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. 53 No. 20 (22 Nov 1972)
Images
16
View Catalogue

Text

education  

JOURNAL OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES TEACHERS FEDERATION  

Vol. 53, No. 20  

NOVEMBER 22, 1972  

 

Price: Three cents  

Registered at G.P.0., Sydney, for transmission  

by post as newspaper Category  

July to November  

SALARIES,  

STAFFING  

STRIKES  

On July Federation suspended  

all direct action until September  

25 as an indication of teachers’  

good faith in negotiating with  

the Public Service Board on  

immediate relief for absent  

teachers.  

The board’s reaction was to shuffle  

few figures about and come up  

with proposition, the so-called two  

day relief offer, which on closer  

examination showed that unless 10%  

of the staff were away teachers  

would be worse off than under the  

present arrangement!  

Direct action resumed  

The board refused to budge from  

this position so direct action was  

resumed on Monday, September 25.  

In the meantime the new Minister,  

Eric Willis, had dropped his prede-  

cessor’s policy of charging individual  

teachers for refusing extras. How-  

ever, teachers previously charged  

have yet to be notified that the  

charges have been withdrawn.  

Salaries case  

By this time our salaries agreement  

had expired (Monday, September 11)  

and we had presented our case to  

the board for salaries increase of  

about 30% (but going as high as  

43% in some categories).  

The case was conducted by Les  

McGowan,' Assistant General Sec-  

retary assisted by other members of  

the salaries negotiating panel  

(Messrs. J. R. Williams, M. Adams,  

G. L. Ashton, P. Doyle, B. Mane-  

field and Mrs. E. Hokin) but did  

not impress the board greatly as  

they announced an offer averaging  

about Wo.  

Not satisfied with this slap in the  

face the board, to make its inten-  

tions even clearer, tied this “in-  

crease” to working conditions so  

that it was conditional on teachers  

“accepting current working con-  

ditions” —which could of course be  

varied at any time, without notice,  

by the board. This could mean  

classes of over 40, thirty or more  

teaching periods in secondary  

schools, clerical duties or anything  

else the board in their generosity  

decided teachers could carry.  

The board then stated it refused  

to negotiate with Federation on the  

salaries offer while any “threat” of  

direct action remained. No one  

expected such crude manoeuvre  

from an allegedly responsible body  

of government officers since it was  

obvious to the board that the Annual  

Conference resolutions on direct  

action could not be withdrawn ex-  

cept by the following conference.  

However, it was convenient, if  

transparent, excuse to freeze teach-  

ers’ salaries, embarrass Federation  

and stir division in the ranks.  

Mass meetings  

Federation council and executive de-  

cided the only way to resolve the  

salaries stalemate was to call mass  

meetings of teachers to discuss the  

issue and indicate what the general  

feeling of members was to taking  

direct action to protest at the  

board’s behaviour.  

The meetings were called for  

Tuesday, October 31 and were at-  

tended by nearly 50% of the mem-  

bership. It’s impossible to give an  

exact figure because, for reasons  

D.O.G.S. CAMPAIGN  

Individual members wishing to support the D.O.G.S.  

legal campaign against State Aid in the High Court  

may forward contributions direct to Federation, using  

the coupon below.  

ANTI-STATE AID CAMPAIGN  

Name  

Federation Serial Number  

Contribution Amount (cheque or money order)  

best known to themselves, minor-  

ity of teachers at the meetings  

chose to abstain from voting.  

The resolution put to the meet-  

ings was published on the front  

page of the last issue of Education.  

list of all centres connected by  

landline is published below, together  

with voting figures.  

For Against  

Sydney 999 563  

Fairfield-Liverpool 364 278  

Parramatta 673 683  

Ryde 413 316  

Sutherland 385 392  

A.C.T 287 48  

Albury 91 51  

Armidale 52 36  

Bathurst 36 40  

Broken Hill 54 61  

Camden-Camp-  

belltown 156 117  

Casino 38 45  

Cessnock 78 44  

Coffs Harbour 72 59  

Culcairn 10 15  

Dubbo 87 99  

Gosford 76 204  

Goulburn 48 45  

Grafton 29 50  

Gunnedah 67 23  

Inverell 48 56  

Katoomba 32 16  

Kempsey 40 23  

Lismore 107 112  

Lithgow 53  

Maitland 38 109  

Monaro 24 43  

Moree 40 46  

Murwillumbah 65 46  

Muswellbrook 57 18  

Narrandera 38 53  

Newcastle 547 348  

Nowra 59 46  

Orange 92 24  

Penrith 439 260  

Tamworth 84 74  

Taree 83 52  

Wagga 89 123  

Wollongong 329 199  

TOTAL 6,279 4,823  

The non-landline vote was 858  

for and 997 against. The combined  

total is 7,137 for and 5,820 against,  

giving total vote of 12,957.  

