SEVERAL Penola High School educators will join Australian Education Union stop-work action next week, attending the September 19 rally in Mount Gambier during the last hour of the school day.
The ongoing contract dispute between the union and State Government is continuing, with the two parties holding a conciliation meeting last Thursday after a request by Treasurer Rob Lucas to the SA Employment Tribunal.
The stalemate led to a government offer bring rejected in June, resulting in a full-day strike on July 1.
Penola educators will join other Lower South East residents outside of Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell’s office next Thursday for the peaceful demonstration.
Penola High School AEU representative Kathleen Phillips said it was important for country teachers to stand up and have their voices heard during the process.
“The decisions that get made without our voice being heard really only cover major schools in the city and we tend to get forgotten about,” Ms Phillips said.
“If country school conditions continue then we will struggle to get staff to come to the country.
“If we cannot offer other subjects because we cannot attract the staffing to the country the students miss out,” she said.
“The main focus here for us is to ensure the government stick to their commitments and the conditions of those commitments.
“Otherwise we will lose student support officers and people within the community will lose their jobs.”
Reassuring the union stalemate was not just based around wages, Ms Phillips said there were other concerns worth highlighting.
“Workload is another major issue that we continue to face because classrooms are extremely complex and we need to ensure we have appropriate funding for students that need it,” Ms Phillips said.
“We also need to make sure that we have got enough support for the students in terms of student support officers.”
Ms Phillips said rural teachers in small country schools take on “three to four” extra responsibilities outside of their usual work.
“These responsibilities are things that we cannot spread out among staff like could in a school with say 100 staff members so we are expected to do just as much as a larger school,” she said.
Treasurer Lucas has called on the union to immediately call off the strike to allow for the coalition process to take its course.
“It is now abundantly clear the union bosses from the AEU would much prefer to carry on their circus and cause maximum chaos and confusion for hard-working students, parents and grandparents than sit down sensibly and try and resolve this protracted dispute,” Mr Lucas said.
