Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation

Call Number
Nef 331.8809944 EDU
Created/Published
Sydney : The Federation, 1919-2021
Issue
Vol. 90 No. 03 (16 Mar 2009)
Images
28
View Catalogue

Contents

EDUCATION Journal of the New South Wales Teachers Federation 1
Health and safety rights under threat 1
New educators concerns remain the same 1
EDWCATION 2
Executive 2
Officers 2
Contents 2
Advertising 2
Still waiting for pay offer 3
TAFE skills needed for building program 3
Celebrate on May 21 3
Our Fed Reps 3
Concerns over PAS remain 4
Preserving the integrity of the HSC 4
Stop gaol privatisation 4
Nitty gritty of schools infrastructure investment 5
Focus on early career teachers 5
Primary teachers: a generous bunch 5
Work still to be done on staffing 6
Workload is the 'key issue for teachers' 6
Concerns multicampus colleges are failing teachers and students 7
Officer says goodbye 7
Credit union defends new fee 7
In brief 8
Federation wins ACTU award 8
Major impact of same-sex reforms in social security law 8
A complex situation 8
Advertising 8
Seeking a better super deal for women 9 , 11
Advertising 9
An opal of an idea 10
Permanency rare in the consultancy 10
Solidarity brigade to Venezuela 10
Focus on membership Recruitment is everyone's business. 11
Win a holiday 11
What you read Top five website stories in February 11
Advertising 11
Teachers blamed without facts 12
letters DISAPPOINTED 12
FORTUNATE, INDEED 13
NOT LOVING IT 13
MARK OF SUCCESS 13
BLINKERED APPROACH 13
Advertising 13
UNPROFESSIONAL CULTURE 14
SCHOLARSHIP ENCOURAGEMENT 14
LASTING PEACE REQUIRES CONCESSIONS 14
EQUIVALENCE? 14
THANKS 14
Advertising 14
features 15
Di concept wins the day 15
Inside 15
Advertising 16
Fully fund TAFE salary increases 17
Big skills, big solutions 17
Paper Plane 17
Advertising 17 , 18
reviews 19
Film 19 , 20
Inside 19
Computer corner 20
National Folk Festival ticket giveaway 20
Theatre 21
Advertising 21
Corkscrew 22
Advertising 22
administration 23
Senior Vice President vacancy 23
Teachers wanted for curriculum development 23
Inside 23
Advertising 24
Casual vacancies for Administration Officer (Media and Communications) and Women’s Coordinator 25
Duties 25
Aboriginal Members Conference Values, visions & voices – Positioning our future May 22 and 23 25
Advertising 26 , 27
DT SMITH 27
Students' stand headed for the news stand 28
Dazzling headgear on parade 28
Snapped in and out of class 28

Text

EDUCATION  

Journal of the New South Wales Teachers Federation  

Agreement No. PP255003 00104  

New face on Executive  

Plus  

Stewart House  

oik Ft -st i\ -a veawav 20  

\FK 17  

March 16, 2009 Vol 90 No  

Health and safety rights under threat  

National harmonisation of OH&S laws poses threat to the higher standards currently in place in NSW.  

Joan Lemaire  

Industrial Officer  

More than 200 union delegates met  

at Unions NSW on March 10 and re-  

jected many of the recommenda-  

tions for "harmonised safety laws"  

made by the National Occupation-  

al Health and Safety Review Panel  

established by the Federal Govern-  

ment, because they would lower  

safety standards.  

The delegates were told that at  

least 8000 workers die each year  

from work related injury or illness.  

Unions individually, and collec-  

tively through the ACTU, had put  

submissions to the panel oudin-  

ing the need to have occupational  

health and safety legislation that  

would set high standards to protect  

workers and significantly reduce  

the number of deaths and injuries.  

Despite this the panel made  

recommendations that would  

limit employer obligations so  

that they only have to do "what is  

reasonably practicable" to ensure  

worker safety and are only asked  

to consult with workers about  

hazards and risks "as necessary".  

The right for unions to prosecute  

would be removed and the right  

of entry for union officials to in-  

vestigate suspected breaches of  

occupational health and safety  

would be limited. It would also  

be more difficult for regulators  

like Work Cover to prosecute em-  

ployers. New obligations would  

be placed on occupational health  

and safety representatives.  

The meeting was moved by ac-  

counts from Federation Council-  

lor Moya Muller, Public Service As-  

sociation delegate Ray White and  

Australian Manufacturing Workers  

Union representative Daniel Miller.  

In practical terms they explained  

the hazards they faced at work and  

how the NSW Occupational Health  

and Safety Act, including the power  

of unions to prosecute, had made  

their workplace safer. Moya point-  

ed to the benefits that Federation's  

prosecutions had achieved not only  

for teacher safety but for the learn-  

ing outcomes of students.  

