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SUPPLEMENT TO THE AEU NEWS • MAY 2012

A E U h e a d o f f i c e 112 Tr e n e r r y C r e s c e n t , A b b o t s f o r d 3 0 6 7 Te l : 0 3 9 417 2 8 2 2 Fa x : 13 0 0 6 5 8 0 7 8 We b : w w w. a e u v i c . a s n . a u

SECONDARY SECTORNEWSLETTERJune 7: BE THEREEBA

2012

schools

Mary Bluett branch president

TED Baillieu promised to make Victorian teachers the highest paid in the nation. Not once. Not twice. Many times, including at his 2010 election campaign

launch. Even after the election, Minister for the Teaching Profession Peter Hall confirmed the pledge to make us the highest paid. He also said he was committed to significantly reducing the unacceptably high level of contract employment.

If a week is a long time in politics, 18 months is an eternity.Today, we have a government that has spent eight months in negotiations

welded to a pay offer of 2.5% — a pay cut in real terms. A government that offers no change to the unacceptable level of contract employment, now running at a near record 19%. A government desperate to inflict performance pay on principals and teachers.

This last proposal comes as the Premier has decided to phase out performance pay for the executive in the public service. The government knows there is no evidence anywhere in the world that performance pay improves student outcomes. In fact there is plenty that shows the reverse.

In a collegiate profession performance pay is professionally insulting and divisive.

In addition the government proposes to limit the number of teachers who increment each year to 80% and increase the average secondary teacher’s face-to-face teaching week by one hour.

Teachers would be required to do three hours of meetings or other duties as determined by the principal.

Taken together, the Government’s position is an attack on principals’ and teachers’ professionalism and working conditions and is a clear statement that it does not value the work of teachers.

The June 7 stoppage will be crucial to the success of our campaign. The Govern-ment will be watching to see if members support our campaign.

This is why it is essential that members

not only stop work but attend the stopwork meeting at Hisense Arena.

The AEU is providing buses for country members to attend the Melbourne stop work meeting which will be followed by a march through Melbourne’s streets to Parliament House.

Make sure you are at Hisense Arena on June 7 to send the strongest possible message to Baillieu and the Coalition. ◆

Meredith Peace deputy branch president

ONE month on from the most Draconian state budget in over a decade and the cost to our public education

system and its students is becoming clear.Principals and TAFE directors have been doing the

calculations following the tabling of the second Baillieu and Wells budget and are now facing the difficult decision of where the axe must fall.

For schools, the situation is bad enough. Already the AEU is receiving reports from some principal members that they will lose over $80,000 through the axing of the education maintenance grant (EMA) alone.

In TAFE the situation is even worse, with institutes losing a third of their funding. Redundancies in that sector will run into the thousands, hundreds of courses are being shut down and campuses are likely to close.

This is truly a government that has turned its back on public education, attacking the most vulnerable members of our community to fix falling state revenues.

Little wonder that Education Minister Martin Dixon

is finding it impossible to even utter the words “public education” or “government school”. Perhaps he is hoping that if he ignores them they will go away.

Coalition spin doctors have been hard at work selling this budget. The Government’s rhetoric would have us believe that its payments to parents are increasing. The reality is that the total bucket of money available to support the education of disadvantaged students through the EMA and School Start Bonus has shrunk.

Until now the EMA has been split 50–50 between parents and schools; schools were required to allocate their share for the benefit of the individual students, in consultation with parents. The allowance was often used to relieve parent levies, charges for school camps and excursions, book packs and other costs.

Now schools will receive none of the EMA payment; it will go only to parents. Of the total money that previously went to schools, only half will be returned through equity payments into the SRP. The rest — more than $10 million — will be retained by Treasury.

Parents will continue to expect the school to help offset

June 7 is not just about stopping work — it’s a show of strength and unity.

Counting the cost of CoalitionA government that can barely utter the words “public education” is abandoning students and families.

2 Secondary newsletter | may 2012

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costs as it has in the past; this is of course unlikely with school budgets increasingly stretched.

It is disadvantaged students who will lose out, and schools that will cop the blame; to add insult to injury, the department and Government expect schools to pass on the bad news. Welcome to the new age of “default autonomy”.

Schools are also left wondering what support for infrastructure they can expect from a government with so little commitment to public education.

Not only are schools starved of funding for comprehensive programs for all students (we are still the lowest funded state per student, nationally), many continue to live with sub-standard facilities.

Before the state election the then opposition promised to match the Labor Government’s commit-ment to rebuild and revamp all schools by 2016, a program which was well underway. This, like so many other promises, has been broken.

Only $200m has been allocated over four years and many school communities are no wiser as to when, if ever, they will receive the money to proceed

with building plans that are already drawn up. To add salt to the wounds, most of the Coalition’s

infrastructure promises are in marginal Liberal and National seats — which doesn’t give much hope to schools in other parts of the state.

The Government crowed on budget day about the $14m allocated to upgrade and rebuild Galvin Park Secondary College, and Minister Dixon shame-lessly followed up with a self-congratulatory visit to the school. Must we really have falling ceilings, toxic mould and health and safety notices before this government steps in? Our students and school communities deserve much better.

