[Greens-Media] Teachers' action highlights Firth's failure to negotiate solutions

[John Kaye]

Teachers' action highlights Firth's failure to negotiate solutions
 
Media release: 4 December 2008
 
The failure of NSW Education Minister Verity Firth to take control of transfer negotiations with the state's teachers has resulted in today's stop-work meetings, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
 
The stop-work has been prompted by the denial of a transfer request by a teacher at Tumbarumba High School in the Snowy Mountains.
 
Dr Kaye said: "Yet another example of the problems with undermining service transfers puts the onus on the government to restore the system. 
 
"All that teachers want is a fair go for students in hard-to-staff schools and a reasonable deal for those who teach them.
 
"The changes are unfair to teachers currently working in hard-to-staff schools and provide no incentive for others to do so.
 
"They have also created extra workloads for principals, wasting precious resources that should be spent on students.
 
"The rally outside Parliament today would not have been necessary if Minister Firth had stepped in and put a hold on the transfer system changes that threaten the rights of every student in a public school to be taught by a qualified teacher.
 
"Minister Firth should listen to the teachers outside Parliament this morning. She should call in her department head, Michael Coutts-Trotter, and tell him to restore service transfer rights.
 
"At the same time, teachers are being confronted with a salary offer from the Department of Education and Training that amounts to a pay cut. 
 
"The Department's offer would leave teachers' salaries falling behind inflation or impose unacceptable trade-offs such as massive cuts to sick leave.
 
"Today's stop-work meeting has been forced on teachers who are determined to protect public education from the devastating consequences of undermining the state-wide transfer system and the Department's pathetic pay offer," Dr Kaye said.
 
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455 
 
 
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John Kaye
Greens member of the NSW Parliament
phone: (02) 9230 2668
fax: (02) 9230 2586
mobile: 0407 195 455
email: john.kaye at parliament.nsw.gov.au
web: www.johnkaye.org.au
 
mail: Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000