Staffing formulae and class sizes in doubt

Nola Edsall addresses a picket outside Premier Morris Iemma's electorate office.

DET refuses to protect existing staffing formulae and class sizes.

By Bob Lipscombe

Following the Department of Education and Training's (DET's) decision to abandon the staffing agreement with Federation, the union is concerned that many matters which teachers have until now regarded as settled will be subject to similar unilateral changes imposed by the Department. Of particular concern are staffing entitlements, the formulae for the allocation of staff and the determination of class sizes.

As a consequence of this concern Federation wrote to Director-General Michael Coutts-Trotter prior to the statewide industrial action on April 8 to seek a consent award with the DET which codified the current school staffing entitlements and formulae. It was intended that in the range of matters covered by the award would be the allocation of principal, executive and classroom teacher positions, as well as the allocation of above establishment positions such as school counsellors, teacher-librarians, ESL teachers, community languages teachers, careers advisers, and Priority Schools Funding Program and Priority Action Schools positions.

Although Federation indicated in the correspondence that it would seek to enter into negotiations for additional teachers at some time in the future, it was made clear that in the award Federation sought to no more than protect existing entitlements.

In the response to Federation's letter, DET stated:

"The Department does not believe that an award needs to be made to cover staffing entitlements, formulae and class sizes...the Department is committed to consulting with the union if any changes are contemplated to the matters you have identified."

Unfortunately, it is difficult to place much weight on such undertakings given the unilateral imposition of changes to the staffing system.

The Sky Channel meeting on April 8 endorsed the campaign in 2008 based on value and respect for the teaching profession and public education and decided that an important part of this campaign is for an industrial agreement on school staffing and guaranteed formulae. In support of this Federation will soon be serving on DET an award application covering the above matters and seeking hearings in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

Bob Lipscombe is the Deputy President.

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Last Modified: 08 May 2008