TAFE SA renege on rollover offer: Strike ballot opens today

AEU SA Branch media release: Tuesday 15 March 2022

The AEU's TAFE Divisional Council voted unanimously to conduct a ballot of TAFE members for a full day strike on Thursday 17 March.

TAFE SA has reneged on the original Letter of Offer undertaking to rollover the terms and conditions from the TAFE SA Educational Staff Enterprise Agreement 2016, attempting to rewrite clauses without explanation into an as yet unapproved new Enterprise Agreement.

AEU SA Branch President Andrew Gohl said, “AEU TAFE members are not only furious that key clauses have been changed without explanation - as is required - but that TAFE SA has attempted to exclude the AEU as a signatory to the Enterprise Agreement.

"This is an attempt at union busting in TAFE and AEU members will not tolerate this deceptive behaviour.

"TAFE SA has behaved appallingly through these negotiations.

"First by attempting to remove the Education Manager classification without consultation during negotiations, as is required by the Enterprise Agreement, precipitating a lengthy appeal in the South Australian Employment Tribunal.

"Second by pushing through a new draft agreement with changes to the employer, salary errors, variations to the consultation requirements of the Redeployment, Retraining and Redundancy clause and an attempt to alter the minimum qualification requirements for the new lecturer classification – all without explanation.

"The final straw for members was TAFE SA’s ploy to conduct a ballot to elect three non-union TAFE Employees to act as signatories on behalf of employees to a flawed agreement.

"Members feel that TAFE SA cannot be trusted."

The ballot for a full day strike will open today until close of business, Wednesday 16 March.