The circus continued this week and it’s clear the Tasmanian Government is treating you with contempt.

We met again last Friday and midway through the meeting with government representatives a pay offer arrived from the Premier’s office… and it was clear their own negotiators at the table had no clue what that offer was! We don’t usually stick up for management reps but having to act like genuine negotiations are occurring while decisions are obviously being made elsewhere isn’t even fair on them.

We did get a chance to discuss a few topics in good faith such as managing meal breaks, casual terms and conditions, travel allowances for working away from home stations and professional development allowances. PD allowances will include a mechanism for claiming registration costs plus an allocation of money to spend on conference attendance and/or doing courses online or in person.

Unfortunately, the bargaining process is overshadowed by the government’s well-below-CPI offer. CPI in December 2021 was 4.5% and you got 2.35%. CPI as of June 2022 is 6.5% and the offer is 3% for December 2022 with a 4-year average rise of 2.75% a year.

As for the $1500 ‘sign on bonus’ – it’s conditional on accepting this shabby pay offer and reaching an agreement before 1 December 2022 - an almost impossible task as that’s only 9 weeks away.

This is a joke that isn’t funny - with many AT roles between $10-60K per year behind other services we have major job security issues and fixed-term employees seeking, and failing, to achieve permanency.

We’ll hold membership meetings across the state as the government’s asked us to take this offer to you - and we want to hear what you think about it. We’ll also discuss escalating industrial action that has been discussed by your AESB executive. Please try to attend one of the meetings we’ll advertise shortly.