Telegraph Smears Teachers' Union

Date: 15 March 2000

The Daily Telegraph has attacked teachers and the Teachers Federation in a series of sensationalist front-page stories

The stories consist of distortions and half-truths. At its worst, information published in the Telegraph is simply untrue.

Primary teachers do not "do 14 hours and 40 minutes face to face teaching a week" as the Telegraph claims. If this were true, primary teachers would teach less than three hours per day. The claim is as silly as it sounds. The face to face load of primary teachers is 21 hours and 45 minutes.

There have not been 20 days of strikes in the past 12 months.

Claims about sick leave, holidays and salary increments are grossly misleading.

Sick leave provisions for teachers are generous in some aspects but not in others. Many public servants receive less annual sick leave than teachers but have a far more generous accumulation factor.

Teacher's "11 weeks holidays" include virtually all public holidays. Many workers now receive flexi-days or rostered days off.

Teachers who work on a permanent part time basis receive proportionate pay for the time they work. The same is true of those in the four for five scheme. There is no compensation for the additional time PPT teachers spend at staff meetings and other duties.

Moving costs are only available after a qualifying period of five years.

Incremental salary progression only applies to classroom teachers in their early years of teaching. Tens of thousands of senior teachers and teachers in promotion positions do not receive annual increments.

The front-page story and the lead editorial make much of unnamed teachers who fear vilification if they speak out against the Federation. Teachers who read the Federation journal "Education" or who attend the open meetings of the Federation Council know that there are many teachers who regularly speak out when they believe their union is on the wrong track. Where is the Telegraph's evidence of vilification? Where is the Telegraph's concern for teachers vilified because they support their union?

The Telegraph's list of Federation bans includes bans which were part of the salaries campaign, bans which were imposed on educational grounds, bans which have been lifted and even bans which were never imposed. The plethora of new departmental programs, policies, procedures and curriculum documents implemented by teachers is ignored by the Telegraph. Federation involvement in a vast range of Departmental committees is similarly ignored.

The Telegraph attacks the Federation's leaders. Unlike DET bureaucrats and self appointed media experts, the Federation Council, Senior Officers and Annual Conference Delegates are directly elected by teachers in postal ballots conducted by the NSW Electoral Commission.

The question of who is behind this smear campaign is an interesting puzzle. Who has the most to gain, DET bureaucrats hoping to torpedo negotiations with the minister or Labor Party head-kickers seeking to punish the Federation for failing to follow the party line?

For further information

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

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