by the outcome of the High Court challenge. The Skilling Australia's Workforce Act will also force all state governments to offer AWAs to TAFE teachers if the state government wants Federal funding to support TAFE. The Act actually prohibits the Federal Minister of Education and Training, Brendan Nelson, from providing Federal funding to a state government for TAFE unless the State Government signs an agreement that includes that it will offer AWAs to TAFE teachers. NSW TAFE gets one third of its funding from the Commonwealth.

The intention to withhold Federal schools' funding to force State Governments to offer AWAs to school teachers has already been flagged by the Federal Vocational Education and Training Minister Gary Hardgrave. This is expected to occur at the commencement of the next Federal funding round which is in 2008. The imminent offering of AWAs to TAFE teachers and the future offering of AWAs to school teachers due to funding blackmail by the Federal Government will occur irrespective of the outcome from the High Court challenge. It is not a question of if AWAs will be offered to public school teachers, but when. So, as a union we need to get our own house in order. NSW teachers' ability to maintain conditions will depend upon the preparedness of NSW teachers to bargain together as a group.

It is expected that the Federal legislation will not require an employer to negotiate a new award or collective agreement even if the majority of employees want their conditions to be detailed in a collective agreement. Instead total power will be given to the employer to determine what form of industrial instrument will operate for teachers. (This is already happening for the Boeing workers at Williamstown near Newcastle.)

The quality of an Australian Workplace Agreement written by the employer in the new political environment will be totally dependent on the political, moral and industrial ethics of any future state government. Against this will be the collective strength of the Federation members to check the new unbridled power that our state government employer will be given by the Howard Government's industrial legislation.

A state government will continue to have the option to negotiate collective agreements with Federation. It has the option to offer AWAs that offer significantly inferior conditions that no teacher would accept, and then not to pressure any teacher to sign these contracts; by doing so it will have fulfilled the funding requirements imposed by the Federal Government.

It will only be if and when the State Government tries to force teachers to sign AWAs that teachers will know that it is prepared to take advantage of the Federal Government's legislation to try and break the ability of the Federation to collectively bargain.

Even if the State Government in the first instance offers some teachers superior conditions if they sign an AWA, teachers will know that the State Government's actual strategy is to break the ability of teachers to negotiate on a collective basis. It is against these criteria that teachers will judge the present ALP State Government. If the Coalition wins the next state election, they have already indicated that they support the Howard Government's industrial relations changes which are an attack on the human rights of Australian working people.

Peter Wilson is an Industrial Officer.

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005