Teachers & Educators Collective Bargaining

Update 12 (23 October 2007)

Government Intractable on School Development Days 

Representatives of the Government’s negotiating team have said the Government will not compromise on the school development days which will be mandatory for teachers to undertake prior to students returning to school at the commencement of semesters one and two.

The Government argues that the school development days are necessary because the current practice of a gazetted pupil-free day at the beginning of each semester is unacceptable to the broader community.  For schools to be ready for the beginning for the semester, staff need time for necessary professional development and preparation.

Teachers and Educators will be on duty for three days prior to students returning to school from the Christmas break, and for two days in the week prior to students returning to school from the mid-year break.  In order to make this happen legally, the last two weeks of the Christmas break, which is currently recreation leave, will be converted into stand-down. The first two weeks of the mid-year stand-down will be converted to recreation leave.

The AEU-NT has committed itself to no trade-offs of current conditions in negotiating this Agreement.  The loss of five days’ stand-down leave is a profound erosion of current teaching conditions.  For the purposes of recruitment and retention of teachers in the Territory, as well as equity of working conditions across other areas of the NTPS, current leave allowances must be maintained.

Log of Claims Revisited

While the majority of the Log of Claims was rejected in the Government’s initial offer, the AEU-NT wishes to continue to contest the following areas:

·           Reimbursement of Freight allowance – Without freight reimbursement, the Government’s offer of an increased Professional Isolation Allowance is, in many cases, a cut to the current remote cash incentive.  However, the Government representatives have said they are having another look at the freight allowance, and there could be a better response to this issue.

·           Smaller Class Sizes – The Government reminded the AEU-NT that there was a significant reduction in class sizes in the last Agreement.  The AEU-NT continues to argue that the 27 class size is still too high and that many NT classrooms simply cannot accommodate 27 students.

·           Increase in ERT Salary – Currently ERT’s receive a T5 + 25%.  At the moment, the Government is offering T5 + 20%, a significant cut.  Our claim is for T7 + 30% or the substantive level + 30%, whichever is higher.

·           Above-Establishment Support Officers – IT support, Teacher Librarians, Teacher’s Aid in transition classes, Careers and Guidance Counsellors, and Special Needs Support should be all deemed outside the staffing formula.  The Government argues that anything to do with staffing formula is outside the scope of an Industrial Agreement and won’t entertain any such changes being developed during industrial negotiations.

·           Greater Support for Neophyte Teachers

The AEU-NT continues to negotiate for further consideration by the Government of major elements of our Log of Claims.