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Katie spoke with NT Education Union Branch President Jarvis Ryan about industry staffing shortages · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But we know that the Australian Education Union, well the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory branch, is concerned about a looming staff shortage.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Well that could leave classrooms without teachers from early next year.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is the president of
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  Speaker 1: the Education Union here in the Northern Territory, Javishrin. Good morning,
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  Speaker 1: Katie Jervis, what is the worry here? Why do we
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  Speaker 1: think that we may not have all the teachers that
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  Speaker 1: we need from early next year.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I don't just direct anyone to the Teacher in
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  Speaker 2: the Territory website where every day it appears that the
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  Speaker 2: list of jobs is growing, and bearing in mind that's
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  Speaker 2: not all of the positions. That's just the advertised classroom
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  Speaker 2: teacher positions. That doesn't include senior teacher positions, principal positions,
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  Speaker 2: support positions, and it's all over the territory. And I
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  Speaker 2: just know we expect a certain level of turnover every year,
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  Speaker 2: but this year it does seem and certainly what people
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  Speaker 2: saying to us privately is it's proving to be a
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  Speaker 2: real challenge in identifying people for all those vacancies.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds that way, Javis. Do we have any idea
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  Speaker 1: how many teachers we're talking about, well, was said.
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  Speaker 2: I don't have the information, and I think that the
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  Speaker 2: way that the department employs, one of the problems around
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  Speaker 2: this model they've gone to is that they won't be
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  Speaker 2: easily able to aggregate it because most of these decisions
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  Speaker 2: are made, of course now at a school level. And
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  Speaker 2: this is lauded as a great system that schools will
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  Speaker 2: all determine their own staffing, But I see it more
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  Speaker 2: as a case of schools are sort of largely left
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  Speaker 2: to their own devices to try and fill vacancies. And
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  Speaker 2: what the union's been banging on about for years now
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  Speaker 2: is we have no strategic focus on recruitment. We don't
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  Speaker 2: recruit any teachers permanently. We currently don't have any inducements
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  Speaker 2: or programs going around recruiting teachers from interstate and so
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  Speaker 2: I've sort of talked about the chickens coming home to
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  Speaker 2: roost for some time now. I'm definitely seeing fatigue, particularly
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  Speaker 2: in remote We've warned of COVID fatigue for people have
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  Speaker 2: been very isolated from family, and just one day this
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  Speaker 2: week in our office alone, we received a dozen resignations
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  Speaker 2: of people that are all indicated to tick the box
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  Speaker 2: for moving into state. So that's always been you know,
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  Speaker 2: I think one of the challenges for the territory coming
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  Speaker 2: out of the pandemic especially is where the people would
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  Speaker 2: sort of vote with their feet and look to go
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  Speaker 2: back home somewhere a bit closer to family.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's something you know that isn't isolated obviously,
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  Speaker 1: just to teachers and education. I know that earlier in
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  Speaker 1: the week we've spoken to the Department or sorry to
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  Speaker 1: Tourism Central Australia about their needs for early next year
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to staff in the tourism sector in
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  Speaker 1: Central Australia. But then when you look at at you know,
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  Speaker 1: a profession like teaching and the impact that that's going
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  Speaker 1: to have in terms of the educating of our children,
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  Speaker 1: it could be you know, it could be a real
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  Speaker 1: worry come early next year if we head back to
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  Speaker 1: the classrooms or the kids do, and there aren't the
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  Speaker 1: teaching staff required.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, I certainly have some sympathy for the
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  Speaker 2: senior officers and education I believe have been run ragged
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  Speaker 2: over the last eighteen months and again recently with when
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  Speaker 2: these COVID outbreaks occur and all sorts of restrictions are imposed.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of work that then goes on to
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  Speaker 2: into ensuring that schools are complying. And so of course
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  Speaker 2: what all that means, and this is again not just
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  Speaker 2: true in education but across the board is the ball
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  Speaker 2: gets dropped and a whole lot of other measures. And
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  Speaker 2: we were supposed to have a trial up and running
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  Speaker 2: around permanent recruitment, as I said, a more strategic focus
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  Speaker 2: around teacher recruitment, and that by a large way happen
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  Speaker 2: this year, and to me, it's another lost opportunity going
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  Speaker 2: into a new year that we are just as I said,
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  Speaker 2: really leaving schools to go out and despine to who
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  Speaker 2: they can. That's not a coordinate approach. We should be
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  Speaker 2: marshaling our resources as a system to support schools to
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  Speaker 2: go and get the best teachers, the most qualified teachers.
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  Speaker 2: And as I always say, that we are competing with
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  Speaker 2: every other jurisdiction really for recruiting our teachers, and that
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  Speaker 2: they have that many vacancies with only a week left
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  Speaker 2: in the school year tells me that we are going
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  Speaker 2: to be a lot of people are going to be
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  Speaker 2: working through the school holidays just to try and plug
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  Speaker 2: all those hopes.
