An extraordinary meeting of the NSW Teachers Federation Executive has today called on the NSW Government to immediately revise its wages policy and to urgently negotiate an outcome that will put an end to the teacher shortage crisis facing NSW schools.
On 6 June, the NSW Government announced an insulting new wages policy for public sector workers.
Federation’s executive meeting noted that secret Department of Education briefings have highlighted that:
- the demands and expectations on teachers are increasing, while the current rewards are not providing enough incentive, and
- on average, teacher pay has been falling relative to pay in other professions since the late 1980s and this makes it a less attractive profession for high-achieving students.
The revised Government wages policy falls well short of what is needed to address the crisis that exists in NSW schools.
NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos said the Premier and NSW Government has a week to act on teacher shortage crisis.
An historic joint meeting between the Federation and the IEU NSW/ACT will be held on budget day, 21 June, to determine an appropriate course of action should the Government fail to act on the teacher crisis.
At a time when inflation is more than five per cent, the Government’s updated policy represents a real wage cut. It will only lead to a greater shortage of teachers.
Of equal importance, the Government’s announcement last week completely ignored unsustainable teacher workloads.
Unfortunately, the Perrottet Government continues to fail students, their families and the teaching profession,” said Mr Gavrielatos.