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NEWSLETTERSCHOOLS SECTORSUPPLEMENT TO THE AEU NEWS • MAY 2012

Time for action

Meredith Peace deputy president

AS WE go to print, Fair Work Australia is hearing our application for a protected action ballot. Once

granted, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) will prepare the voter list.

We expect the ballot to begin around May 10 and remain open for a couple of weeks. The proposed question members will be asked is:

In support of reaching an enterprise agreement, do you endorse taking protected industrial action in the form of an unlimited number of statewide or

regional or sub-branch stoppages of work of 1 to 24 hours in duration, or bans or limitations on the manner in which work is undertaken?This covers all bases, meaning we won’t need to

conduct a further ballot. Most importantly, it gives AEU Council the flexibility to develop a broad-ranging, strong and sustainable campaign in the event of a long battle — as we expect, given the experiences of other public-sector unions such as the nurses.

Bans and limitations are a strategy we could not use in our last campaign, under Howard’s Work-Choices. They give us a greater capacity to take aim

at the Government rather than students or parents.To vote, teachers and principals must be financial

members of the AEU and current employees of the Education Department. CRT members are not eligible to vote as they are employed by school councils or agencies, not the Department.

Once the ballot result has been declared, we can take any of the forms of industrial action covered by the ballot question. The first action must be within 30 days of the declaration or the ballot will lapse.

Joint Primary and Secondary Council will meet on May 4 to determine the first industrial action and what will follow. It is highly likely we will start our campaign with a 24-hour stopwork in early June, allowing members to come together to hear a report on negotiations and determine future action. ◆

Baillieu’s attempts to cut incremental progression and impose payment by results is the ultimate insult to teachers.

About the ballotWe must send a strong message that teachers are united.

Mary Bluett branch president

NEGOTIATIONS between the AEU and the Baillieu Government broke down on April 19.

It followed the AEU Council’s decision to set a deadline for agreement or significant progress on the key issues of salaries, contract employment, workload and class sizes.

After eight months of negotiations, no significant progress had been made on these central concerns.

Another broken promiseIn April 2008, Ted Baillieu launched the Liberal Party State Conference with a pledge that under a Baillieu Coalition government Victorian teachers would be the highest paid at their level in Australia.

He was passionate about the quality of teaching in Victoria and the need to pay teachers accordingly. He stressed that teachers were key to the economic future of this state.

The Coalition maintained this position at the 2010 state election. After the election, the new Minister for

the Teaching Profession, Peter Hall, reiterated his government’s commitment on pay.

Fast forward to 2012 and every-thing has changed.

The Government’s position, put simply, is that teachers and principals are underper-forming and this can only be addressed by perform-ance pay regimes and restrictions on incremental progression.

This is the ultimate insult. Victoria is Australia’s highest performing state on most education measures and sits second or third on the rest. All of this despite Victoria’s state schools receiving the

lowest funding of any state or territory.The 2.5% offer is an insult given the

cost of living is running at 3% — it amounts to an effective pay cut.

In the coming days you will receive a ballot paper for protected industrial

action.It is critical that all AEU members vote for

action and commit to that action when it occurs.

This Government promised to make all Victorian teachers the highest paid. It has not only reneged on this promise but believes that only performance pay for teachers and principals will improve student performance.

The time for action is now. ◆

Rhetoric versus realityTop of the scale salaries in Western Australia and New South Wales compared with Victoria, after our 2.75% pay rise in January.

VIC NSW WA

Beginning 56,984 58,250 58,216

Gap $1,266 (2.22%) $1,232 (2.16%)

Top 84,056 86,878 91,497

Gap $2,822 (3.36%) $7,441 (8.85%)

2 Schools newsletter | may 2012

ES membersTHIS current dispute concerns the schools agreement for teachers and

principals. Negotiations have only just begun for a new ES agreement; the department has tabled its response to our log of claims and we are working through the clauses to determine where we agree.

ES members cannot vote in this ballot as they are not covered by the teachers and principals’ agreement. This also means that ES members cannot participate in industrial action.

