PARENTS have been told not to take their children to school when teachers join statewide public sector stopwork meetings to protest against the government's budget cuts.
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The relationship between the government and the unions has further soured and it seems certain that Treasurer Peter Gutwein's latest pay freeze offer will not be accepted by today's deadline.
The Australian Education Union website advises parents there will be no supervision for children at schools, colleges and TAFEs on November 27 until 10.30am, with teachers taking part in the public sector's two-hour, stopwork action.
AEU secretary Terry Polglase said the union was reluctant to take the action, but had been forced into the decision by the government's failure to negotiate.
"We have not taken industrial action since 1996, everywhere else in the country you would struggle to go back more than a couple of years to find the last strike," he said.
"We have a situation now where we don't know where the cuts are going to fall for next year . . . that buck has been passed to principals."
But Mr Gutwein put the blame squarely back on the unions.
"As a result of the unions' selfish action, parents will be badly inconvenienced, and students will be denied access to education," Mr Gutwein said.
"I would urge the unions to reconsider this action, and not use our schools and our children as their own political playthings."
The government's latest offer involved a legislated 12-month pay freeze in exchange for the government's "best endeavours" to reduce the total number of jobs to be cut by 300.
Community and Public Sector Union secretary Tom Lynch said the government suddenly reintroducing the pay freeze legislation was an act of bad faith.
"Every time we conceded a matter the government put more road blocks in the way in a deliberate effort to ensure an agreement could not be reached," Mr Lynch said.
"It remains totally unnecessary to legislate an outcome that all parties agree to."
Meanwhile, the government has entered the first stage of negotiating a new agreement with the state's nurses, after being taken to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Foundation secretary Neroli Ellis said the nurses could not accept the pay freeze offer as they simply did not have time to put it to their members.
"It is physically impossible to seek our members' views with less than 48 hours' notice," she said.
"The Treasurer cannot make unilateral decisions without going to cabinet, as ANMF is also bound by internal processes."
