THE impasse between the State Government and public teachers appears to have ended amid a provisional agreement being reached.
This follows a union campaign being rolled out at regional schools over the past 18 months, including a mass rally in the heart of Mount Gambier.
According to the Australian Education SA Union, the government left the conciliation process at SA Employment Tribunal and returned to the negotiation table with the Australian Education Union.
The latest offer marginally scraped over the line after a vote of union members.
A yes vote by AEU members led to an acceptance of the latest offer from the government.
AEU president elect Lara Golding said the ballot result was a wake up call to the State Government.
“We know that enterprise bargaining is an imperfect process with a distinct power imbalance,” Ms Golding said.
“Legislation in Australia has limited the way unions can work to positively influence the outcome of negotiations when they stall.
“Regardless, our members have stood strong for more than 18 months and have committed to taking industrial action to bring the Marshall Government back to the negotiation table.”
Ms Golding said this was one cycle of the enterprise bargaining process.
“We will learn from this experience and that will inform the next cycle. Every improvement in the offer since June was hard won from a government who appears disinterested in supporting public education,” she said.
The union leader warned the matter did not end here given there were lingering issues.
“We are putting the Marshall Government on notice, particularly around issues that have not been adequately addressed,” Ms Golding said.
Treasurer Rob Lucas welcomed the ballot result, stating it gave “exceptionally fair and reasonable” salary increases and greater assistance and support for teachers in the classroom.
The offer – which covers the period 2018/19 to 2022/23 – will now be put to a state-wide ballot of all of the state’s 28,000 teachers, principals and support staff in the first week of Term 1, 2020.
“This is a huge vote of confidence in the offer from AEU members who are at the coalface in the classroom,” Mr Lucas said.
In addition to salary increases of 2.35pc per year for teachers and 3.35pc for principals and preschool directors, Mr Lucas said there was also additional support and assistance for teachers in the classroom, including a $15m per year ‘complexity allowance’ for schools.
“Every school will receive funding, which will be used to assist teachers in managing their workload relating to students with complex needs, for example, by engaging additional teachers or support staff and to meet the cost of expert assistance.”
On average, schools will get $29,469 per year (and up to $158,914 per year), with individual schools to decide how their funding is spent.
There are also a range of other initiatives, including enhanced country incentives, reduced face-to-face teaching time for principals (and teachers in standalone preschools), new positions for highly accomplished and lead teachers.
In exchange, there will be greater flexibility in human resource management and some more sensible rules about the system of allowances for teachers in country schools.
If the state-wide workforce ballot shows majority support, the agreement will be formalised.
