Public Education wins better resources for staff and students

South Australian educators are celebrating their win in the Industrial Relations Commission with the finalisation of arbitration delivering very significant improvements for preschools, schools and TAFEs.

In today's decision the Commission has recognised that education workers have been overworked, underpaid and dragged away from their core job of teaching students.

AEU SA President Correna Haythorpe says the IRC's decision to protect class sizes will be a huge relief for parents.

"For the first time parents can be reassured that their child's class size cannot be increased at the whim of the government."

"It also comes as a huge relief to teachers who have to struggle to manage increased demands as class sizes creep up."

"Today's decision stops that creep. For the very first time the Commission has explicitly stated that class sizes are fixed and this means that the government cannot increase them as part of any future funding arrangements or budget cuts."

Another very big win is in staff permanency.

"The AEU's arguments for job security were upheld by the Commission. It found that there was an unacceptable level of short term and temporary employment, particularly amongst Schools Services Officers (SSOs), contract teachers and TAFE staff."

"As a result of today's decision, the onus is now on the government to fix what we have long regarded as an untenable situation. We expect literally thousands of staff will be granted permanency as a result."

The Commission also determined that:

• Teachers and leaders had unreasonable workloads, were working excessive hours and that this was unsustainable. It ordered a better balance between the amount of time spent in the classroom and that spent preparing for lessons each week. Secondary teachers will now get 5 hours and 40 minutes of preparation time and primary teachers will get 4 hours and 10 minutes.
  
  
• Children with disabilities deserve significantly more support than they currently get. In one of the biggest wins for these children and their families, the Commission has ordered that an additional adult be placed in every special needs class. Ms Haythorpe says she's absolutely delighted that this area of critical need has received the support it so desperately requires.
  
  
• Additional leadership is needed across the public education system. The Commission has found that there aren't enough leaders and has asked the government what it intends to do about it.
  
  
• There is an unacceptable level of unpaid overtime for SSOs, Early Childhood Workers and Aboriginal Education Workers. The Commission concluded that the working of unpaid hours by these employees is "endemic" and that's an unacceptable situation. Ms Haythorpe says "The education system has been surviving on the goodwill of staff for yeats. Our dedicated, professional staff work very hard and they deserve to be properly recompensed for that effort".
  
  

The IRC split the arbitration process into two parts – the first dealing with wages saw educators given well earned pay rises; today the second part was handed down dealing with crucial issues including class sizes, staff permanency, and workload protections.

"Today is not just a day of vindication and relief for public educators, but one which has mixed feelings about why we had to fight so long and so hard for a just outcome. We hope the state government will respond quickly and with good grace to this decision, and perhaps more importantly, not repeat this expensive and demoralising kind of tactic again" Ms Haythorpe says.

Follow this link to the Full Decision of the IRC (SA)