Moruya teachers stop work

	Moruya teachers protest

Teachers at Moruya High School took stop work action, walked out of the school and down to Moruya TAFE College to join their TAFE colleagues to protest against the state government's changes to aspects of public education provision in schools and TAFE colleges.

The protest was intended to coincide with the visit of Director General of Education and Education and Training, Michael Coutts-Trotter.

Moruya High School teachers are greatly concerned about the government's continued refusal to negotiate a new industrial staffing agreement for schools. They wished to personally convey their disgust with the arbitrary imposition of changes to schools' staffing to the Director-General.

Teachers are aware that without an industrial agreement, this or any future Director-General can make any changes to staffing, at will. Teachers know that the changes, in effect from this term, will have a negative impact on some schools' ability to attract and retain quality teachers. They will also have a negative impact on schools that are in favourable areas like Moruya, as Principals' workloads in these schools will increase dramatically, interfering with their capacity to effectively manage their schools.

TAFE teachers are concerned about the state government's attempts to downgrade TAFE. The government has increased TAFE student fees; moved to downgrade the teacher education qualifications for TAFE teachers and is pushing through a disastrous restructure of TAFE under the mantra of doing business in the 21st Century.

Moruya High School Federation Representative, Mick Lambert, had a letter explaining the concerns of school teachers he wished to pass on to the Director-General. Unfortunately, Mr Coutts-Trotter did not turn up for his scheduled visit - nor for some time afterwards.

After their school colleagues left, the TAFE teachers hung around for a while longer, then all but five gave up. The Director-General arrived shortly after. The few stalwarts with their corflutes were still there and Ruth Lamont, Federation Representative, was also able to present him with a letter from local TAFE teachers and a letter the school teachers had left with her. She had an amicable discussion with him on the TAFE teachers qualifications, and they agreed to disagree.

All the "Keep TAFE Professional" signs were placed in strategic places around the college so the Director-General was confronted with these signs wherever he went in the college.

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Last Modified: 12 May 2008