At the time membership  

was approximately 30,100 so this  

attendance would be amongst the  

largest mass rallies of any union in  

the history of New South Wales.  

Executive decision  

On Thursday, November 2, special  

meeting of executive, in view of the  

board’s refusal to heed the results of  

the mass meetings, passed the fol-  

lowing recommendation to be con-  

Above: Neil Pollock, Deputy President (left) and Ivor Lancaster, General  

Secretary (right) at the Town Hall Meeting, Tuesday, October 31.  

sidered by the council meeting on  

Saturday, November 4.  

(1) “That Council directs all mem-  

bers to stop work for 24 hours on  

November 9, and that meetings be  

called on November to consider  

further action.  

(2) “That meeting be held at  

Wentworth Park, if possible, at  

10.30 a.m. on November to en-  

able members to meet to consider  

further action, and that meetings be  

arranged in country centres.  

(3) “That on the afternoon of Thurs-  

day, November 9, mass deputations  

be held to Members of Parliament  

at Parliament House.  

(4) “That exemptions from the strike  

on November are granted to such  

members as the Federation mem-  

bers at the school concerned shall de-  

cide in residential schools, in schools  

for handicapped children and  

schools where there are classes for  

handicapped children, and in sec-  

ondary schools only for one mem-  

ber for such time as is considered  

necessary for the conduct of exter-  

nal examinations.”  

Council decision  

On Saturday, November 4, after de-  

bate lasting several hours, council  

accepted the executive recommen-  

dation by 107 votes to 53.  

The board had continued ada-  

mant at meeting with executive  

members on Friday, November 3.  

This fact was reported to council  

and no doubt had its effect in the  

final voting figures.  

Determination announced  

It was with considerable surprise  

that Federation senior officers re-  

ceived the announcement on Mon-  

day, November 6, that the Board  

had made salaries determination  

which was retrospective to Septem-  

ber 11.  

Federation received the news from  

newspaper reporters to whom the  

board had issued statement with-  

out informing Federation. We re-  

ceived the statement the following  

day.  

It was clear the board had waited  

to see how council reacted before  

making this move, which was ob-  

viously designed to disrupt Federa-  

tion’s proposed 24 hour stoppage.  

However, it was also tactical  

gain for teachers because the board  

had been forced to drop its salaries  

freeze and give full retrospectivity.  

Industrial Commission  

On Tuesday, November 7, the senior  

officers of the Federation were call-  

Continued on Page 284  

Cite

Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-710506540

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 June 8, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-710506540

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. 8 June 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-710506540>

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 8 June 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-710506540

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. 53 No. 20 (22 Nov 1972)
  | location=Sydney
  | publisher=The Federation
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-710506540
  | id=nla.obj-710506540
  | access-date=8 June 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

Citations are automatically generated and may require some modification to conform to exact standards.

Download

Select the images you want to download, or the whole document.

Available formats
TIF high resolution
Include
All
Current

Or select a range of images:

Selected: 1 - 16 (16 Images)

Order

You can order a copy of this work from Copies Direct.

Copies Direct supplies reproductions of collection material for a fee. This service is offered by the National Library of Australia

Include

Or select a range of images:

1 - 16 (16 Images)

Share

Share on Twitter

Share on Facebook

What can I do with this?

Copyright varies by issue and article

Reason for copyright status
Serials have an open range of dates.

Copyright varies with each issue and article. You may have full rights to copy, or may be able to copy only under some circumstances, for example a portion for research or study. Order a copy where circumstances allow or Contact us for further information.

Copyright status was determined using the following information:

Material type
Literary, dramatic or musical work

Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply.

For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Share Close

Copy and paste one of these options to share this book elsewhere.

NOTE: We've tested EMBED on blogspot.com blogs as well as self-hosted Wordpress blogs. This feature will NOT work on wordpress.com blogs.

About this book Close