An urgent meeting of the Independent Education Union of Australia\u2019s NSW\/ACT Branch Executive was convened today to determine an appropriate response to the NSW Government\u2019s salary cap. The NSW Teachers Federation also convened a meeting of its Executive today for the same reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 6 June, the NSW Government offered a 3% pay increase to public sector workers, including teachers, in 2022-23. However, public sector unions and their members have rejected the revised policy as it fails to stop the dramatic decline in real wages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe policy does nothing to address unsustainable workloads or staffing shortages,\u201d said IEUA NSW\/ACT Branch Secretary Mark Northam. \u201cIt still represents a real pay cut for school staff while keeping workloads at unsustainable levels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result of the Executive meetings today, a historic joint meeting of the NSW Teachers Federation and the IEUA NSW\/ACT will convene on 21 June to consider pay offers contained in the NSW budget and from Catholic employers and determine an appropriate course of action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is an extraordinary moment,\u201d said IEUA NSW\/ACT Branch Secretary Mark Northam. \u201cWe are standing shoulder-to-shoulder \u2013 fixing the education crisis in NSW demands no less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe profession is at breaking point. Staff shortages and sinking salaries mean teachers and support staff are really struggling. The COVID pandemic didn\u2019t cause this but it has certainly exacerbated it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The IEU represents 33,000 teachers, principals and support staff in the non-government sector. Since January, the union has been negotiating with Catholic employers for new enterprise agreements for teachers and support staff in Catholic diocesan schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the IEU is subject to federal industrial relations laws, the state wages policy has a direct impact on these negotiations, a point emphasised by Catholic employer representatives in all bargaining meetings. \u201cNot a cent more, nor a day before,\u201d is their long-standing refrain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The union\u2019s key claims, so far unaddressed by employers, include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00b7 pay teachers what they\u2019re worth<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00b7 give support staff a fair deal<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00b7 let teachers teach \u2013 cut paperwork<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00b7 allow time to plan \u2013 reduce the teaching load by two hours per week<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00b7 end staffing shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members in 540 Catholic systemic schools already conducted a full-day stop work on Friday 27 May. \u201cI fully support the combined unions\u2019 Executive meeting,\u201d said IEUA NSW\/ACT Branch President Christine Wilkinson. \u201cIn the face of increasing workloads, teachers and support staff are completely exhausted and need the employers to recognise and act on the extreme pressures they\u2019re facing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An urgent meeting of the Independent Education Union of Australia\u2019s NSW\/ACT Branch Executive was convened today to determine an appropriate response to the NSW Government\u2019s salary cap. The NSW Teachers Federation also convened a meeting of its Executive today for the same reason. On 6 June, the NSW Government offered a 3% pay increase to public … Continue reading “Unions call historic meeting as education crisis intensifies\u00a0“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16993,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16992\/revisions\/16993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}