Thousands of striking TAFE teachers attending stopwork meetings across the state yesterday voted overwhelmingly (99.9%) to reject the Work Choices style changes to their working conditions announced in the recent judgement of the NSW Industrial Commission.
Teachers at some centres were so incensed that they voted not to return to work that day.
While calling on the Premier and the Minister for Education and Training to negotiate a settlement with the NSW Teachers Federation, TAFE teachers declared that they will join with teachers in schools to take combined statewide action in the next few weeks, if the dispute cannot be resolved.
Bob Lipscombe, President of the NSW Teachers Federation, said:
'TAFE teachers today have overwhelmingly rejected the appalling decision of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission to introduce Work Choices style changes to their working conditions.
'If this dispute is not settled, school teachers in public primary and high schools across the state will join with their TAFE colleagues to take combined industrial action within weeks.
'To teachers it is incomprehensible how any court can increase a teacher's working week by 5 hours and then value each hour at less than $3.00, or how it can require teachers to fund their annual leave out of their accumulated long service leave. Even under the discredited Howard Government's Work Choices, this would not have been possible.
'The Director-General has already told school teachers in writing that he cannot guarantee that there will not be an attempt by the Department of Education and Training to impose similar conditions on school teachers once their award expires.'
