Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Australian Education Union NT branch secretary Adam Lampe fears the NT will lose teachers to other states where the pay and conditions are better

Transcript

Australian Education Union NT branch secretary Adam Lampe fears the NT will lose teachers to other states where the pay and conditions are better · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And as we discussed yesterday on the show, teachers are
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: going to be going on strike on Friday. The strike
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: is set to impact urban schools from the Darwin and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Palmerston region, including Humpty Doo and to minmn Now, the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Chief Minister told us on the show yesterday that all
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: schools are going to remain open. I know that I've
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: received an email from my children's school this morning to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: say that things are certainly going to be changed. It's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: not going to be the usual program and kids will
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: join in two other classes etc.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Or classes will merge.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: But teachers are indeed striking in protests to the Northern
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Territory government's four year wage frees. Now the Chief Minister
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: yesterday question the timing of that action and if it
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: was politically motivated. The Department of Education received that formal
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: application from the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Education
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Union that the strike, as I said, it's going to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: happen on Friday between nine am and one pm. Now
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: joining me on the line to tell us more about
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the situation is the head of the Education Union here
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory, Adam Lampey.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, them.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Good morning Candy, Adam.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Why did teachers decide to take this action, Well.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: It's to encourage the government to come back to the
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: bargaining table because their position is the wage freeze and
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: they're not moving on it.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: So, Adam, what's the concern here?
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Is it the fact that you know that now we
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: have got teachers into state that are being paid more
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: than territory teachers, so it's harder to get teaching staff
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: to the territory or what are the concerns.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Well, it is recruitment and retention. I guess our pay
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: claim is more about retention. Recruitment is a difficult issue
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: at the moment nationally because we have a chief teacher shortage,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: but we need to try to encourage people to stay
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory and at the moment, Victorian and
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Queensland are offering far better pain conditions. And as it happens,
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: as it happens, Victorian and Queensland are the tea jurisdictions
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: where we heavily recruit from the Northern Territory. So maybe
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: they're just getting sick of us posing their teachers. But look,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: if if we don't offer something equivalent up here, we
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: just won't keep people here.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Adam, what are those other states offering that is more attractive,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Like how much more money and what kind of different conditions.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So in Victoria they agreed to a two percent
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: pay rise plus a bonus at the end of the year,
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: so idea that they had a pay rise in July,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: which puts them ahead of us. On top of that,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: the Victorian government has committed to increasing non contact time,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: so that's less face to face teaching time by an
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: hour and a half and they're creating two thousand new
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: jobs over the next four using Victoria in order to
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: do that. In Queensland they've offered four three and three
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: with a commitment by their government to review the cost
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: of living at the end of each year and if
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: the pay riders don't cover the cost of living, they
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: will get a bonus as well. And on top of
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: that they're making extra superannuation contributions as well as looking
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: at teacher wellbeing and work lads. So, I see you seriously,
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: it's you know, it's it's very it's die for us
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: if if the territory government does it get a bit
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: creative and and offer us offer us something now, because
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: we just won't keep people here.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Since that announcement came through yesterday, since you know, since
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you decided that there was going to be the strike
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: on Friday, has there been any movement from the Northern
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Territory government.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: So we've had we've had some informal conversations, very informal,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: and we've received no commitments that They asked us, was
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: there any way to not go ahead with the strike
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: on Friday, and we said, well, if you give us
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: an offer by Wednesday that we could recommend to members,
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: we might consider it. But you know they've left it.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: It's too late. I mean, people tell me miracles happen,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: so I guess there's still hope. But yeah, it's going
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: to be very difficult for them to come up with
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: an offer within forty eighty hours.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Adam.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Yesterday, the Chief Minister on this show questioned the timing.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: She said that there is a by election on the
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: weekend and wondered if it was politically motivated.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Is it?
