While the NSW teachers have won some concessions, they are continuing to campaign against the state government's abandonment of the state-wide staffing transfer system. The NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) decided at its June 14 state council meeting on a two-hour stopwork the week beginning August 25.
While the NSW teachers have won some concessions, they are continuing to campaign against the state government's abandonment of the state-wide staffing transfer system. The NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) decided at its June 14 state council meeting on a two-hour stopwork the week beginning August 25.
The teachers' campaign has managed to pressure the Department of Education (DET) to rescind its decision to exclude union representation on interview panels for promotions in schools. All executive and principal positions will now include a teacher representative chosen by the teaching staff at the school in which a vacancy appears.
The NSWTF is arguing that the staff representative should be the federation representative, or women's contact representative, who is trained in their procedures of panel interviews. Schools are being asked to hold meetings to affirm the federation's position.
But DET has unilaterally implemented another retrograde change. Under the new system in the event of a vacancy in a school where a school chooses to fill a classroom teacher position from the employment list, the service transfer list or through advertisement, the service transfer applicant who matches the position and who has the highest number of transfer points will be "invited" to apply for the position with a guarantee that they will be granted an interview.
Before the abolition of the state-wide transfer system, teachers who had served in difficult-to-staff areas, regional, rural and isolated areas and who were eligible for transfer were guaranteed a transfer, not just an interview.
Interviews are also to be conducted in out-of-school hours. This means that if a teacher serving in the far-west of NSW wishes to work in a metropolitan Sydney or coastal school, they would need to take time off from their teaching, make travel and accommodation arrangements and incur the costs.
There has been no discussion about the reimbursement of costs if the applicant is unsuccessful because the principal already had another candidate in mind.
Public schools across the Canterbury-Bankstown and St George Teachers Associations held protests at their schools on June 26 in opposition to the Iemma government's imposed staffing procedures and in protest at the failure of local MPs to meet with teachers and parents. The teachers were joined by supportive parents and students.
Leeander Smith, organiser for the two teacher associations said that she was seeking to meet the following MPs to discuss the staffing dispute: Barbara Perry in Auburn; Linda Burney in Canterbury; Tony Stewart in Bankstown; Alan Ashton in East Hills; Joseph Tripodi in Fairfield; Morris Iemma in Lakemba; Cherie Burton in Kogarah; Kevin Greene in Oatley; and Frank Sartor in Rockdale.
She said that parents and teachers from Wiley Park Girls High School have repeatedly requested a meeting with their local MP, NSW Premier Morris Iemma, to no avail.
Teachers are concerned that in the absence of a staffing agreement negotiated by their union, that more changes will be imposed at the discretion of the education minister.
The union and DET were in the Industrial Relations Commission on June 18. They also met June 20. No agreement was reached.
At the state council on June 14, more than 300 delegates voted in favour of a two-hour stop work to attend state-wide sky channel meetings the week beginning August 25. The exact date will likely be determined at the NSWTF annual conference, July 6-8.
An update on the staffing dispute and a report about the salary campaign will be given to the stopwork meetings. The bargaining period is open and the union has approached the acting minister, John Hatzistergos, to affirm their claim of 5% per year over three years, as well as a 1% increase in superannuation. On June 24, teachers at Kingsgrove High School condemned Treasurer Costa's wage cap of 2.5% for public sector workers. Teachers also expressed their support for a public-sector wide industrial action for wage justice.
[Noreen Navin is the vice-president of the Canterbury Bankstown Teachers Association.]