The Teachers Professional Association of Australia (TPAA) has announced it will be ‘at the bargaining table’ in the Victorian Government Schools Agreement, with national secretary Edward Schuller saying the association is “emboldened” to represent its growing membership down south.  

TPAA is a part of the Red Union Support Hub, a group of independent professional associations. They are not registered as traditional trade unions, which means they lack the same powers to represent workers but avoid tight oversight from industrial regulators.

Schuller said that without union competition, Victorian teachers have for years been let down by the AEU.

Real wages have gone backwards and working conditions in schools have only worsened, he added.

“Victoria is often the state that gets the most attention about how poor education is, particularly across the government system,” Schuller told EducationHQ.

“Teachers are paid the least in Victoria, than I believe in any mainland state, certainly comparable eastern seaboard ones.

“So, it’s a dire situation in Victoria.”

Reform is the only way that educators will now “get what they deserve”, especially given the “absolute circus” that is the Victorian budget, Schuller argued.  

“So, we are putting forward a bold reform agenda, which will allow for a 43 per cent pay rise whilst not further bankrupting the state,” he said.

“And [people will] say a lot of the time, ‘well, that’s not really a responsibility of the union, why are you even thinking about that?’

“Well, first of all, you have to be realistic – and I am fearful that without bold reform, teachers are going to end up with the same 8 per cent to 10 per cent (pay increase) over the course of the agreement that they’ve got over the last consecutive years.”

A huge hurdle to overcome is the Allan Government’s 3 per cent wage cap policy which applies across all sectors of the public service, Schuller notes. Too few teachers are aware of this sticking point, he added.

“That [cap is] going to have to be repealed, or at least abolished, for the teachers’ agreement for either [the AEU or the TPAA] to achieve what we’re wanting.

“The [AEU] have to be honest with this as well. Nothing will change until that 3 per wage cap policy is scrapped, or there has to be an exemption for education…”

The TPAA has written to Premier Jacinta Allan on this point, as well as opposition leader Brad Battin, Schuller reported.

An initial meeting with State Government officials took place last week in Melbourne, Schuller said, where TPAA established an office earlier this year.

But Professor Emeritus David Peetz from Griffith University said he doubts the TPAA will have influence at the bargaining table. 

“I don’t think what they’re doing would have the slightest impact on the outcome for teachers in Victoria,” the labour policy expert told EducationHQ. 

The call for a 43 per cent wage increase is unlikely to be taken seriously, Peetz said. 

“You can imagine what the Liberal Party would say if a union succeeded in getting a 43 per cent wage increase, or even if they were seriously demanding it.

“I can’t see anybody in the Victorian Government, anybody on the employer side, taking that claim seriously. I find it hard to believe that anything that would be in a log of claims of theirs would end up in an agreement as a result of their actions.”

Peetz argued that the ideological origins of TPAA essentially discount it from “ever achieving anything” with government employers. 

“It’s one thing to represent somebody in an unfair dismissal case where pretty much anybody can represent you, but it’s another thing altogether to actually have an impact on wage outcomes through collective bargaining, when the ability to get the wage outcomes a union wants depends upon the strength of its numbers and its ability to organise industrial action.

“The philosophy behind TPAA, the people behind this body, are basically antagonistic to collective action, so it’s almost by definition they rule themselves out of ever achieving anything…” he contended. 

Peetz said Red Unions are “totally antagonisic towards the goals of trade unions generally”.

“So, this is really just an attempt to try to get people to switch their allegiance from a union to an entity that isn’t really interested in union objectives, but is inclined to take some membership away from them, I guess,” he said. 

Professor Emeritus David Peetz says Red Unions are “totally antagonisic towards the goals of trade unions generally”. PHOTO: Breeana Dunbar.

Schuller said there would be no need for the TPAA to exist if teachers didn’t feel let down by the ‘entrenched failure’ of the AEU over such a long period of time.

He argued that competitive unionism is now the only way forward for Victoria’s teachers, and said from the hundreds he’s spoken to, the appetite for change and alternative representation at the bargaining table is palpable.

“We’re very excited for that. Teachers are excited for it. We’re getting more and more members, every single week we’re growing in Victoria…”

A key demand from TPAA is that individual school principals be handed greater powers to manage student behaviour and disciplinary action.

Schuller maintains handing Victoria’s school leaders more autonomy is the only way the state’s student behaviour problem can be addressed at a local level.

“With all of the departmental policies, principals having their hands tied, because it’s essentially a bureaucrat in an office far removed from the consequences of their decision [has] resulted in some really out of touch decisions around student discipline.

“It’s resulted in repeat-offending children in classes, still a threat and danger to their peers, to teachers who are increasingly getting attacked, and to principals, of course.

“Principals need the autonomy to do their job, and if that means suspensions, if that means expulsions, then that is their prerogative.”

For too long we’ve taken a nice, soft approach to student behaviour – and it hasn’t worked, Schuller maintained.

“Student behaviour has got worse. We need to rely on our local principals, who know a hell of a lot more than, again, a far-removed bureaucrat in Melbourne’s CBD.”

He said these powers could be given to principals ‘at the drop of a hat’.

“It’s just a matter of will from the Government, so we want those protections in there.”

The TPAA is also backing a controversial claim to protect teachers who oppose teaching ‘transgender ideology’ in the classroom from backlash.

“This is one that was raised by our members all across Australia, but in Victoria in particular.

“We’ve seen this in the news lately, that children as young as five are being taught about the fact that they might be in the wrong body,” Schuller said.

He noted a TPAA survey of its teacher members found 91 per cent are not in favour of having ‘transgender ideology’ in schools at all.

“…you’re asking teachers to go along with something which has become the established norm within a very small sector of society.

“And unfortunately, those are the people that are pulling their levers inside the education department, inside the Victorian Government.”

Last month more than 1800 parents and grandparents signed a letter penned by the Australian Christian Lobby to Premier Jacinta Allan, calling for “dangerous” gender-identity policies to be scrapped in schools and an ‘overhaul’ of sex education, the Herald Sun reported in an exclusive.

The Victorian Government has also faced criticism recently over the Respectful Relationships program used in schools.

Allan has strongly defended the program and shut down concerns that there was a “pipeline” from schools to gender clinics where some can access irreversible surgeries.

“It’s disgraceful, nonsense,” Allan said at the time.

“I back the Respectful Relationships program and the curriculum, that is all about protecting kids, strengthening resilience of kids, and supporting kids to be who they are across our schools, to help other kids understand why respecting difference is so important.”

The Government has addressed a number of ‘myths and facts’ about the program here.