TAFE teachers strike for fair pay, fair funding and job security

Thousands of angry TAFE teachers took their first stopwork action in over a decade to send a clear message to the Brumby Government today: Stop the TAFE rip-off.

AEU members rallied at the Athenaeum in Melbourne and marched on Parliament to demand a fair deal in pay negotiations, an end to the exploitation which sees six out of 10 TAFE teachers employed casually, and for the Brumby Government to row back on reforms which will effectively privatise the public TAFE system.

Victorian TAFE teachers are the lowest paid in Australia, and the Victorian TAFE system is the lowest funded.

But negotiations over a new agreement are deadlocked because TAFE directors refuse to come to the table without unacceptable preconditions that would force staff onto individual contracts, leading to longer hours and higher class sizes in an already overworked, under-supported job.

Now talks have been overtaken by the Brumby Government's skills reform package which would see higher course fees, HECS-style loans for students and every VET course in the state thrown open to competition.

That will create a race to the bottom with private providers cherry-picking the cheapest courses, forcing TAFEs to cut costs even further.

AEU TAFE vice president Gillian Robertson told the rally that TAFE teachers had been "battered from every side possible, pushed from pillar to post and we know there are times when we have to stand up for what is just and right.."

Teachers had been driven to action by the "arrogance and contempt" shown by TAFE directors who were pursuing their own self-interest instead of looking after the genuine needs of staff and students.

She said: "The pay rip-off, the job insecurity, the overwork and the leap to the privatisation of TAFE are not on.

"This union and its members will fight as long, as hard and as publicly as it needs, to see a TAFE system funded properly, a workforce paid decently with fair and reasonable conditions and a training system that will meet the real needs of our students."