NSW teachers stopped work for two hours on November 19 to consider the next stage in their campaign for the reinstatement of a centralised staffing system and salary justice.
The NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) has been fighting the dismantling of the centralised staffing system, which began with sweeping changes at the end of the first term this year, including the effective abolition of the service transfer system (the service transfer points system technically remains, but principals can now ignore the list and go straight to an interview).
This transfer system rewards teachers who opt to work in harder-to-staff areas of the state with "points" that allow them to find a position in their area of choice after serving in remote areas or challenging schools.
The dismantling of the system has already made it difficult to find qualified teachers for schools in some areas.
The award for NSW teachers expires on December 31, and the Department of Education and Training (DET) has only offered a 2.5% pay increase. It is maintaining the NSW government line that any pay increases above 2.5% for public employees must be funded through cuts to conditions.
DET has put on the table a series of cuts to award conditions as "trade-offs" for any pay rise over 2.5%, including cuts in sick leave, extra classes, reduced workers' compensation, reduced access to leave and an increase in the teaching load for TAFE teachers by four weeks.
At meetings across the state, more than 99% of teachers voted to reject the attacks of the state Labor government on their conditions, salaries and the staffing system.
The leadership of the union put a recommendation to call a 48-hour strike on January 28-29 (the days students return from holidays) in the event of a settlement not being reached by then.
In October NSWTF made a claim in the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) for an interim extension of the current award plus a 5% CPI increase to begin January 1, 2009. However, DET argued that the IRC should not hear the claim, as it represented an additional claim during the current award. The IRC agreed and refused to hear the claim.
DET has lodged its offer of 2.5% plus trade-offs with the IRC.
The Activist Teachers Network (a rank-and-file network of NSWTF activists) moved motions for a strike and rally at state parliament before the end of fourth term this year as an additional motion at several metropolitan and rural stop-work venues on November 19.
The motion was carried at several meetings, including the Campbelltown-Camden meeting, the Campsie meeting of Canterbury-Bankstown Teachers Association, the Nepean Teachers Association and at one of the Inner City Teachers Association (ICTA) venues, the Agincourt Hotel.
After the stop work, 60 teachers rallied outside NSW education minister Verity Firth's office in Glebe. Speakers included Paul Robson, president of the Eastern Suburbs Teachers Association, Danielle Blanch, relieving officer for the ICTA, Chris Woods, president of the ICTA, John Gauci, secretary of the ICTA, and Xiashang Chu, a teacher from Ultimo TAFE.
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[Pat Donohoe is a vice-president of Canterbury-Bankstown Teachers Association, a member of the NSWTF Council and a Socialist Alliance activist.]