Last year, the Baillieu Coalition took the knife to VCAL funding. This year it took its attack on vocational education and training to new heights, savagely cutting $300m from TAFE funding.

The cuts are likely to impact on secondary schools. Many have arrangements with or send students to study VET at their local TAFEs, often subsidised by the institute. Some TAFEs now warn they can no longer continue this. On top of the

VCAL cuts, this can only result in many disengaged students losing access to alternative education or training that meets their needs.

The 2011 budget cut public education by $481m while injecting another $240m into non-government schools. We can be left with no other conclusion than that these decisions are purely ideological.

Clearly Baillieu and Treasurer Kim Wells see investment in public education as a burden on the taxpayer, instead of a route to strong economic and social growth for all Victorians, as the AEU believes.

This government has no education agenda other than cuts and privatisation. Our students and in particular our most vulnerable and disadvantaged students have a right to expect governments to ensure that everyone has access to high quality education in decent facilities.

At the moment the Baillieu Government is seriously abrogating that duty and must be held to account for it. ◆

THE national campaign to deliver a greater slice of government funding to public schools is

inching towards success with Education Minister Peter Garrett and Prime Minister Julia Gillard publi-cally saying that they intend to introduce legislation this year to enable a new funding model from 2014.

The Federal Government’s Gonski Review recom-mended wholesale changes to the way schools are funded in Australia, including the introduction of a resourcing standard and additional loadings for schools with students who have the highest educational needs.

The Government’s willingness to legislate the recommendations is testament to the AEU campaign

which has seen members, parents and the wider public put significant political pressure on it to act.

However, there is yet to be a clear commitment to the additional $5.6 billion in funding recom-mended by Gonski, the majority which would go to public schools.

On May 24, parents, teachers and principals travelled to Canberra to meet more than 30 MPs of all political persuasions to reinforce the need for the government to act immediately on legislation and commit the funds needed to allow our schools to support the education of all students.

The Victorian MPs lobbied were forthright in their support for more funding for public education.

Yet we need them to act, and act now — the delay of additional funding is, in the end, the denial of essential resources.

We will continue to campaign locally, especially with parents, with plans afoot for a range of forums and events in the targeted electorates of Aston, Corangamite, Dunkley, Deakin, La Trobe, McEwen and Melbourne. We will build the pressure on our elected representatives so that they act.

We need you and parents in your school to get involved. Please contact our campaign coordinator, Helen Stanley, at helen.stanley@aeuvic.asn.au or on (03) 9417 2822 and keep up to date with the campaign at www.forourfuture.org.au. ◆

Garrett, Gillard commited to Gonski lawLegislation promised before year’s end

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www.aeuvic.asn.au 3

Gillian Robertson deputy branch secretary

THE first call from a TAFE teacher telling us they’d just been made redundant was always going to be bad.It was, especially when the member also told us his two-year-old son had

undergone major surgery a few days before.The same day I phoned the AEU TAFE rep in Mildura to learn that she and

her colleague had found out half an hour earlier that they’d lost their jobs. They’d spent that half hour trying to figure out how they were going to get

all their students to the end of their course in the eight weeks they had left to work. They’d already decided to teach all day on Saturdays to get them through.

I’ve always known that nothing matters more to teachers than their students but these two women were living proof. Their classes are full and their students are in disbelief: how can any government throw away teachers of this calibre?

But throw them away is exactly what it’s doing, to 2000 teachers.

All because the Baillieu Govern-ment and its Skills Minister, Peter Hall — also the minister for the teacher profession — have resolved to move taxpayers’ money out of the public TAFE system and into private providers.

Its May budget delivered the most devastating cuts ever inflicted on a public education sector in Australia: $300 million from TAFE, roughly 30% of institute budgets.

Included in these cuts, they slashed the subsidy that government pays for students to learn, shifting the cost of vocational education and training in Victoria even further onto the shoulders of individuals.

What’s going to go?Victoria’s only Auslan sign language diploma is the most high profile victim. Diplomas of accounting, nursing, agriculture, land management and engineering have all had funding cut. Hospitality, business, IT, events and horticulture have been targeted.

But that barely scratches the surface. Also at risk are the support services that many rely on — learning support, student counselling, youth pathways officers and libraries among them.

The hardest hit institutes are in the regions. Ballarat Uni TAFE has announced it will make 100 staff redundant and close 50–60 courses. Hundreds of Ballarat people every year will miss out on a TAFE place.

Bendigo TAFE has said it will make 120 staff redundant, but cannot guarantee it won’t be more.

The CEO at Central Gippsland TAFE has said the Leongatha and Morwell campuses will close along with its highly-regarded training restaurant. It’s well known that the La Trobe Valley is struggling with job losses — its people need

their TAFE more than ever. Just as its economy shifts from industry to tourism, hospitality training is about to disappear.

In Melbourne, Kangan Institute has announced it will have to make 200 teachers redundant and close many courses. That is just a flavour of the devastation being wrought.

