Australian Education Union Tasmania TAFE vice-president Damian Von Samorzewski said the union was bracing for a long term fight for conditions after staff transitioned from the State Service to Fair Work.

"This new process will have at least 100 active staff at the bargaining table, it will be very prolonged," he said.

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TasTAFE staff began the transition to a government business as part of regulatory reform to allow the vocational education provider to better meet the needs of its students and industry.

Chief executive Grant Dreher said the organisation had been communicating with staff throughout the process.

Mr Dreher said TasTAFE and the AEU finalised a new industrial agreement covering teachers in June 2022, which runs through to June 2023 and has provisions for the transition.

"The existing conditions contained within this agreement carried over to the Fair Work jurisdiction as a copied state instrument on 1 July when TasTAFE transitioned out of the Tasmanian State Service for existing employees," Mr Dreher said.

However Mr Von Samorzewski said the union had taken TasTAFE to the Fair Work Commission, with an investigation underway, to make an order to make TasTAFE pay new staff the same as transitioned staff for the same work.

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He said there had been an increase in union membership since the transition.

"There's been about a 5 per cent increase in membership. Employees lost a range of entitlements when we moved from the State Service, including how those rights are legally applied," he said.

"The new agreement will need to have those put into it, so those rights can be returned to staff, as promised in parliament on the 24 and 25 November 2021."

Mr Von Samorzewski said transitioned staff lost employee protections when the moved from the State Service and the union was fighting to ensure new staff were paid the same for their work.

"New TasTAFE teachers are on average are 7.5 per cent worse off pay wise (if you look at hourly rate rather than total wage)," he said.

"New teachers are expected to teacher 25 per cent more than transitioned teachers as well, for their 7.5 per cent pay cut."

Mr Dreher said during budget estimates employees at TasTAFE would be under two different enterprise agreements during the transition.

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When asked if that meant that teachers would be paid at different rates for doing the same job and if that would impact advancement and promotion opportunities, that was rejected by the government. Mr Dreher said all staff who had transitioned were covered by existing agreements.

"All staff who transitioned to the new jurisdiction are covered by existing public sector agreements that transferred across as 'copied state instruments' on 1 July," he said.

TasTAFE transitioned to a government business as a recommendation from the Premier's Economic and Social Recovery Advisory Council report. It found TasTAFE's current model was not meeting the needs of students or industry and needed to be more agile to deliver training and courses to address current and emerging skill shortages.

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