Education Minister reveals new teachers pledge

UPDATED: The Education Minister is set to offer to hire additional specialist teachers in a bid to resolve the dispute over pay and workloads in the state’s public school system.

Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

EDUCATION Minister Jeremy Rockliff will on Thursday offer to hire 95 additional specialist teachers in a bid to resolve the dispute over pay and workloads in the state’s public school system.

Thousands of teachers are planning to stop work in the state’s North and North-West on November 27 and in the South on November 28 in the steadily escalating industrial campaign.

Mr Rockliff told the Mercury the Australian Education Union’s claims that the State Government was not negotiating were simply not true.

“At a scheduled wage negotiation meeting [on Thursday] after some weeks of discussion with the AEU, the Government will table an offer which will see Tasmania’s teachers receive a fair and affordable pay rise of 6 per cent over three years,” he said.

“The offer will also include a plan to reduce teacher contact hours by recruiting 95 additional specialist teachers, on top of the 250 extra teachers we have already committed to recruit.

Mr Rockliff said the offer not only specifically addressed the AEU’s workload concerns but would also see dedicated specialist teachers such as maths, arts and sports teachers returned to Tasmanian Primary Schools for the first time in over 20 years.

“The union needs to stop the threats, cancel the disruptions,” he said.

“We have always said that our policy of a 6 per cent pay rise over three years, means the Government will be able to employ more front line workers, like teachers. That is exactly what this offer does.”

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he Australian Education Union state manager Roz Madsen. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

Australian Education Union state manager Roz Madsen had earlier said the dispute would not be resolved without an improved pay offer. Teachers are seeking 3 per cent increases each year.

“The only formal offer from the Government for school teachers would increase workload and administrative tasks and relegate our most experienced teachers to lowest paid in Australia,” she said.

“We have just been advised that the Government has scheduled formal negotiating for tomorrow [Thursday] morning which we look forward to but also note that the Minister has said on radio that the 2 per cent pay offer is ‘set in stone’.

“The Government is not negotiating in good faith if it comes to the table with a predetermined outcome on salary.”

But Mr Rockliff said the Government would not be improving its pay offer to teachers — one of the main sticking points in the dispute.

“The State Government is not going to budge on the 2 per cent [a year increase],” he said.