Stopwork meeting held today (video attached)

Teachers Federation President, Bob Lipscombe has said after today’s teacher stopwork meeting:

“This morning thousands of teachers across NSW overwhelmingly rejected the O’Farrell government’s proposed cut to the real incomes of teachers employed in public schools, TAFE colleges and other public sector areas."

“It is clear that over 99% of teachers have rejected the proposal which would put teacher incomes on a downward spiral. This is at the very time when the O’Farrell government needs to maintain professional and attractive salaries if it is to have any hope of ensuring that it is able to attract and retain the many thousands of new teachers who will be needed in the next few years to replace the retiring baby boomers."

“No parent will thank the O’Farrell government if it succeeds in making teaching such an unattractive proposition that it becomes impossible to ensure there is a properly qualified teacher in front of their child’s class."

“In addition to rejecting the O’Farrell government’s disgraceful salaries offer, teachers today have demanded the government immediately make a fair and reasonable offer on salaries and negotiate in good faith."

“Should the government not be prepared to act in good faith and should it not be prepared to negotiate a fair and reasonable salaries settlement, teachers at the meeting today have called on Federation to call a 24 hour stopwork on 29 November. If these meetings proceed, they will consider further industrial action at the beginning of the 2012 school and college year.”

The video below contains Bob's statement and answers to questions posed by the media.