The decision of the Australian Education Union’s leadership to reject the formal offer made by the Government this afternoon, and not even take it to their members or propose a counter offer, fails their very own good faith bargaining test.
The AEU have been found out. By their actions this afternoon, they have demonstrated that they don’t want more teachers in classrooms, rather they want to inflict disruption on Tasmanian students and families through militant industrial action.
The Government’s considerable offer provides a fair and affordable 6 per cent pay rise over three years, and addresses teacher workload concerns by recruiting an additional 95 specialists teachers by the end of 2019, on top of 250 additional teachers over the next six years.
These are the very issues the AEU have called for publicly and demanded be addressed. The Government listened and has demonstrated that it was prepared to meet the union demands.
Why won’t the AEU leadership take a reasonable and fair offer to their members? Is it because they have bowed to pressure from Tom Lynch and other public sector unions?
The union’s announcement demonstrates the total and utter contempt they have for Tasmanian families and students.
It would seem that the AEU leadership is more interested in playing politics with Tasmanian students’ education, rather than reaching a common-sense deal which is good for teachers, good for students and good for our education system.