Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Australian Education Union NT Branch President Michelle Ayres says the NT Government’s pay offer would only benefit some teachers

Transcript

Australian Education Union NT Branch President Michelle Ayres says the NT Government’s pay offer would only benefit some teachers · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is Michelle Airs,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: who is indeed the Australian Education Union NT branch president.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Michelle.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Michelle, thank you so much for your time this morning.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Are you out there at that gathering and how's it
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: all looking.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: I am in Alice Springs actually this morning in Darwin
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: and headed down to the gathering and it is cold
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: and rainy here, but we're've got members coming out and
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: drove brilliant.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not surprised I know that in Darwin. I'm sure
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: there's plenty of them. Erin earlier told us yesterday she
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: was expecting hundreds to turn up. I'm sure that there's
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: going to be a healthy crowd in Alice. Also, Michelle,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: as I understand it, there was another offer put on
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the table this week. What was that offer?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: So the OCPE has offered or is offering our teachers
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: a shift in salary increments, and it's kind of a
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: confusing thing to explain over the phone. It's even confusing
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: to look at. It means that some teachers will be
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: receiving like a bump in salary, and there's other of
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: our teachers, and especially our principles who actually wouldn't be
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: getting anything at all. But they're not calling it a
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: real pay rise. It's just they're shifting the salary increments
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and it's a whole confusing offer.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: So why have they done it that way? Why has
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: that been the way that they've put this offer on
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the table.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Look, I wasn't involved in any of the discussions where
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: they were preparing the offer, but my understanding is that
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: this is a way that they can provide some incentives
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: to teachers to get them to stay here without actually
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: having to break the pay freeze, which would be a
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: political issue for them or for the government.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, so what was the reaction then? As I understand it,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: it hasn't gone like, it's not gone to a full
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: vote to all of your members. It is something that's
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: now sort of gone to just the executs from the union.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And what's been the reaction from the executive?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: The executive moved a motion yesterday to reject the offer
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: and ask the OCP to engage in real negotiations. We
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: haven't had a negotiation back and forth. This was the
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: OCPE coming out to us and saying here's something accept
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: it or don't accept it. But that's my final offer.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: That's not a negotiation that saying please don't go out
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: on Thursday, but we would like for them to sit
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: down with us so that we can say no, we
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: would like to see something across the board. We would
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: like to see a real, real wage right.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: All right now. And know the Education Minister's been out
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: and said that the offer would mean that territory teachers
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: are the highest paid in the country. Is that the case.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: It is the case for some of our teachers. So
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: our early career teachers would be very well paid until
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, and the very top of the line
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: for our CT nine, the teachers have been in classrooms
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: for ten years, would be the highest paid until twenty
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: twenty three. But teachers in the middle of the in
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the middle of the field would be They barely see
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: any kind of salary increase at all. And we weren't
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: happy to accept something that was only going to benefit
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: some of our members. And also, this has always been
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: about attracting and retaining teachers. It doesn't work for us
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: to only have early career teachers and teachers a ten
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: years experience. We need a strong field throughout from all
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: levels of experience.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: So why would they have done it that way where
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: it's only actually, you know, going to help those that
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: are the new teachers or the you know, the very
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: experienced ones.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be a question, I guess for the OCPE.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: But my guest would be that they are looking to
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: use as little money as possible, but still have that
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: line that they are offering something that would keep our
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: teachers the best paid, which is you know, half truth,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: it would keep some of our teachers the best paid,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: and they're looking to want to be able to attract
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: teachers here, the most likely teachers to attract a graduate.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: The thing is, we need people who can mentor those graduates.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: We need people who can be you know, properly compensated
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: for the hard work that they do.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: So, Michelle, is this a case where our teachers are
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: being greedy by not accepting this offer.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: No, I think it's actually the opposite. If our teachers
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: were greedy, we would be you know, we would be
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: jumping at it and saying, yes, go for it. Because
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: there are certain teachers who would be receiving an interesting
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: amount of money. I wouldn't necessarily call it a good
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: amount of money in the context of what's going on here.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: But there would be teachers who would be receiving money.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: But even those teachers are saying, no, I wouldn't want that.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: My colleagues aren't going to receive receive money. Also, people
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: are saying I wouldn't want to sign on to this
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: half offer when we've we've formed solidarity across the NTPs
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: to break the wage frees us signing onto this offer
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: would put the other unions in a poor position, and
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: especially the people under our general Agreement, who if we
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: break the wage freeze and get real incentives for territorians,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: it could roll onto our AOS and other people under generally. Yeah.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Right, So Michelle, where to from here? Is it a
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: situation now that you know that it is just the
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: executive of the union that get to decide whether this
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: offer is a good one or is it going to
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: go out to all teachers.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: So the OCPA emailed it out to all teachers yesterday afternoon, yep,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: and we'll be conducting a ballot of all teachers to
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: see whether or not they are willing to accept it.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: It's my strong belief that that ballot will not be successful.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: We've got teachers going out and drove today in strike
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: despite receiving this offer. And where to from here is
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: that our motion from our executive was we want to
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: engage in negotiations. So that's what we're we're putting to
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: the OCPE. We'll be saying, please come and talk to
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: us so that we can negotiate a deal rather than
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: having you back us into a corner.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: And if they don't, is there going to be more
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: strike action?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? We have our industrial action now and we've really
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: only started. We've had our half day in Darwin. Today's
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: our first full day strike across the Northern Territory. We're
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: headed into term four and we've got teachers who are
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: questioning whether or not they want to be teaching in
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: the territory next year, and they're very ready to go
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: out and continue to go out as long as it
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: takes to get the OCP to E to understand and
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: the government and cabinet to understand that they need to
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: be valuing our teachers and the people who provide education
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: to children in the Northern Territory.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Well, Michelle Airs, I really appreciate your time this morning.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for having a chat with us,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and please keep us up to date and let us
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: know how those discussions progress.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Katie, thank you