‘Show us some respect’: stop-work action to take place across three days

By EducationHQ News Team
Published 1 hour, 48 minutes ago

Teachers in Tasmania’s public schools will commence staggered strikes across three consecutive days next week, as the Rockliff Government faces continuing pressure over the state’s prolonged pay dispute.

All AEU members will take 24-hour stop work action next week if the Rockliff Government “doesn't deliver a quality offer that addresses the serious issues we're facing”, the union says.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) said rolling 24-hour stoppages will start on Tuesday (March 24) on the north-west coast, followed by the north (in and around Launceston) on Wednesday (March 25) and the south on Thursday (March 26).

“We demand that by this Friday we see a quality deal on the table that shows respect to our teachers, our psychologists and our education support specialists,” AEU Tasmania branch president David Genford said earlier this week.

Embattled Education Minister Jo Palmer has not confirmed whether a new offer will be made, however negotiations are ongoing.

Palmer has drawn the ire of the union this week by using non-union affiliated staff to attempt to continue rolling out NAPLAN testing after a work ban was put in place last week, with teachers refusing to administer NAPLAN tests to students.

The ban includes not administering or supporting NAPLAN assessments, no NAPLAN practice or preparation and no covering of any classes to help facilitate them.

Tasmanian students were set to start the tests from last Wednesday, with the testing window open from March 11 to March 23.

However, the Department said 70 schools and more than 60 per cent of eligible students have commenced testing.

“We wanted to do everything we could to support principals who were trying to roll out NAPLAN,” Palmer said in Parliament this week.

The AEU said it was ‘disgusted’ by the move, and that delivering the assessment while the ban is in place has “done little more than cause chaos in schools”.

“There are complex needs of young people when it comes to testing regimes,” AEU Tasmania branch state manager Brian Wightman told Seven News Tasmania.

“So adjustments would need to have been made.”

Genford said staff are being disrespected and warned further action is likely, while the Government maintains that it is bargaining in good faith.

Wightman said the government’s offer needs to provide workload solutions, violence in schools solutions and parity with what’s been offered to the state’s fellow public servants, the police.

Other bans in place at present for AEU members include no identifying, recording or reporting of staff participation in industrial action, principals not monitoring, recording, or reporting industrial activity and no assisting in the creation of or distribution of Department promotional activities.

The union said the bans have been mainly to ensure members are protected against unsafe workloads, they are creating public awareness of the harm being done by the Rockliff Government, they apply pressure on the Government, while minimising disruption to students and have allowed for further escalation, if necessary.