CIT teachers say they are falling behind in pay as workload pressures surge. Photo: Region.
Frustrated Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) teachers have voted to pursue industrial action after a breakdown in talks with the government over pay, workloads and conditions.
Australian Education Union branch secretary Patrick Judge said in a statement that members of the AEU ACT Branch TAFE Council unanimously resolved that insufficient progress had been made on bargaining and that the union should seek permission from the Fair Work Commission to conduct an industrial action ballot.
Mr Judge said CIT teachers had been bargaining since early last year with nothing to show for it while workload pressures continued to worsen.
Pay had failed to keep pace with industry and public school counterparts and CIT teachers were now thousands of dollars behind and in some instances paid less than their students, something the current offer would not fix.
Mr Judge said this was making it hard to recruit and retain staff.
The unrest comes amid a crisis of confidence in CIT after the Think Garden consultancy scandal in which millions were spent on questionable contracts.
In a letter to interim CEO Christine Robertson earlier this month, Mr Judge said moves to hire a consultant to review salaries were unacceptable.
“CIT teachers have been burned by the Think Garden contracts, an apparent waste of millions of dollars that has damaged the standing of the Institute with the community and industry,” he said.
“There is no reason for CIT teachers to trust that this time, things will be different.”
Mr Judge said in the statement the CIT’s spending on consultants had been far more generous than spending on teaching staff.
“Our analysis indicates that the reported $8.5 million spent over five years on one consultant alone, Think Garden, would have been sufficient to fund the salaries of more than 100 beginning teachers or to provide 450 CIT teachers a pay increase of more than $3000 a year over the same period,” he said.
“While CIT teaching staff have won national and international recognition for their outstanding work, it’s not clear what value (if any) CIT received from its largesse on consultants. We think CIT and the Canberra community would be better off investing in teachers and support staff.”
Mr Judge said that while programs such as JobTrainer and Fee-Free TAFE were a welcome investment in the sector, they had not been matched with additional resourcing for teachers and administrative staff, leading to a surge in workloads to meet the new demand.
CIT teacher and AEU ACT TAFE Vice President Karen Noble said teachers faced an increasing need for complex support as many students needed additional learning assistance, career guidance and counselling.
“Teachers are carrying a heavy load for CIT and this community,” she said. “Teachers need some good news from this bargaining campaign. Recognition of their daily workload challenges and pay improvements are called for, urgently.”
Mr Judge also told Ms Robertson that the teachers were concerned about the proposed working conditions at the new CIT campus under construction in Woden.
“CIT persists with contemplating ill-considered and unworkable arrangements for staff accommodations at the Woden campus,” he said.
“This includes the absolutely insufficient provision for staff parking spaces and CIT’s inability to confirm whether it proposes to implement hotdesking for teaching staff, a long-discredited management fad which is untested and inappropriate for education workspaces.
“The Woden campus, which ought to be something that CIT teachers are looking forward to, is now met with fear that it will be yet another embarrassment for the Institute after the Think Garden debacle.”
A CIT spokesperson said the organisation would continue to negotiate in good faith and try to find a suitable outcome.
CIT staff were entitled to core pay-rises and conditions negotiated as part of the broader ACT Public Service.
Consultation was continuing with CIT staff about the practical design of working areas within CIT Woden.
“CIT has already incorporated some Activity-Based Working spaces across its campuses and these will also be part of plans at CIT Woden,” the spokesperson said.
Activity-Based Working was not hot-desking, but gave staff the flexibility and choice to use different work spaces that best suit their particular need including interactive classrooms, meeting rooms, open spaces and quiet spaces.
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