Clive Haggar, Canberra
The industrial and funding dispute between the ACT government and teachers is getting worse. After two successful stop-work meetings and rallies, ACT teachers are gearing up for more action, despite the legal hurdles imposed by Work Choices.
The June 6 budget, crafted by chief minister and treasurer Jon Stanhope, cut jobs and public services: the public school system was not immune with at least 120 secondary school teachers, 15 primary school teachers and 10 itinerant staff getting the chop as well as 90 support staff in the education department.
The Towards 2020 program, which announced the closure of 39 preschools and schools, has generated widespread fury. At public meetings the new education minister Andrew Barr claimed that the program will lift the quality of public schools and therefore enrolments. When challenged, he failed to explain how cutting teacher numbers will improve the public education system, which already has less than 60% of total student numbers.
The Australian Education Union (AEU) has rejected Towards 2020 and called for a moratorium on closures until 2008 to allow for a public inquiry into education services.
The teachers' salary dispute also remains unresolved. In return for a wage rise of 4% per annum over three years, the teaching workforce is expected to increase teaching contact hours by two hours per week in secondary schools and 15 minutes in primary schools, and absorb the loss of the positions. In secondary schools, the loss of 120 teaching positions equates to some 10% of the workforce. Apart from the extra teaching, the workload of teachers — particularly in secondary schools — will increase through additional preparation, assessment, supervision and other administrative and curriculum duties.
The savings made by the proposed cuts will produce revenue beyond that required to fund the wage rise of 4% per annum. This money will be added to savings generated by a reduction in ACT government superannuation contributions to new entrants from 15.4% to 9% per annum. This change to superannuation entitlements is a wage cut of some 6.4% for new employees.
Many ACT private schools offer employer superannuation contributions in excess of 9% per annum, and will pay higher salaries to teachers than those offered by the ACT government from this month. The AEU has highlighted the difficulty the public school system will face in recruiting when the private sector will be paying higher wages and superannuation. The differential could be as high as 10% in total remuneration. Similar recruitment difficulties will be faced by the ACT public sector as employment conditions deteriorate in comparison to the Commonwealth public service.
The cut in teacher numbers in secondary schools will put the ACT on par with Tasmania, the state with the worst school retention rates and the worst secondary staff to student ratio in the country.
Barr maintains that the cuts to teaching positions will happen by natural attrition. This would mean no new secondary staff for 2007, and it would lead to shortfalls in specific curriculum expertise as experienced teachers retire or resign. Past experience has shown that "natural attrition" rarely results in a loss of staff only from areas where there is sufficient (or excess) expertise. The AEU is concerned that failure to recruit because jobs are being shed could lead to a lack of qualified teachers in some subject areas.
The ACT government has decided to target education, health and other community services to deal with the expected budget deficits for the next three years. This will mean increasing fees at the Canberra Institute of Technology by 30% at a time of major skill shortages. Chief minister Jon Stanhope believe this action, more than two years before the next election, will shore up his government's economic credentials. But this is a significant gamble given the disruption in the ACT public sector, particularly in education.
One irony in the dispute with the AEU and other public sector unions is the ACT government's use of the new IR laws. Formerly outspoken critics, the ACT government is now refusing to negotiate on reductions to superannuation, low level wage increases, staff cuts and increases in workload. Avenues for unions to negotiate on behalf of their members have been severely limited by Work Choices. Options to defend existing job numbers and conditions are restricted to direct industrial action that takes weeks to put in place. No capacity exists for the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to force the government to negotiate, or for the AIRC determine a settlement.
The ACT government's failure to settle the wage dispute and its cuts to teaching numbers have prompted the AEU to organise an industrial campaign. Using provisions under Work Choices, the AEU is conducting a second postal ballot of members for more industrial action for a wage rise. The AEU's council has now rejected three government offers, the third because of its insistence on job losses and cuts to conditions in return for the 4% per annum increase. Such an increase is already being paid without trade-offs for government school teachers interstate and in ACT Catholic schools.
If teachers support the next ballot for industrial action, the first of what could be a continuing series of work stoppages could take place towards the middle of term three.
[Clive Haggar is the secretary of the Australian Education Union, ACT branch.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, July 19, 2006.
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