By John Gauci
& Jenny Long, Sydney
On June 25, NSW public school and TAFE teachers will stop work for two hours to plan industrial action in response to the state Labor government's failure to adequately fund public education through the state budget, due to be released on June 22.
On June 16, the NSW Teachers Federation lodged an urgent appeal in the state Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to reopen bargaining around a new pay agreement for public school teachers. The union is arguing that it is in the public interest to rectify the disparity between senior teaching positions in government schools and those in Catholic schools.
Two days later, the IRC ordered the union into urgent negotiations with the education department in a bid to stop the planned June 25 stop-work. The parties are due to report back to the IRC on June 21.
Earlier this month, the IRC had handed down its decision on the long-running teachers' work-value case, in which the union had sought a 25% pay rise for all public school teachers. The IRC ordered Premier Bob Carr's government to give public school teachers a 6.5% pay rise in addition to a 5.5% interim pay rise ordered at the end of December.
The total pay increase — 12% over two years — is less than half of what NSW teachers were seeking.
On June 10, the IRC awarded Catholic school executive staff a 7.5% pay increase, in addition to the 12% pay rise over two years awarded to Catholic and public school teachers.
This extra pay increase was proposed by the Catholic Church on December 19, the day after submissions had closed in the government schools case. The principals' extra pay rise was awarded with the consent of the Independent Education Union, which covers non-government school teachers.
The NSW Teachers Federation legal team told the June 18 IRC hearing that the union had not received a copy of the proposal until June 11, when it was sought in a bid to understand the Catholic pay decision.
Teachers Federation president Maree O'Halloran pointed out that the Catholic Church supported higher salaries for executive positions in its schools, while the Carr Labor government had argued before the IRC that any claim for higher pay for public school executive positions would reduce the 6% it said it was all it could afford to pay public school teachers.
"No principal from a Catholic school would want an equivalent position in a government school, given they would take a $13,000 a year pay cut", said O'Halloran.
Later on June 18, NSW education minister Andrew Refshauge offered to increase the pay of public school executives to the same level as executives in Catholic schools, provided the Teachers Federation agreed to "productivity trade-offs".
According to O'Halloran, part of Refshauge's proposal is to scrap a system whereby a country teacher who has the appropriate skills could be transferred to a bigger school in the city. Instead, the best four teachers could apply for a job vacancy, meaning the government would have to pay for them to travel for the interview as well as bear the cost of a replacement teacher.
It might also leave schools in remote and difficult-to-staff areas of the state without teachers.
One of the other key problems in the government's trade-off wish-list is the proposal to introduce temporary contracts for principals, which could only be renewed subject to the approval of the teachers and parents. O'Halloran declared this "unacceptable", arguing it would subject principals to popularity contests.
Refshauge claims the government doesn't have the money to pay the Teachers Federation's full claim, yet his government has had no trouble finding the funds to finance private school student transport worth $250 million per year, interest-free building loans to private schools of $100 million per year (although these may be cut on June 22), $100 million for a "terrorism" response unit and a $250 million bailout for Stadium Australia. It has plenty of money to pay teachers and fully fund public education.
Teachers Federation officials have referred to the IRC as "the independent umpire" and discouraged any industrial action, including the imposing of work bans that could potentially jeopardise the union's case in the commission. The union also gave undertakings to the education department that it would not pursue industrial action against the pay decision, which is why the June 25 action is to be a protest against the NSW government's budget rather than give expression to the significant discontent among teachers about the IRC's pay decisions.
Activist Teachers Network (ATN) spokesperson John Morris said that despite the union officials providing the IRC with the best arguments and case possible, the IRC's decision to award senior Catholic school teachers and principals significantly more than their public sector equivalents and to accommodate to the Carr government's "cry-poor" argument, "once again demonstrates the IRC's lack of independence".
"History has shown that unions can't rely alone on industrial courts, appointed by governments, to win improvements in wages and conditions", said Morris. "The best tactic unions have is united industrial action, to press the issue when we have strong support from the public." The ATN is a rank-and-file group of teacher unionists and can be contacted through its website at <http://www.geocities.com/treaty/now/>.
From Green Left Weekly, June 23, 2004.
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