Federation moves to protect salaries

Claim lodged in NSW Industrial Relations Commission today

In an unprecedented move, the NSW Teachers Federation this morning lodged a claim in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission for a 5% CPI increase of the current Schools and TAFE Teachers' Salaries Awards from 1 January 2009.

This claim has been made because of the climate of economic uncertainty and the current high CPI figures.

This move will place the Federation at odds with the State Government, which is attempting to force teachers to accept significant cuts to their employment conditions to fund any increase above 2.5%.

Awards covering teachers' salaries expire in less than 11 weeks. Although the Federation sought negotiations in April, they only commenced in September and after five weeks, the Department of Education and Training has still not provided the Federation with full details of its "offer".

In light of the current CPI and the relatively high inflation rate, the 2.5% offer is totally inadequate. The Department failed to consider the very significant savings in salaries which will accrue because of the rapidly changing demographic of the teaching service where "expensive" older teachers who retire are replaced by younger teachers on a lower salary. To replace the 16,000 teachers reaching retirement age by 2012, it is essential that competitive salaries are maintained.

Last week, the Director-General wrote to a teacher and described the trade-offs required to fund any increase in salaries above 2.5% pa as "the least worst list of employee-related cost savings". These included significant reductions in sick leave, workers compensation and other forms of leave and increases in workload.

In addition to this 5% CPI increase in salaries and allowances, the Federation still intends to pursue the other aspects of the claim it first lodged with the Minister and the Department in April, 2008.

Because of the current economic uncertainty, the Federation will be seeking a two year agreement instead of the usual three year agreement.

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Last Modified: 17 Oct 2008