Industrial action taken by teachers to not record comments on end of year reports or centrally record attendance is not supported by the sector’s parent representative body.
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Tasmanian Association of State School Organisations president Nigel Jones said the action would impact on parents and students more so than the government, and as such, the organisation did not support it.
“Many parents rely on those comments, particularly if you have a child who is doing well academically but may be socially not doing so well, or vice versa,” he said.
However Australian Education Union Tasmania branch president Helen Richardson said parents should already have a good enough relationship with their teachers to already have that dialogue.
“We would encourage teachers to have a relationship with their child’s teacher and have those comments communicated,” she said.
Mr Jones said the action would significantly impact on parents and carers and that TASSO had received a number of calls regarding it since the escalation was announced by the union.
“What we’ve heard is that parents don’t support this action, because it is going to impact on them,” he said.
Ms Richardson said the AEU had parent support, with those contacting the union saying they supported their push for a pay rise and the removal of a 2 per cent wage cap for public servants.
However, she said the escalation of the action had been put in place because of the government’s lack of action on the subject.
“We have had to escalate our industrial action because the government is not coming to the table to bargain in good faith,” Ms Richardson said.
She said there had been no measures put forward by the state government to address teacher workload.
Acting Education Minister Elise Archer said on Wednesday the action could put students at risk.
“Parents around the state will be confused about why the union is punishing families and students when the government has put a pay rise offer of 6 per cent over three years on the table.”
AEU members joined union representatives from AMNF, HACSU and the CPSU, among others, in large scale industrial action last week, with stop work meetings and rallies across the state.
They are disputing the payrise offer by the government and lobbying for it to scrap the 2 per cent wages cap in place for public sector employees.
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