9/9/03
Education and Training Minister Alan Carpenter said he was frustrated and disappointed at the failure of the State School Teachers' Union to accept a second Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) offer, which should have ended the current dispute over wages and conditions.
He said the offer, put to union delegates over the weekend, had been strongly supported by the Australian Education Union's President, Pat Byrne, who also advised that the offer had been endorsed by the union executive.
Mr Carpenter said the president and executive had failed to convince union delegates to accept it.
"It is almost farcical," Mr Carpenter said.
"The first offer was worth $175million over three years.
"The second offer was $308million over two and a half years and represented a huge step forward for public education in Western Australia."
The Minister said the offer included millions more for behaviour management and discipline programs, professional development, hard to staff city and country schools, and the opportunity for the great bulk of teachers to earn an extra 14.34 per cent over two and a half years.
"If the full details of the offer were made available to all teachers, I would be amazed if they rejected it," he said.
"They, like everybody else in WA, know that the demand for a 30 per cent pay rise over three years was and is completely unrealistic and unaffordable.
"The union leadership has only itself to blame for the potential damage this latest refusal could have on public education in WA.
"If teachers want more dollars in their pockets, then we will have to take money away from existing or new programs aimed at improving public education, and look at the conditions teachers currently enjoy.
"It is an extremely disappointing development."
Mr Carpenter said most of the concerns regarding issues in public education that were raised by the union following the original EBA offer had been addressed in the second offer.
"It is quite clear now that this is simply about dollars - a blatant and misleading campaign for wages, not conditions," he said.
"The offer includes very good wage increases, particularly when comparing teachers' wages and conditions with other professions."
The offer included:
- Pay rises for classroom teachers. These would range from $3,551 to $8,054 a year by early 2006, depending on experience and qualifications (see salary table attached).
- More money for behaviour management. An additional $25.5million would be provided to expand the State Government's behaviour management and discipline program into 200 primary schools and an additional 30 secondary schools. The strategy would enable schools to employ extra staff or other resources, and expand the Government's $28million four-year behaviour management and discipline strategy currently operating in 44 target high schools. This brought the State Government's total allocation to behaviour management to $53.5million.
- Improved teacher career paths. New senior teacher classifications would be created. This would expand career opportunities for all teachers and reward experienced classroom teachers who did not wish to move away from classrooms into administrative positions.
- Funding for more senior (level three) teachers. An extra 100 Level Three teaching positions to keep our best teachers in classrooms, in 2005 and 100 more in 2006. Teaching salaries in this category would rise from $62,972 in 2003 to $68,811 in 2006.
- Increased funding for professional development. The allocation of $2million per year for the establishment of a professional institute to provide increased professional development opportunities to teachers, and induction for new teachers.
- More schools to offer extra teacher incentives. $5million over three years to provide greater financial incentives for teachers in selected country and metropolitan schools through the creation of both a country and metropolitan teaching program. An extra 11 country schools would be given the ability to offer special incentives to attract teaching staff under the new category, the Country Teaching Program. Schools likely to qualify for the new category would include Roebourne primary and Wyndham, Norseman and Meekatharra district high schools. Up to 30 difficult to staff metropolitan schools would also receive funding under the newly created Metropolitan Teaching Program. This would provide schools (yet to be selected) with the ability to offer increased financial incentives to help attract and retain staff.
- A significant increase in non-contact time for primary teachers. The Duties Other Than Teaching (DOTT) time for primary school teachers would be increased from 180 minutes to 200 minutes per week commencing January 2005. This meant an additional 80 teachers would need to be in place at an additional cost of $6million a year.
- Improved career structures. Additional salary levels had been added to each salary scale applicable to school principals, deputy principals and HODS.
- More time for administration. An additional half-day per week for Level 3 principals to attend to administrative tasks. In addition, there would be no teaching component required for Level 4 Principals.
- More time for administration and professional development. Reduced classroom workload for Heads of Department (HODS) to help them attend to administrative tasks. HODS would also have extra time for professional development.
- Advanced Skills Psychologist. A new 'advanced skills' position would be created for school psychologists with responsibility for the promotion of professional skills and practice as well as mentoring registered psychologists.
Minister's Office - 9213 6800
PROPOSED TEACHER SALARIES UNDER THE STATE GOVERNMENT'S SECOND TEACHERS' EBA OFFER