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  Speaker 1: So Javis, you touched on the fact that people are
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  Speaker 1: quite COVID fatigued. It's something that you and I have
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  Speaker 1: spoken about on the show before, about the fact that
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  Speaker 1: you know, for a lot of teachers, particularly if they're
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  Speaker 1: working remote, they haven't been able to go home to
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  Speaker 1: see family and it has had an impact. Are there
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  Speaker 1: other reasons also contributing to what could be a shortage
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  Speaker 1: rely next year?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think it's a range of factors. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we get asked about the mandate. I think that will
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  Speaker 2: be having a small impact. Bearing in mind that mandate
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  Speaker 2: is now in place or will be in place in
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  Speaker 2: every jurisdiction, so there's nowhere else for those teachers to go. Clearly,
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  Speaker 2: the pay free issue doesn't help. Yeah, So it's and
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  Speaker 2: as a broader issue I've been trying to get a
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  Speaker 2: bit more interest into of this is a national problem
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  Speaker 2: of just a supply issue. So currently our country is
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  Speaker 2: not training enough new teachers. We're seeing big shortages that
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  Speaker 2: have culminated things like a full day strike in your
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  Speaker 2: South Wales on Tuesday, where big system like that's talking
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  Speaker 2: about you know, thousands of teachers. It's a shortage that
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  Speaker 2: will only grow in years to come, and people not
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  Speaker 2: staying in the profession for as long because they're getting
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  Speaker 2: burnt out due to work life problems. And yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: sort of again feel like our system here have got
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  Speaker 2: to work probably harder than nearly anywhere to get our
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  Speaker 2: teachers here to ideally keep them here as long as possible,
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  Speaker 2: and they're just people trying their hardest but not really
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  Speaker 2: working strategically on how we can support our teachers and
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  Speaker 2: particularly early career teachers, nurture them to get through some
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  Speaker 2: of the more difficult years, support for teachers out bush
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  Speaker 2: around their mental health and well being, and some of
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  Speaker 2: those sorts of things are chronic sort of problems for
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  Speaker 2: our system.
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  Speaker 1: Javis. There'll be a lot of parents listening this morning
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  Speaker 1: wondering if this is, you know, if these vacancies, if
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  Speaker 1: it's going to have an impact on the school in
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  Speaker 1: which their children go to when they head back to
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  Speaker 1: the classrooms from early next year, you know.
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  Speaker 2: Is that. Look, I'm not in a position to say,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, one of my frustrations is, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I'll make these comments and the Education Department will issue
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  Speaker 2: a fairly anodyne statement and it'll be reassuring and not
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  Speaker 2: be specific at all, but privately, people are telling me
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  Speaker 2: it is an issue, and I think this is the
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  Speaker 2: case of where the government should come clean and talk
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  Speaker 2: about what the challenges are and how they're going to
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  Speaker 2: address it. I reiterate again that on the pay freeze issue,
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  Speaker 2: the government does need to come and sit down and
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  Speaker 2: work out what would be a fair and reasonable pay increase.
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  Speaker 2: Because you're putting a message out to teachers there's no
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  Speaker 2: pay rise for four or five years. That's going to
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  Speaker 2: be that's going to be a huge challenge and people
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  Speaker 2: can complain about that all they like. But if a
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  Speaker 2: teacher looks around like anyone else and they want to
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  Speaker 2: be paid what they're worth for the work they're doing,
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  Speaker 2: and they will some of them will vote with their
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  Speaker 2: feet if there's not a reasonable offer on the table.
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  Speaker 2: So it's for the Education Minister of the Chief Minister
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  Speaker 2: hope they address these issues. Honestly, When is that?
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  Speaker 1: When is that vote expected? When it comes to the
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  Speaker 1: pay frees and the offer that the Chief Minister had
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  Speaker 1: put on the table a couple of weeks ago, Well.
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  Speaker 2: They've elected not to put that offer out to teachers.
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  Speaker 2: There is, as you probably aware, there is a vote
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  Speaker 2: underway now for the general public service on mortivate for
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  Speaker 2: teachers that we know vote until at least February next year.
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  Speaker 2: But given the government's position, we're making preparations to look
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  Speaker 2: at a protected industrial action in the new year, and
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  Speaker 2: we will be escalating our campaign because there's no way
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  Speaker 2: we're going to accept a four year pay freeze with
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  Speaker 2: so called bonuses that freeze people's pay for four.
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  Speaker 1: Years, right, so we could actually see our teachers striking
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  Speaker 1: from early next year as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a process we need to go through, and
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  Speaker 2: part of that is we actually our members need to
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  Speaker 2: through a democratic process to support the types of action
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  Speaker 2: they would like to see.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 2: But there's a very strong message I'm getting from our
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  Speaker 2: members and schools all across the Northern Territory is they
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  Speaker 2: want to step up the action in this campaign and
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  Speaker 2: we want to do that in a way that it's
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  Speaker 2: not disruptive to schools and to parents. But we will
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  Speaker 2: look at all the options available to us in the
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  Speaker 2: new year.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Javishrin, I've no doubt that we'll speak to you
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  Speaker 1: early in the new year and probably hear more about that.
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  Speaker 1: We will leave it there for this morning. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: very much for your time today
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  Speaker 2: Thanks very much, thank you,