SA education campaign breakthrough

By Melanie Sjoberg

ADELAIDE — After months of stalling by the state Liberal government and significant industrial action by education workers, the dispute over wages and workload appears to have entered a new phase with the intervention of a full bench of the state Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) last week.

In February, the government made an enterprise bargaining offer which was rejected by a majority of education workers because it involved trading off jobs and conditions. Since then, the government has rejected negotiations around workload and staffing.

The campaign has been conducted jointly by the Australian Education Union-South Australian Institute of Teachers and the Public Service Association.

Mass rallies, rolling stoppages and widespread bans have helped keep education workers' demands in the limelight. Unionists have also distributed leaflets at shopping centres and in letterboxes to counteract the Advertiser's portrayal of their campaign as a "wage grab".

The state government has cut funding for the education budget by more than $60 million in the last two years, causing staffing cuts and an erosion of the quality of education. Workload problems were exacerbated at the beginning of this year by another cut of 250 school support staff, despite a vigorous campaign of opposition.

The government is now embarking on a process of school closures which is generating further community dissatisfaction.

The IRC, which is intervening in the framework proposed by the unions, acknowledged that enterprise bargaining was not working and that it would be extremely difficult to evaluate "productivity savings" in a service sector such as education.

Lecturers in the SA TAFE sector, also covered by the AEU, recently voted down a similar enterprise bargaining offer which would have required them to trade off recreation leave and preparation time for a pay rise. State legislation requires a ballot of all employees before an agreement can be certified.

From GLW issue 249