ACTU Assistant Secretary Geoff  

Fary reported that the Federal  

Government had indicated that at  

this stage, the recommendations  

had not been accepted and that  

working party would be estab-  

lished. He said that the ACTU Ex-  

ecutive had committed to major  

campaign to assert workers' rights  

to the highest standards of health  

and safety. But he also pointed to  

the short timeframe set by the  

Government which indicates that  

an exposure draft of "model Oc-  

cupational Health and Safety law"  

will be released in June and that  

states and territories will be ex-  

pected to adopt it in 2010.  

As the first step in the NSW cam-  

paign delegates agreed that there  

should be an urgent meeting with  

the Premier and Minister to urge  

them to maintain the high stand-  

ards in NSW as minimum. They  

called on the Rudd Government to  

ensure that workers' rights to safe  

workplace would not be reduced.  

Federation held Trade Union  

Training course concurrently  

with the delegates meeting to  

commence Federation's cam-  

paign. Participants at the course  

noted that even if the NSW Oc-  

cupational Health and Safety  

Act did set high standards, many  

teachers are injured physically  

and/or psychologically by violent  

student behaviours, workplace  

bullying, unreasonable work-  

loads and poor working condi-  

tions. They were appalled that the  

National Review Panel had deter-  

mined that employer obligations  

to address these hazards would  

be reduced and that employees  

would be disempowered by lim-  

iting their rights to be consulted  

about the hazards at their work-  

place and limiting the ability of  

the union to support them.  

It was agreed that informa-  

tion and resources should be  

provided to members to inform  

them that their occupational  

health and safety rights are under  

threat. This should be followed  

by range of activities on Inter-  

national Workers Memorial Day  

on April 28 to highlight the fact  

that the recommendations of the  

panel lower safety standards and  

may result in even more deaths  

Federation members Karen Morton (Cherrybrook PS), Gemma Ackroyd (Gardeners  

Road PS), Robert Cullen (Yagoona PS), Lindy Nolan (Wiley Park GHS), Sandra Moore  

(Nepean HS) and Paul McLean (Darlington PS) assisted in the development of cam-  

paign materials for the OH&S campaign.  

and injuries. They agreed that the  

campaign to protect occupation-  

al health and safety rights must  

continue for as long as necessary  

to ensure that at the very least  

workers' rights under NSW Oc-  

cupational Health and Safety law  

are maintained.  

New educators concerns remain the same  

Workload, behaviour, pay and class sizes trouble new teachers.  

Bob Lipscombe  

President  

For the 4th consecutive year,  

the Australian Education Un-  

ion's new educators survey has  

confirmed that the key con-  

cerns are workload, behaviour  

management, pay and class  

sizes. The national survey of  

1545 teachers in their first three  

years of teaching, released on  

February 26, was conducted  

late last year.  

When asked to list their four  

top concerns, 68 per cent of NSW  

beginning teachers surveyed  

listed pay, 66 per cent workload,  

60 per cent student behaviour and  

57 per cent class sizes. Although  

the survey was conducted during  

the recent dispute over salaries  

and staffing, all the figures are  

cause for concern.  

Of particular concern is that 43  

per cent of NSW beginning teach-  

ers surveyed indicated that they  

did not believe that they would  

be teaching in the public system  

in 10 years. While this was lower  

than the national average of 50  

per cent, it is significant in-  

crease on previous years.  

While the Teacher Mentor pro-  

gram has been in operation since  

2003, with the Department of Ed-  

ucation and Training (DET) still  

only providing 50 full time equiv-  

alent positions, it is not surpris-  

ing that more than 50 per cent of  

respondents in NSW reported that  

they had not received any formal  

mentor support. This figure was  

well above the national average.  

Overall the results raise real  

doubts about the ability of DET  

to meet the demands created  

by the retirement of large num-  

bers of teachers in the next six to  

seven years. They also strongly  

support Federation's call for re-  

duction in the face-to-face teach-  

ing loads of all permanent and  

temporary beginning teachers,  

and an expansion of the Teacher  

Mentor program to 300 positions  

statewide.  

PAGE 5? l'uou.s oil  

(I iIV Uatutil toacluo  

Cite

Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-667233896

APA citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation & New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. (1919). Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation Retrieved May 17, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-667233896

MLA citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation and New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation Sydney: The Federation, 1919. Web. 17 May 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-667233896>

Harvard/Australian citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation & New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. 1919, Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation The Federation, Sydney viewed 17 May 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-667233896

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=N.S.W. Teachers' Federation.
  | author2=New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation.
  | title=Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation.
  | year=1919
  | section=volumes.
  | issn=0013-1156
  | issue=Vol. 90 No. 03 (16 Mar 2009)
  | location=Sydney
  | publisher=The Federation
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-667233896
  | id=nla.obj-667233896
  | access-date=17 May 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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