Federation’s proposal to end the dispute

by Sue Simpson

At the end of the school holidays the Federation put to the Minister a proposal for matters agreed in 12 weeks of negotiations to form the basis of a consent award. This included agreement to the 16 per cent and cash payment. Matters still not agreed would be referred to arbitration. These included pay equity for casual teachers, conditions of work for TAFE teachers, hours of secondary school teachers and recognition of teacher professional judgement. Referring unresolved matters for arbitration is a regular industrial relations practice when negotiations have failed to reach total agreement. In the interests of a settlement and industrial peace, the Federation was prepared to take the risk of the Industrial Relations Commission ruling on outstanding matters.

The Minister rejected this proposal. Why? The Government was not prepared to agree to any arbitration on cost items that might result in the Industrial Relations Commission ruling that more money be put into the salaries package. The Government well knew the Industrial Relations Commission could not ignore equal pay for equal work arguments.

The Government and the Department still fail to understand the strength of teacher resolve. The support for the May 4 strike shocked them. They are still in denial of teacher feeling and support for principles of pay equity and parity.

The continuing challenge for the Federation is to translate this resolve into a proper settlement. It is still in the best interests of public education that there be a negotiated political settlement. Agreement, albeit grudging, is still preferable to imposed solutions on professional issues and working conditions. Any full arbitration will be long and costly. That means delays in getting any increases.

The Government has a large parliamentary majority, an ineffective Opposition and friends in the media. Despite this, it still can’t get its way. So it continues to resort to Reith style dirty tricks to get its way — stalling for time, making false demands, providing biased information and giving false ultimatums — stating the offer is final and will be withdrawn if not accepted.

The Government’s most recent dirty trick has been to use its media mates to try to discredit the Federation’s leadership. The elected 18 member Federation Executive has been described as "faceless" by the Minister and members stalked by Daily Telegraph photographers. The Federation’s Senior Officers have also had the paparazzi treatment as well as mischievous misrepresentations of negotiating positions and meeting proposals. The Government’s media machine has viciously misrepresented a meeting the General Secretary and I had with a very angry and frustrated Minister in the presence of the Labor Council’s Michael Costa, Director-General Ken Boston and Deputy Director-General (Corporate Services) Jan McClelland. No minutes were taken. The Minister rejected any arbitration that could expose the Government having to put more money into its package. Given the Minister’s rejection of our proposal, we could either walk out or see if there might be another approach. We proposed another possible way forward. No settlement was agreed upon. Federation Executive preferred our original position as the way forward as it kept greater faith with the views of members at the Sky Channel meetings.

Personal attacks are diversions that will not resolve the dispute.

There have also been attacks on the Federation’s democratic structures. Federation is the most democratic and accountable union in Australia. The Government, including the Minister, just can’t come to grips with the Federation’s democratic structures. The salaries dispute will only be settled when teachers agree to the settlement.

All the Federation’s decisions and actions are open to scrutiny in a way that those of the Cabinet and the DET’s senior management are not. Under the Federation’s democracy you do not last long if you behave like a dictator. As Federation President I believe there should be debate on all the possible options before the Executive makes a decision about the best way to pursue a campaign on behalf of 62,000 members. Such widespread debate makes it a lot easier to advance, credibly, Federation’s positions with the adversarial media and respond to the range of views amongst teachers. Whilst there is agreement on what we are trying to achieve in the salaries campaign, there is naturally considerable debate about the most appropriate tactics to pursue. I am used to working in this environment and being accountable. Federation’s strength is its democracy, however imperfect any form of democracy can be.

To survive, unions must be independent and stand up vigorously for their members. Otherwise, why bother to belong.

For public education to survive the Government must fund its responsibilities to public education. Our critics say that our actions are harming public education; parents will choose private schools to escape strikes. The relationship between public and private education is at the heart of the dispute. The education dollar is being stretched too thin by this Government. The Government’s responsibilities must be to public education teachers first. Unfortunately there are some sections in the Government and Department of Education and Training (DET) who would rather seek to destroy Federation and any voice of dissent. Progress will be made if the Government and DET understand teachers. Until this lesson is learnt, the Government and the DET will continue to be shocked by the level of support for Federation action.