For everyone From your president: Making your voices heard
Congratulations to the many hundreds of AEU TAFE members who stopped work on 12 June, downing tools and attending stopwork meetings across the state. Members delivered hundreds of messages directly to Labor state government MPs, including the Minister for Skills and TAFE Gayle Tierney, telling them that their government needs to fix the dispute, and to respect and value the work of TAFE teachers.
With TAFE negotiations dragging on for more than two years and an insulting offer from government on pay and conditions, it was time for TAFE members to take a stand and let the Allan government know that it needs to do better. This was the first time that TAFE members have taken stopwork action since 2008, and the first time it has been ‘protected’ by the Fair Work Commission. The action coincided with statewide media coverage, as well as radio and social media ads.
Disturbingly, 71% of teachers say they have considered leaving TAFE in the past year because of unsustainable workloads, high stress, poor sector funding, and inadequate pay. The government needs to wake up and take action to attract and retain teachers. Premier Allan needs to fix the TAFE teacher shortage if Victoria is to have a sustainable TAFE system for the future.
The state Labor government came to power in 2014 saying that it would ‘Save TAFE’. Its claim of investing billions of dollars in TAFE is pretty hollow when we know that, for more than a decade now, Victoria has had the lowest funded vocational education sector in the nation. Labor hasn’t saved TAFE!
TAFE members are campaigning for decent wages and conditions, but also for measures to address the significant challenges the TAFE system is confronting – which, in turn, affect all Victorians. There are skill shortages across the state’s economy, and the Allan government has itself forecast a need to employ 7,400 additional TAFE teachers – the third highest of any occupation. You can’t fix skills shortages without TAFE teachers!
TAFE teachers are paid $7,742 less than similarly experienced school teachers. The underfunding of TAFEs, along with teacher shortages in the sector, has led to skyrocketing workloads for existing teachers. Not surprisingly, TAFE members reported a decline in student wellbeing and engagement over the past two years, saying they do not have the time, resources, equipment, and professional development they need to support them.
We will maintain the pressure on the Victorian government to do more – much more – to address the workforce shortage crisis, and will not stop campaigning until they deliver full funding for our schools and for public education overall.
Our TAFE campaign will escalate if these concerns are not adequately addressed by the Allan Labor government, with further stopwork action to occur in July, escalating to a 24-hour stopwork in August. All members need to stand in solidarity with Victoria’s TAFE teachers.
MORE THAN 8,000 SCHOOLS MEMBERS RESPOND TO AEU SURVEY
In the schools sector, our research project, conducted in partnership with Monash University, has reached its first major milestone. More than 8,000 members responded to the survey, with the Monash research team analysing the data and drafting the first of four papers, to be published in Term 3.
This research puts members’ voices front and centre when it comes to the future of our profession – including your work, workload and pay – building momentum towards the next schools agreement and the ongoing campaign for full funding.
We want your voices to be heard and reflected in this research, and we will be providing opportunities over the next 12 months for members to provide feedback and to put forward solutions and recommendations. The collective voice of members needs to be paramount; not the opinions of those who have never stepped foot in a classroom, yet believe they understand the problems and solutions, often without any proper consultation with the profession.
During Term 3, members will be able to provide feedback on the findings and recommendations in the first discussion paper. I encourage members to attend regional, PCA, and sub-branch meetings this term and over the next 12 months to have your say on this and future papers.
We have also surveyed and conducted focus groups of parents/carers of public school students, to get their insights into the key issues for themselves and their children. There is clear crossover with the members’ experiences, which will help inform the next two discussion papers, including one to focus specifically on schools’ partnerships with parents/carers and students – something members are concerned has weakened in recent years.
Safe to say, we will maintain the pressure on the Victorian government to do more – much more – to address the workforce shortage crisis, and will not stop campaigning until they deliver full funding for our schools and for public education overall.
