AEU Rally (First Cut)

AEU Rally First Cut

AEU Metro Rally

Thousands deliver ultimatum to Rann Government - fix this or we go out until you do

Thousands of AEU members, along with members from the PSA and IEU, marched from the gates of Adelaide Oval to Parliament House today to protest the Rann Government's failure to offer public educators an adequate enterprise offer. Rallies were also held in nine country locations around the State (reports to follow).

In Adelaide, chants of "Workers united will never be defeated" and "Hey Hey Ho Ho, J-Lo's got to go" rang out as public educators marched up King William St to take their message to government.

Teacher Anni Castine attended the rally with her colleagues and says that the Rann Government needs to lift it's game. "The Government's offer is pitiful but it (today's rally) is not about salary, it's about the mismanagement of the education dollar. It's about a funding model that will take $100,ooo dollars out of our school budget and this means less opportunity for kids."

In her address to the crowd, AEU (SA) Branch President Correna Haythorpe told members that the new government offer fails on a number of fronts.

"This new offer fails to address concerns about the proposed new funding model and falls well short of nationally competitive salaries and conditions for South Australian education workers."

"It fails to provide adequate workload protections for all members and deregulates employment conditions, particularly for School Services Officers, Aboriginal Education Workers and Early Childhood Workers", she said.

AEU Branch Executive met earlier in the week and formally rejected the new offer from the Government.

Today's half-day strike is likely to be followed by further industrial action if the State Government does not come up with a better offer soon.

New offer from Government misses the mark

It seems the State Government's pockets are empty when it comes to public education after they made yet another poor offer to education workers today. 

Unfortunately, the Government has failed to make any serious improvements on their previous offers, which featured less-than-CPI salary increases and few contingencies to address the issues identified in the AEU's Claim for A New Agreement. 

Under the offer, South Australia's public education workers would remain the lowest paid in the nation and around 350 schools would be worse off under a new per capita funding model.

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AEUPOD - TAFE EB matters & AEU delegates meeting

AEU members to vote on further industrial action

After three weeks of mediation in Industrial Relations Commission, AEU Branch Executive has voted to ballot members on further stop-work action. The State Government has failed to address key matters and is still intent on implementing a funding model that will see at least one in three public schools worse off.

Click play on the screen below to hear the AEU's new radio advertisements and an interview with Branch President, Correna Haythorpe on the outcome of today's meeting.

AEU launches new national campaign

The Australian Education Union has launched a new national campaign today calling for parents and teachers to work together to get more federal government funding for public schools.

As part of the campaign the union is rolling out a new television advertisement and website that will accompany local activities as teachers and the parents of Australia’s 2.2 million public school students join together to ensure the federal government invests more in public schools.

The campaign launch comes as a national survey of public school principals shows lack of funding is compromising the quality of education in public schools.

Click here to go to the campaign site.

Interim pay rise sought in the Commission

The Australian Education Union wants the state government to offer educators an interim wage rise as the Public Education Enterprise Bargaining process drags on.

October 1st marked 12 months since educators’ last wage rise, and 6 months since the expiry of the previous Agreement.
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