For the second time this year, IEU and NSW Teachers Federation members stood shoulder-to-shoulder, this time outside the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (NSWIRC) at Parramatta, ahead of a hearing on the award application for government school teachers on Wednesday 12 October.
The previous day, the IEU was granted leave by the NSWIRC to intervene in this hearing. Even though Catholic employers are not bound by the NSWIRC’s decisions for government school teachers, they’ve long imposed the same on their own teachers and support staff.
This granting of leave by the Full Bench of the NSWIRC was a recognition of the broader impact of its decision on teachers throughout the state.
“What we did in the hearing room yesterday was quite extraordinary,” IEUA NSW/ACT Branch Secretary Mark Northam said to the rally on Wednesday 12 October.
“We wanted to get into this hearing because there's an inextricable link between state school teacher salary outcomes and Catholic systemic teacher outcomes.
“We'll be pushing and shoving right along with you [NSW Teachers Federation] because what you get is what we get,” Northam said. “Our offer looks like your offer – it’s 2.53% all the way. And like you, we say no.”
Salaries are not the only issue, but they are a key element of the broken system that exacerbates teacher shortages across all sectors of education (government and non-government) in NSW and the ACT.
“This shortage of teachers is a real crisis,” Northam said. “The teachers know it. The students know it. The parents know it. The school communities right across NSW and the ACT know it. We have to rectify it, and this union wants to be part of the solution.”
A government school principal from south-west Sydney spoke to the rally: “Teachers need to be valued. We live to teach. But we need to be able to teach to live. So we’ve got to fix the shortages, fix the workload and fix the wages.”
NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos said: “We have a crisis – a crisis that has been brought to us courtesy of a government that’s proven itself unwilling to tackle the underlying issues that have led to the teacher shortages today.
“And we have a very clear message to this government. We aren’t going away. We're not giving up. Not now, not ever. This is too important. Stay strong.”
Following the rally, the NSWIRC Full Bench held a full-day hearing on the award application with submissions made by the NSW Teachers Federation, the NSW Department of Education and the IEU.
The IEU’s Barrister, Anthony Howell, said after the hearing: “We largely supported the position of the NSW Teachers Federation but raised two matters in the broader public interest which the union considered important enough to put before the Full Bench.
“The NSW Government’s wages claim would result in lower-than-inflation wage increases for those bound by the award,” he said. “It was important we be heard on that and that the Full Bench understand its decision might extend beyond just those bound and include those who are in the [Catholic systemic] school system.”
Howell also raised teacher shortages. “We’d say to the Full Bench that it’s well known there’s a shortage of teachers in NSW. Some have called it a crisis – with good reason. Suppressing wage increases to below inflation levels is unlikely to do anything to help that position and, frankly, might make it worse.”
The NSWIRC will now consider arguments and submissions put before it and produce a written decision over the next two to three months. However, Catholic systemic employers are free to meet with the IEU and resolve matters sooner. “Our door is open,” said Northam. “Let’s work this out.”
More on October 12 Day of Action
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns at IEU AGM,
