Dual grading dispute at DET

Executive, 23 June 2008

Report asdopted

The NSW Teachers Federation and the Department of Education and Training are in dispute in relation to the numbers of teaching service and non teaching service (Public Service) staff in the Employee Performance and Conduct (EPAC) Unit.

Presently there are public servants sitting side by side and doing the same work as other staff who have a teaching background. The teaching service staff are being paid at higher rates and have greater promotional opportunities than the public servants.

DET has moved, after PSA lobbying, to change this arrangement to ensure that new employees within Unit are employed on the same basis as each other.

To resolve the dispute the Federation has proposed to have the IRC ratify an Award - the Teachers (Investigation of Alleged Misconduct) Award 2008 - which would solve the problem for their members but entrench the inequity between teaching and non teaching staff in relation to pay and promotional opportunities. The PSA has been granted leave to intervene in the case which will be arbitrated in September 2008.

PSA members remain concerned, however, because if the Department of Education and Training wins the case (and the Teachers award not be made) our members will still not achieve an increase in pay.

Our members and delegates believe the positions are under-graded. However, the Department does not propose to evaluate the positions. At present PSA members are paid from $15,000 to $25,000 less per annum than their teaching counterparts. We believe that the positions should be evaluated and all employees in the EPAC unit be employed on the same basis.

The Teachers Federation has taken the position that public servants should not be investigating teachers as they do not know how schools operate. They have gone to the press to say that teachers and principals have lost confidence in the EPAC Unit because they are investigating trivial matters (implying this is because teaching service numbers have decreased) despite their being no substantial change in staffing at this point.

PSA members in the unit are highly insulted at this campaign by the Federation and have asked the DET to defend them.