Qld Teachers warned not to take part in ‘unlawful’ strike action

Statewide industrial action set to begin on Wednesday in schools has been put on hold, with the Education Department declaring the planned work bans “unprotected and unlawful”.

Statewide industrial action set to begin on Wednesday across Queensland schools has been put on hold at the eleventh-hour with the Education Department warning the planned work bans are “unprotected and unlawful”.

The Queensland Teachers Union advised its 48,000 members to partake in low-level work bans, starting on Wednesday and continuing through to next Thursday, May 9.

Negotiations between the Department and the union had failed to resolve concerns around ongoing teacher shortages, workloads linked to the new national curriculum, and the use of student suspension and expulsion data as a performance measure.

The QTU advised members to refuse to do outside-of-rostered-duty commitments. This included not attending non-essential staff or faculty meetings, refusing to do extra-curricular duties, or partake in parent-teacher interviews.

Queensland teachers have been warned not to take part in strike action.

It would not include rostered duties such as lunchtime playground supervision, the union stressed the planned work bans would not affect students.

However, late on Tuesday, Department of Education Director-General Michael De’Ath issued a warning to all state school employees.

“This afternoon, the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission issued orders to the QTU and its members to not participate in the work bans,” he wrote.

“These actions are deemed to be unprotected and unlawful industrial action and cannot proceed.

“It is disappointing that the QTU did not communicate their member directions to the Department until late this morning.

“The QTU’s lack of communication to the Department about its ballot outcome, despite our repeated attempts to engage with the QTU, is uncharacteristic of the usual professional engagement between our organisations.

“To be clear, Department of Education staff are directed not to participate in any of the work bans or other actions directed by the QTU as a result of the recent ballot.

“Participation in any of the QTU work bans by a staff member may be considered a failure to follow a reasonable and lawful direction issued by the Department, as your employer.”

QTU president Cresta Richardson confirmed the industrial action taken by the Department, with union officials to meet on Wednesday morning to discuss the next steps.

“The QTU is aware of the email sent by the Department directing our members not to participate in the planned work bans,” she said.

“The QTU was ordered to appear in the QIRC today [Tuesday], the Commission has issued QTU with a list of orders to follow.

“QTU executives will meet tomorrow [Wednesday] morning to consider those orders.”

The union would not go into further detail about the QIRC orders issued to them.