However, the support of ES members will be as important as ever. Any progress in this dispute should help in the ES negotiations — and if we end up in a protracted dispute all AEU members will need to support each other as we fight for what is fair and reasonable. ◆

Are your membership details up to date? To ensure you receive a ballot, your name and address on our records must match your name and address on the depart-ment’s database.

Go to www.aeuvic.asn.au/update to check and update your details. You should also check and update your personal details on eduPay, which can now be accessed from home.

Despite months of negotiation, a gulf separates the AEU and the Government on issues from pay to progression.

Why you must voteA STRONG return in this ballot is essential. At least 50% of eligible voters

must vote in order for the ballot to be valid; and at least 50% plus one must vote “Yes” to allow us to take protected (legal) action in accordance with the ballot question.

This is the first opportunity members will have to send a strong message to the Baillieu Government. A strong turnout lets the Government know we are unhappy with progress so far and angry enough to take industrial action. It will let the public know that this Government doesn’t value its teachers or principals.

Members must vote in this ballot and commit to participating in our campaign — a strong voter turnout and a strong campaign will be crucial to our success.

MAKE SUREYOU VOTE

Only a 50%+ turnout will be valid

The Government’s agenda

Brian Henderson branch secretary

SalariesNo change to initial offer of 2.5% with further increases from bankable dollar savings. This means either more hours of teaching, or larger class sizes and fewer teachers.

Career structureNo agreement. The Government seeks to get rid of increments for principal class and have a single broad band structure.

It also proposes to introduce a Certified Learning Specialist at the same level as a leading teacher; teachers would pay to go through a national accreditation process run by AITSL and then apply for advertised positions. No additional money will be provided to schools to advertise these positions.

The Government proposes to increase the 11-point scale to 12 points, delaying progress to the top of the scale by at least one year. Most states and territories have a nine-point scale.

Performance payThe Government’s priority. For principals, each region would have a fixed pool of money, allocated by the regional director. For teachers, principals would allocate performance pay from a fixed pool of money to 70% of eligible teachers, in three tiers of 10%, 6% and 1.4%.

Contract employmentThere has been some movement on a more effective monitoring system of schools, but the Government wants to abolish the limited criteria that fixed-term positions must meet.

The AEU claim would see employees translated to ongoing after three years in one school; in response, the department has reluctantly proposed five years.

WorkloadThe Government proposes to increase secondary teachers’ face-to-face teaching by an average one hour per week, with status quo for primary teachers, in response to the AEU claim for a cut in workload. The Government says our claim is a cost item.

The Government proposes a workload index to establish the working conditions of all teachers. It also seeks to increase other duties by making the additional three hours of attendance a single block for the principal to determine without the need to consult and reach agreement on the duties under-taken in the third hour.

ConsultationThis area had looked the most promising for agreement. However, at the last meeting the Government reneged on its positions already agreed by its negotiators to fall in line with Minister Martin Dixon’s policy of “default autonomy” for schools.

At its most basic this means that the department and union cannot agree on an outcome to a sub-branch grievance unless the principal also agrees. Without such agreement either party can refer the matter to Fair Work Australia (FWA). School-level disputes would end up in time-consuming proceed-ings at FWA. Nearly every dispute is now resolved centrally if school-based conciliation fails.

ProductivityThe AEU has proposed several service improve-ments but we have not proposed bankable savings as Victorian public

education is already the lowest funded system in Australia, according to the Productivity Commis-sion. Any productivity savings mean fewer teachers employed.

The Government has proposed a number of savings — not to cover higher salaries, but to fund its key objective of performance pay.

The most objectionable of these is an 80% statewide target on the proportion of eligible teachers receiving salary progression each year. The Government argues that, as 99.9% of teachers increment each year, the system lacks rigour.

The Government intends to enforce its target through principal performance pay, setting principals against teachers. This would effectively destroy collegiality in schools and cause great division.

The increase in secondary teachers’ face-to-face teaching time would also cut about 1000 teaching positions from schools, including the non-renewal of teachers on contract. The consequences for other teachers would be a cut in time allowances for vital tasks such as coordination of student welfare, careers and learning areas, and cuts in leading teacher time allowances.◆