By Ben Courtice
HOBART — The Tasmanian branch of the Australian Education Union, having spent more than a year campaigning for a wage rise, has restarted negotiations under the new federal industrial relations legislation for a 22.26% rise. Because the federal government has refused to put transitional arrangements into the Workplace Relations Act, processing a claim under previous laws would risk a legal challenge by the state government.
The 1996 campaign involved nine months of rolling strikes. AEU state president Penny Cocker has not ruled out industrial action again, although she says that the union is not planning it at this stage.
The state government has repeated its previous offer of a 9.1% rise, or 9.7% with trade-offs. While the union is not opposed to trade-offs in principle, it opposes any that will impact adversely on members' conditions. The rise being offered by the government is significantly less than rises teachers are receiving in most other states. Following South Australian teachers' recent wage campaign victory, Tasmanian teachers are the worst paid in Australia.
Mike Dutta from the breakaway Association of Professional Teachers has called on the AEU to avoid strike action and has suggested that any pay rise over 10% would be acceptable. The APT was formed last year by some teachers at Hobart College in opposition to the industrial action that the AEU was taking.
Chris Lane from the AEU told Green Left that while members were only informed of the new direction in the campaign when they returned to work on February 10, there had been no complaints. The AEU's members were overwhelmingly in favour of the 22% claim, he said.
The Industrial Relations Commission is also expected to decide this month on the Health and Community Services Union's claim for a wage rise of 10% or $50 — whichever is higher — for non-nursing staff. HACSU is continuing with its case, rather than restarting it under the new legislation. It is able to do this because hearings have been completed and the legislation cannot retrospectively be applied. The IRC is currently deciding whether to make its decision under the new legislation or the old and has asked for a submission on this from HACSU.