NSW teachers plan to defy order to scrap next week’s strike

The NSW Teachers Federation will defy an order from the Industrial Relations Commission to scrap next week’s strike.

The Department of Education on Monday succeeded in asking the commission to order the federation to cancel the strike,after the federation’s state council voted at the weekend to strike and hold a rally outside Parliament on December 7 for pay rises and more planning time.

However,federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said the strike would proceed. “The teacher shortages are too large and their cause,uncompetitive salaries and unmanageable workloads,too great for teachers and principals not to proceed with this action,” he said.

Teachers plan to defy an order to call off next week’s strike.

Teachers plan to defy an order to call off next week’s strike.Supplied

Negotiations over a new enterprise agreement are at a stalemate. The federation is calling for a pay rise of 5 per cent a year with an extra 2.5 per cent to recognise extra experience,as well as two more hours of planning time a week.

However,the Department of Education is curtailed by the government’s public sector wage cap,introduced amid strikes in 2011,which limits increases to 2.5 per cent a year. The policy only allows the cap to be exceeded if productivity gains are negotiated.

The department’s education secretary Georgina Harrisson said it welcomed the decision from the IRC,and encouraged the federation to follow it. The department can seek to have the federation fined if it contravenes the order. “Our kids have probably had enough disruption and we’d like to keep them in school for every day we can,” she said.

“The majority of students have had 70 days out of the classroom already,the last thing they need is the disruption of term any further.”

Ms Harrisson said the government’s wage policy applied to all frontline services that have worked tirelessly during the pandemic,ranging from teachers to health workers and police.

When asked about the claim for less face-to-face time,Ms Harrisson said the department was working on ways to reduce teachers’ administrative burden. “The last thing parents and students want to see is their teachers less,” she said.

“We would rather focus on removing that administrative load than taking away the time teachers spend with their students,that’s where the important work happens and that’s where we want to make sure teachers’ work is focused.”

Beginner teachers in NSW earn $72,263 a year compared with $75,471 for those in Queensland. Teachers in the highest paying bands will earn $107,779 in NSW compared with $108,000 to 110,000 in Queensland.

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Jordan Baker is Chief Reporter of The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously Education Editor.

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