TAFE workers' rights 'not for sale'

Kerryn Williams, Sydney

TAFE workers will join university staff around Australia on June 1 to protest the federal Coalition government's attacks on the tertiary education sector.

In NSW, TAFE employees will stop work to participate in city rallies and protests outside federal parliamentarian's offices.

On May 25, NSW Teachers Federation president Maree O'Halloran said, "TAFE teachers will take action to show their support for public education. They will not allow the federal government to hold teachers to ransom."

O'Halloran explained that "the federal government is threatening to withhold funding unless the states agree to a range of changes that will undermine working conditions, salaries and the workplace rights of staff in TAFE".

TAFE teachers will oppose the federal government's move to insist that Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts) are offered in TAFE, O'Halloran said. They will also reject the government's attempts to take TAFE facilities away from TAFE students "to be used by private providers operating for a profit".

"Federal funding in vocational education and training has dropped by over 25% since 1997, and in 2003 TAFE turned away 46,000 potential students", O'Halloran said. "Now the federal minister for vocational and technical education has threatened to direct all of the TAFE federal funding to other providers unless industrial changes are made."

From Green Left Weekly, June 1, 2005.

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From GLW issue 628