Kylie Lang: Why Catholic teachers’ copycat cash grab is wrong
If the Queensland Premier wants to throw a stimulus payment at public servants, including teachers, the correct response is not for private enterprise to do the same, writes Kylie Lang.
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If the Premier wants to throw a $1250 stimulus payment at public servants, including teachers, the correct response is not for private enterprise to do the same.
Reckless spending for the promise of votes should not encourage enterprise to abandon fiscal prudence.
I get that Catholic school teachers would like more money, but stooping to stop-work action for a copycat cash grab is wrong.
More than 7000 teachers at almost 200 schools across Queensland have been refusing to do certain tasks this week. Come Tuesday, they’ll be walking out of classrooms at 9am in a dummy spit that kids – and their fee-paying parents – don’t deserve.
All this for a one-off payment that is not a genuine pay rise. And, in the scheme of things, it’s not going to go very far.
I appreciate that private school teachers have an understanding with their employers that they will not make less than their state counterparts, but let’s be clear about something.
Church schools are run like private companies. Bonuses have to be earned, not bestowed because some bright spark in another sector entirely decided it was a cracker idea to burn through taxpayer dollars.
In September, the Palaszczuk Government announced that an eye-watering quarter of a billion dollars would be doled out, in individual $1250 lots, to more than 200,000 public servants.
The unprecedented move was explained as a bid to drive economic growth, and coincided with a commitment to maintain future public service wage increases of up to 2.5 per cent, despite Brisbane’s most recent inflation rate being a more modest 1.7 per cent.
You don’t have to be an academic giant to see that the figures don’t add up.
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Taxpayers have a right to be unhappy about what is yet another sign that our Government is out of touch with almost everyone except the unions.
As for the many Catholic school teachers taking industrial action, they too seem to have lost sight of the bigger picture.
The Independent Education Union of Australia has convinced them that they deserve the random public service sweetener.
No matter that it could cost employers up to $25 million collectively.
Queensland and Northern Territory branch secretary Terry Burke claims the payment is “fundamental” to maintain wage parity with state school teachers.
Anything less spells the end of “professional respect”.
What about respect for employers?
Contrary to what some people think – particularly those who mistakenly consider Catholic schools as elite – these schools are generally not wealthy.
They don’t have buckets of cash lying around.
My son was educated in the Catholic system, and the fees I paid saved the Government money by not having him schooled by the state.
If Catholic schools are forced to splash $1250 on their teachers, it won’t be the Government coughing up but parents, by way of fee hikes.
What the Independent Education Union of Australia also won’t tell you is that this ill-founded industrial action is creating division within the schools themselves.
Sensible teachers – who either don’t belong to the union or who are members but disagree with the union’s stance – are picking up the slack of their colleagues, and they’re not happy about it.
Small schools with a stretched staff are struggling the most.
It’s all very unnecessary as the situation could have been avoided.
I’m with Lee-Anne Perry on this.
Dr Perry is the executive director of the Queensland Catholic Education Commission, and a well-respected former principal of All Hallows’ School.
She says it is “disappointing to see the union take this action during the busy final weeks of the school year”.
Indeed. Surely this can’t sit well with teachers who are committed to helping children succeed?
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Dr Perry says employers have put on the table an offer which includes a 2.5 per cent wage rise, increased benefits for middle and senior leaders, and reduced classroom contact time for primary school teachers.
Schools are keen to reach an agreement as soon as possible, she says.
Students deserve nothing less.
Being supervised in the classroom amid strike action is akin to learning nothing.
It seems to me that the only potential winner from this debacle is the union, which is seeking to justify its membership fees at the expense of common sense.
A stimulus payment given out by a union-driven State Government does not belong in salary negotiations in the private sector.
Originally published as Kylie Lang: Why Catholic teachers’ copycat cash grab is wrong