The ongoing tragedy of all this is that kids won’t have access to what is often their only opportunity for quality education and training once they leave school. For many, TAFE is their only route into work or to university.

The week after the budget, the AEU teamed up with the NTEU to hold an emergency rally outside Premier Ted Baillieu’s office in Treasury Gardens.

Thousands turned up including a young student from NMIT.

Andrea is studying to become a drug and alcohol counsellor. She told the rally she’d been to two private providers but turned to TAFE where she’d found a real community with supportive teachers. Her next words resounded with everyone present.

“Go to a private provider if you want to buy a qualification. Go to TAFE if you want to get an education.”

The Baillieu Government has completely underestimated the value that Victorian people place on their public TAFE institutes. Talkback radio switchboards go into meltdown whenever TAFE is brought up.

But the Government has also underes-timated the commitment the AEU has to all its members, whatever sector they work in.

Our TAFE colleagues need all the support we can give them as they fight not

just for their jobs and their students, but for the very survival of the public TAFE system.

Thank you to those sub-branches that sent a delegation to the Melbourne protest. If any of you are free, please try to attend one of our rallies in regional Victoria — you can find the details and much more at tafe4all.org.au.

What else can you do?The AEU is calling on all 46,000 of its members to take two minutes to sign up to the TAFE4all website and send a message to their local MPs. In just over two weeks, an astonishing 15,000 emails have been sent by AEU members, TAFE students and the public.

MPs of every party are getting a clear message: their voters want to know what they are going to do to save their local TAFE.

You can call talkback radio or write letters to the editor. Most of all, spread the word to everyone you know.

We have a government that wants to avoid the responsibility of providing education for working class people. That it is being done by a former secondary teacher and union member, Peter Hall, who claims to represent the interests of people in the La Trobe Valley is scandalous.

Mary Bluett has called these cuts nothing more than social vandalism. I couldn’t agree more. ◆

The vandalism of TAFE cutsOur members in TAFE are hurting as thousands are laid off and the life chances of their students are shut down.

Join the fightSign up for updates and email your MPs at tafe4all.org.au. You can tell your own TAFE story and read the stories of others.

Follow tafe4all on Facebook and Twitter

AEU member Susie Mandley’s site scoop.it/tafe-in-victoria brings together the astonishing breadth of media coverage into one place.

4 Secondary newsletter | may 2012

ES negotiations

Q. How much pay will I lose when I strike for 24 hours?A. A full-time staff member will lose one day’s pay, ie one-tenth of a

fortnight’s pay or 7.6 hours.

Q. What about part-time staff?A. Part-time staff members will lose the pay they would have received on

that day. So if they normally work the full day, they will lose a full day’s pay. If they normally work half a day, they will lose a half-day’s pay and so on.

Q. How much of my pay is docked for imposing bans and limitations?

A. If you engage in work bans and limitations, the employer may give you a notice stating that because of the ban your payments will be reduced by a fraction specified in the notice.

That fraction must be proportionate to the fraction of your workload which the banned duty comprises (ie, the amount of time you would usually spend on the duty divided by the number of hours you work in that day).

The employer is not obliged to deduct pay from members engaged in bans or limitations.

Q. Will a 24-hour strike affect my annual review date?A. No. The annual review takes effect on May 1 for each employee. You

would have to be on strike for a total of more than eight months in a year (which runs from May 1 to April 30) to affect your increment.

Q. Will a day’s strike reduce my long service leave (LSL) entitlement by one day?

A. No, the reduction is much smaller. Your LSL entitlement relates to your years of service. You are credited with three months’ long service leave (495.6967 hours) after 10 years (3,655 days) of service. Strike days do not count towards service. So, one day’s strike reduces your service by one day, not your entitlement.

Each day of stoppage extends the period you must work to qualify for long service leave by one day.

Q. Will my annual leave loading be affected?A. Each day of stoppage will reduce the amount payable in annual leave

loading by less than 0.4%. For an Expert 3 teacher this is about $3.80. For an Accomplished 5 it is $3.50, and for a Graduate 2 $2.90.

For Expert 4, Leading Teachers and Principals, the first day’s strike would have no effect on their leave loading and after that they would lose upwards of $4.20 per day of stoppage.

Q. Will a strike day affect my sick leave crediting date?A. Each day on strike will set your personal leave crediting date back by

one day.

Q. Will a one-day strike affect my superannuation?A. There is no effect for members in the schemes run by the ESSSuper

(Revised, New or SERB Schemes). Members employed after January 1, 1994 and who are in VicSuper will not receive the 9% of salary employer contribution for that day.

NEGOTIATIONS for a new ES Agreement are continuing. The AEU is meeting fortnightly

with the Education Department’s negotiating team where both parties are working through all clauses

to determine where, if any, agreement can be reached.

Recent meetings have discussed staffing, attendance and employment models.

All members are encouraged to attend sub-branch and regional meetings for a full update on negotiations, as protocols prevent us from putting details in writing while discussions continue. ◆

June 7 stopwork: your questions answered EBA

2012

schools