Australian Education Union rejects Tasmanian Goverment’s revised pay offer to public servants

UPDATED: Public school teachers have rejected an “underwhelming” pay offer from the Government, instead submitting a counter offer and threatening more industrial action.

PUBLIC school teachers have rejected an increased pay offer from the State Government and countered with a bid for a 3 per cent annual pay rise.

Their union says industrial action is on the cards unless the Government responds favourably within a week.

The Government recently revised its public sector wages policy to offer pay rises of 2 per cent, 2.25 per cent and 2.5 per cent over three years — as long as unions agreed to a host of other efficiencies.

PUBLIC SERVANTS SAY PAY OFFER ‘WORSE THAN BEFORE’

A meeting of the Australian Education Union’s state executive on Monday issued a counter offer of pay rises equivalent to 3 per cent a year over three years. Teachers are also seeking improvements to working conditions.

AEU executive member David Genford said the Government’s offer wasn’t sufficient.

“We are underwhelmed,” he said. “It is not where it needs to be.

“We still think 3 per cent is a fair and reasonable offer. It recognises what teachers are doing, it will help retain the teachers we’ve got and also help recruit teachers.

“We’ve given the minister a week so they can look through the offer, have a week to digest it and get back to us and hopefully we can come to a conclusion soon.”

The union would consider the Government’s response before deciding whether to resume industrial action — which members had authorised, Mr Genford said.

Teachers have come up with their own equation for a “reasonable” public sector pay rise.

A Government spokesman said the wages offer was being considered.

“The Government has indicated our willingness to revise our wages policy, where we can agree on appropriate offsets to pay for increased wage offers,” he said.

“We have just received a counter offer and we are currently getting it costed, but we have made clear we will not be going into debt to fund unaffordable pay rises.

“We had asked unions to provide appropriate offsets to any increase above 2 per cent.

“The Government calls upon the union not to target Tasmanian families with industrial action while negotiations continue.”

AEU Tasmania state manager Roz Madsen said a better offer was needed to prevent teachers being the worst-paid in the nation.

“The Government’s revised offer to teachers did not move off 2 per cent in the first year and included a grab-bag of new demands that stripped existing conditions,” she said.

“The Government’s offer was a case of one step forward and two steps back and that was unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of teachers.”

The union made two counter offers to the Government — either pay increases of 2 per cent in March and 1 per cent in July each year for the next three years, or 2.5 per cent in March and 0.5 per cent in July.

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