Teachers tackle tough conditions

Exactly 57 TAFE teachers from across the State rallied outside Minister for Education and Training Verity Firth’s office on Glebe Point Road last Friday to protest against an increase to workloads by 57 hours a year.

Protestors from as far as Broken Hill and Tweed Heads said that such an increase in hours for fulltime and temporary staff would cause many part-time teachers to lose their jobs, or to walk away due to decreased hours.

The proposed increase in hours is part of salary negotiations between the NSW Teachers Federation and the Rees Government, which would see a 12.5 per cent increase in pay over the next three years.

“Alot of people will walk away because they can’t live on those less hours, which means that there’s going to be an even further increase in teaching on the fulltime teachers, making their workload unbearable, making them less available to their students outside of class and deteriorating working conditions,” said Terri Quinlan, a NSW TAFE Teachers Association spokesperson.

A NSW Teachers Federation survey last year showed that 70 per cent of the State’s part-time TAFE educators relied on teaching as their sole source of income.

Other concessions would include reduced student consultation hours and the loss of an hour a week of professional development – previously negotiated for at the cost of a 3 per cent salary increase.

NSW TAFE Teachers Association President Rob Long said that working conditions needed to be made more desirable to attract staff as there was already a shortage of permanent teachers.

“There’s been a massive increase in retirements over the last three years. These people haven’t been replaced. So we have a reduced number of permanents now and an increased workload is already happening,” said Mr Long.

“What this will mean is reduced hours for teachers to get access to students outside of class, reduced access to quality planning and lesson preparation and a reduced quality in the level of education provisions.”

A spokesperson for Verity Firth failed to respond by the time The City News went to print.
Teachers at Wollongong TAFE will go on strike Wednesday June 17 to protest against the proposed changes, and another rally will be held at Ultimo TAFE on June 24.

“We’ll continue until there’s a resolution,” said Long.