By Ethan Benedicto
Victorian TAFE teachers have taken protected industrial action after negotiations around salaries and conditions broke down, according to the Australian Education Union.
AEU Victorian branch president Meredith Peace said the action was necessary as the State Government “failed”, they said, to put an appropriate offer on the table after almost two years of negotiations.
“From 1 July, Victoria’s TAFE teachers will be paid $7742 a year – or seven per cent – less than similarly experienced school teachers.
“Not valuing TAFE teachers is disrespectful and they should not be valued less than school teachers,” Ms Peace said.
According to a spokesperson from the Victorian TAFE Association, the AEU notified them that the protected industrial action would be commencing on 22 April, following a ballot of AEU members as part of enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations, where the members voted in favour of the action.
“Victorian TAFEs respect the rights of staff to pursue their workplace rights,” the spokesperson said.
The action would include bans on excess teaching duty hours, attendance outside of specified weeks for auditing and professional development as well as providing certain documents or materials.
Furthermore, it would also be “responding to certain inquiries, recording student engagement and attendance, participating in promotional events, working without AEU-related insignia, and stopping work during visits by certain politicians,” the spokesperson said.
Ms Peace also added that “in addition to a pay offer which does not value them, TAFE teachers are required to do excessive unpaid overtime, teach increasingly large class sizes, and deliver more content in fewer hours to students because of chronic underfunding”.
“This leaves precious little time for TAFE teachers to do what they love, which is to support students and help prepare them for the jobs they hope to gain following study,” she said.
The VTA spokesperson confirmed that at this time, the industrial action was not expected to have a widespread impact on classes, and that “TAFEs are committed to working with students, staff and stakeholders to put in place any measures necessary to help ensure ongoing service delivery”.
It is because of these conditions, according to Ms Peace, that many of the teachers were leaving the profession and returning to the industry “where they can often earn much more without the accompanying stress and extra workloads”.
“This turnover is making the significant shortage of TAFE teacher we’re currently experiencing even worse,” she said.
As it stands, the union said, TAFE teachers are seeking new measures to “address the unsustainable workloads”, as well as “better recognition of and funded support for teaching qualifications” and receive a pay rise.
“TAFE teachers play a vital role in the Victorian economy; we cannot hope to address skill shortages unless we address the shortage of TAFE teachers.
“We call on the Allan Labor Government to come to the table and respect TAFE teachers through a new agreement which properly acknowledges their contribution to Victoria,” Ms Peace said.
For the VTA, the spokesperson said that the organisation is “committed to working collaboratively with the AEU to finalise an agreement that strikes the balance between conditions for teaching staff, student needs and affordability”, they said.