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Well, Catie, the chief ministers being very disingenuous. Look, the
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: majority of teachers who will be turning up for the
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: strike action on Friday do not care who wins on Saturday.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: The fat boy by election because most of their teachers
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: won't be voting in that by election. All they want
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: is to pay rise. The government has known about the
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: fact that we were planning strike action, we put in,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: we've worn and about it months ago. They were just
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: drugging their shoulders and you know, basically go ahead. Now
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: the Chief Minister is getting upset because they might, you know,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: she might suffer some personal consequences as a result industrial action.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: So seriously, you know, saying something like that is just
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: you know, being naive at best.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Now, I know a lot of people listening are going
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: to accept that, you know that their teachers doing an
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: incredibly difficult job and deserve to be paid as much
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: as their counterparts into state. But they will be questioning,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you know, what arrangements are going to be in place
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: for their kids, and why you've gone, you know, to
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: this degree, which will you know which which will disrupt
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: children and will disrupt education? On Friday, what would you
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: say to those parents and cares that are listening this
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: morning thinking.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: That if we don't do what we're doing, things are
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: going to get worse, a lot worse, and parents won't
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: won't be able to send them their kids to school
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: with the confidence of getting a good quality education because
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: the teritory government won't be able to staff schools. We
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: are in a public education crisis right now. The teritor
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: government is doing nothing about it. At least Victoria and
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: Queensland are trying to mitigate things a little bit. But
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: in the teachers are doing this not just for themselves,
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: but they're doing it for to keep a public education
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: system viable. And if we do not have paying conditions
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: that can attract teachers here or people will just be
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: able to walk into a job, literally walk into a
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: job anywhere else in Australia.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: So Adam essentially what our teachers want at this point
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: tell us exactly what they want, you know, and I
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: think you know, so that everybody's aware exactly what you're
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: asking for, so you know, I know that then they
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: can't kind of like the government can't, you know, pretend
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: that politics is being played here. They can actually hear
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: it for themselves. Exactly what our teachers.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: Need well, we need to put we need to We
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: need real wage increases, not bonus. There's no future in bonuses, Katie.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Bonuses are actually a disincentive. You know, people might stay
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: till December to collect the bonus, and they'll take the
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: money and run. But there is no future in bonuses.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: There's only a future in real wage increases, where you know,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: at least mitigate can mitigate the cost of living which
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: we all know is an issue for everybody at the moment.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Now, Adam, what is your message for the government this morning, Get.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: Back to the table. Let's let's let's let's talk some
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: some real real wage increases, and let's let's talk about
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: trying to stop the train wreck, which is a public
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: keach essentially what public education is in the Lawn territory
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: at the moment.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Goodness me, I mean, it does sound like a worry,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: And you know, I want to say on the record
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: that I think our teachers do a phenomenal job. You know,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: every teacher that I've ever had teach my children at
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: public school do an amazing job. They are absolutely fantastic.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: And I know that that. Obviously, this strike is going
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: to inconvenience some families and it's going to cause some
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: pressure for some schools. But our teachers do need to
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: be renumerated appropriately. We need to make sure that we're
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: competitive with other states. Otherwise, like you've said, Adam, we
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: are going to find it bloody hard to keep teachers
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory and even more difficult to try
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and recruit them to come and live and work here.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it's going to get worse if we do
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: not do this. Obviously, teachers are doing it for their
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: own benefit, but they're doing it for the benefits of
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: the kids as well. In the long term, you know,
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: we need to have equivalent paying conditions otherwise that the
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: situation is just going to become untenable.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Adam, I will just ask you one question that's come
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: through on the tech sign a couple of times. What
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: happens with the bonus that's already been paid to teachers
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: if they do get a paid.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: We didn't get a bonus. We rejected the bonus, so
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: the bonus unfortunately the general Public Service agreed to it,
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: which a lot of them are regretting right now, and
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: we didn't. So we had it was the employee ballot.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Eighty seven point five, not just union members, but all
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: public school teachers rejected the bonuses. We haven't received any bonus.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: That is really important, I reckon for our listeners to know,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: because I think that a lot of people were thinking
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: that teachers had received a bonus and were then obviously,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: you know, striking on this wage freeze when as you've
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: said there, teachers did not get that bonus.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: No, we haven't had a pay freason in well overrated
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: months now.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Pay rise do you mean, Adam?
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Mate, I appreciate your time this morning. Please keep us
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: up to date.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: If you do hear back from the Northern Territory government,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: we'd be very interested to hear and get that update.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: We'll talk to you again very soon. Thank you. We
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: appreciate your time.