Teachers to Strike

Date: 14 April 2000

"At Sky Channel meetings throughout the State today, the membership overwhelmingly endorsed the recommendation from the Federation Executive.

"By 2.30 p.m. the vote was 19,671 in favour 842 against with 330 abstentions. This means that over 20,000 teachers attended the meetings and endorsed the Executive recommendation.

"In voting this way the membership is sending a clear message to the Government. They are prepared to accept the pay rates and the date of payment but only if the unacceptable strings attached to the pay increases are removed.

"Those aspects of the Government's offer of the 12 April, which the membership has clearly stated are unacceptable, and which stand in the way of a settlement are:
· The provision of genuine pay equity provisions for casual school and TAFE part-time teachers.
· School and TAFE teachers' entitlements and the need for teacher agreement associated with working outside the normal span of hours of school.
· The circumstances under which TAFE teachers could teach in schools and school teachers could teach in TAFE.
· The exercise of teacher professional judgement on matters of teacher, school and system accountability.
· Maintenance of current workload for TAFE teachers and recognition that Annual Student Contact Hours targets are not a basis for quality educational provision.
· Acceptable provisions regarding staffing formulae, resourcing and working conditions in collegiate groups.
· Ensuring that TAFE teachers at the top of the incremental scale are not disadvantaged.
· The duration and the final form of settlement of any agreement.

"The Teachers' Federation is ready to continue negotiations over the school holidays with the hope of reaching a settlement before the commencement of second term. If a settlement is not reached by then teachers have declared their willingness to withdraw their goodwill and will only complete work associated with their 'normal' time-tabled classes through preparation, delivery, marking and feedback. Only compulsory excursions to meet syllabus requirements will take place.

"Today the membership also voted in favour of a strike for 24 hours on Thursday 4 May.

"While we hope that the withdrawal of goodwill and industrial action will be unnecessary, the membership has spoken very clearly. We urge the Government to take note of the way the Catholic school authorities dealt with their employees", said Ms Simpson.

For further information, please contact:
Ms S Simpson, President, NSWTF (w) (02) 9.217.2100 (h) (02) 9.588.5432 (m) 0419.294.255
Mr J Hughes, Media Officer, NSWTF (w) (02) 9.217.2100 (h) (02) 9.569.2721 (m) 0418.423.834

For further information

Contact:	John Hughes
Union:	NSW Teachers Federation
Phone:	0418 423834
WWW:	http://www.nswtf.org.au/

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