The NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) has called on its members to stop work for two hours on May 18. The union says it has made the decision because “the future of public education in NSW is at stake”.
The federation said: “The purpose of the [stop work] meetings will be to hear detailed reports on the very serious impact that Local Schools, Local Decisions and other state government policies will have on working conditions, student learning opportunities and the resourcing of our schools.”
It says the stop work action is needed because the NSW government has failed to promise teachers planned changes to the education system will not impact badly on staff levels, class sizes, job security and teachers salaries.
Local School, Local Decisions is the name the government has given to its planned restructure of the NSW Department of Education.
The NSWTF said on May 10 that Local School, Local Decisions, “aims to allow schools to replace permanent positions with temporary appointments, to cash-in or trade-off the positions of classroom teachers, specialist teachers and executives, and to replace the state-wide staffing formulae with a local staffing budget”.
The NSWTF asked the state government to give guarantees by May 11 that it would not undermine teachers’ salaries and conditions, and that it would keep existing teaching conditions in place.
The government’s failure to respond prompted the federation to call the May 18 stop work.
