Mr ADAMSON - 1996-05-22
Last week, the Australian Education Union placed before the minister a 14-point log of demands. How many of those points have been resolved and how many remain outstanding?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, according to the secretary of the union, all bar 3 of those 14 points have been resolved. I am pleased to hear that because part of the submission - and I have tabled that submission for the benefit of members - referred to those teachers who have been offered, and in increasing numbers are signing, individual agreements with their employer. Those numbers are mounting day by day. I expect that, by the end of this week, the number will be quite considerable.
Mr Bailey: How many?
Mr FINCH: I will not tell you. I told you that the other day. It is a quite considerable figure. One would be sufficient to justify it. Therefore, I do not think the union would want to be guessing at this stage because, by Friday of this week, I expect that those teachers who want simply to get on with their job, and who have had enough of this strike
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business and the chaos it creates in schools, will not risk going out on strike next week - if that is when the union brings the strikes back on - and face loss of pay for an indefinite period.
Mr Stirling: They have not said that.
Mr FINCH: We will wait and see. Action has been deferred for a week. What does that mean? Does it imply that it will be back on again after a week? The union has not cancelled the action, but it may do so at the weekend. I hope it does, because that will display some responsibility on behalf of its members. It does not want to take its members down the trail whereby they will be exposed to an indefinite loss of salary. Indefinite - do members know what that word means?
As far as representation and misrepresentation go, certainly some of the comments that are being made publicly by the union at the moment are outrageously incorrect. Let me give members these facts. The cost to the NT taxpayer for education alone - and I will table the calculation - if we implemented the 14 points in that package, would be, over a period of 2 years and 8 months, $54m in total. Over a further period of at least 3 years, it would be much higher - $77m. For the 3-year period, the government originally offered $33m and that has increased to $48m. That is against the union's last bid of some $70m.
The enterprise bargaining agreement process - and I know that members on the other side are familiar with this process - was introduced during the regime of the former Prime Minister. It is pretty straightforward. It allows for workers to get together, usually through their union, to bargain with the employer about what additional salary and other benefits will come to the worker, against what extra efficiencies that are delivered. It is not a one-way street. The negotiations to date have been one-way, in that the only party giving way has been the government. The government offer now amounts to many millions of dollars in additional benefits: some $15m over a 3-year period. In return, not $1-worth of efficiency gain has been offered. I am sure members opposite know what the enterprise bargaining agreement system involves. Where will the employer be saved money, or gain greater efficiencies for the same money? That is the fundamental principle on which enterprise bargaining agreements are based. The union will not move even part of the way from its $70m-odd grab. This was not about money until a month ago, but now there is a $70m-odd grab. The government has come $15m down the track. For that, it has not been offered any efficiency offsets.
The union is saying that it is back to 3 points now. Hopefully, we may be able to obtain an answer. I am encouraged that the union will sit down with the commissioner to negotiate the latest counter-offer from government. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I trust that commonsense and fairness will prevail for the sake of the students in our primary and high schools, particularly those in Year 12, in the most sensitive of their education years which are more important even than their tertiary studies. I am encouraged by the plans that the Minister for Education and Training intends to put in place, not only to help primary school students but, more particularly, to assist Year 12 students in this crisis year.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, according to the secretary of the union, all bar 3 of those 14 points have been resolved. I am pleased to hear that because part of the submission - and I have tabled that submission for the benefit of members - referred to those teachers who have been offered, and in increasing numbers are signing, individual agreements with their employer. Those numbers are mounting day by day. I expect that, by the end of this week, the number will be quite considerable.
Mr Bailey: How many?
Mr FINCH: I will not tell you. I told you that the other day. It is a quite considerable figure. One would be sufficient to justify it. Therefore, I do not think the union would want to be guessing at this stage because, by Friday of this week, I expect that those teachers who want simply to get on with their job, and who have had enough of this strike
Page 1407
business and the chaos it creates in schools, will not risk going out on strike next week - if that is when the union brings the strikes back on - and face loss of pay for an indefinite period.
Mr Stirling: They have not said that.
Mr FINCH: We will wait and see. Action has been deferred for a week. What does that mean? Does it imply that it will be back on again after a week? The union has not cancelled the action, but it may do so at the weekend. I hope it does, because that will display some responsibility on behalf of its members. It does not want to take its members down the trail whereby they will be exposed to an indefinite loss of salary. Indefinite - do members know what that word means?
As far as representation and misrepresentation go, certainly some of the comments that are being made publicly by the union at the moment are outrageously incorrect. Let me give members these facts. The cost to the NT taxpayer for education alone - and I will table the calculation - if we implemented the 14 points in that package, would be, over a period of 2 years and 8 months, $54m in total. Over a further period of at least 3 years, it would be much higher - $77m. For the 3-year period, the government originally offered $33m and that has increased to $48m. That is against the union's last bid of some $70m.
The enterprise bargaining agreement process - and I know that members on the other side are familiar with this process - was introduced during the regime of the former Prime Minister. It is pretty straightforward. It allows for workers to get together, usually through their union, to bargain with the employer about what additional salary and other benefits will come to the worker, against what extra efficiencies that are delivered. It is not a one-way street. The negotiations to date have been one-way, in that the only party giving way has been the government. The government offer now amounts to many millions of dollars in additional benefits: some $15m over a 3-year period. In return, not $1-worth of efficiency gain has been offered. I am sure members opposite know what the enterprise bargaining agreement system involves. Where will the employer be saved money, or gain greater efficiencies for the same money? That is the fundamental principle on which enterprise bargaining agreements are based. The union will not move even part of the way from its $70m-odd grab. This was not about money until a month ago, but now there is a $70m-odd grab. The government has come $15m down the track. For that, it has not been offered any efficiency offsets.
The union is saying that it is back to 3 points now. Hopefully, we may be able to obtain an answer. I am encouraged that the union will sit down with the commissioner to negotiate the latest counter-offer from government. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I trust that commonsense and fairness will prevail for the sake of the students in our primary and high schools, particularly those in Year 12, in the most sensitive of their education years which are more important even than their tertiary studies. I am encouraged by the plans that the Minister for Education and Training intends to put in place, not only to help primary school students but, more particularly, to assist Year 12 students in this crisis year.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016