Norrian Rundle
& Michael O'Reilly, Melbourne
The Australian Education Union (AEU) and the Victorian Labor government announced on April 30 that they had ended their dispute with a new wages deal for the state's 40,000 public school teachers and principals.
The draft agreement will be put to AEU members for ratification in June.
The AEU has been in dispute/negotiations with the government since lodging its log of claims early in 2003. AEU Victorian branch president Mary Bluett claims that the draft agreement is a very good outcome for teachers. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The draft agreement fails to deliver on all of the four basic demands of the "log of claims" — salary, class sizes, teaching workload and contracts.
The draft agreement only addresses salary outcomes — and poorly. It promises a 12% pay rise, but this is to be delivered over 3.5 years, or 3.2% per year.
This is nowhere near the AEU's original claim of 30% over three year, or even the recently adjusted claim of 18% over three years. It is only just above the 3% pay rise per year limit set by Premier Steve Bracks' government for all public sector workers.
The AEU leadership has accepted this poor draft agreement because the government has also agreed to make changes to teachers' superannuation. These changes will deliver some "take-home pay" increases to teachers, as superannuation payments will now be made from wages before tax is deducted.
This change means that less tax will be paid. The amount of this "tax saving" varies enormously from teacher to teacher, depending on how much they voluntarily contribute to their superannuation scheme. Those with the ability to contribute the most to their superannuation will gain the most benefit under the tax-saving exercise.
The draft agreement does not adequately address the pressing issues of class sizes and teacher workload. These are the two main issues for the majority of classroom teachers.
Under the draft agreement, class size maximums are referred to as only "targets". Teacher workload will either increase or remain unchanged under the AEU-government deal.
The proportion of contract teachers — 18% — is now the same as it was under the previous Coalition government, and is unlikely to fall as a result of the AEU-Bracks deal.
Many teachers are very angry that this agreement delivers so little. Having taken industrial action to win improved pay and conditions, they can't believe that their union leadership is accepting so little.
Is it just a coincidence that this is a federal election year and the AEU officials have invited federal ALP leader Mark Latham to address the AEU state conference in July?
[Norrian Rundle and Michael O'Reilly are members of the AEU Victorian branch and the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 5, 2004.
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