Fair Work Commission rejected all six TasTafe appeal grounds

Fair Work Commissioner Tim Lee in March granted applications by the Australian Education Union and the United Workers' Union requesting that pre-existing pay bargains that covered TasTAFE employees before its restructure also should apply to new workers hired since July last year.

Both unions had claimed that pay and conditions for new workers hired since the restructure were worse than those of existing TasTAFE employees that transferred to the new entity from the state service on July 1, 2022.

TasTAFE appealed that decision, claiming that the copied state awards did not permit it to offer higher, market-competitive salaries or allow it to deliver sufficient teaching hours to meet service needs.

It also claimed in its appeal that the state service awards did not offer the flexibility it needed, such as offering training courses during holidays.

In their decision on Wednesday, Fair Work Commission President Adam Hatcher and deputy presidents Val Gostencnik and Bernadette O'Neill dismissed all six of TasTAFE's grounds for appeal.

TasTAFE chief executive officer Grant Dreher said he was made aware of the decision late afternoon and was awaiting further legal advice.

He declined to comment further.

He has previously said that both unions had misconstrued the conditions that would apply to new teachers.

"We would contend that our [new] teachers are not being paid less [than staff who transitioned], we believe they are being paid more annually than people who transitioned on the copied state instrument," he said during parliamentary estimates hearings in June.

"We chose to make a recommendation to appeal the Fair Work Commission decision because we think the Fair Work decision was incorrect."

AEU Tasmania President David Genford said the ruling represented a huge win at a time when TasTAFE and union members are engaged in a new round of bargaining for new Agreements on wages and conditions.

"The Rockliff Government's privatisation agenda was passed by Upper House Members on a lie that no employees will be worse off under these changes," he said.

"I am proud to announce that this union win means the cuts to conditions the government promised wouldn't happen, have now been reversed.

He said the decision meant that dozens of TasTAFE teachers employed since July 1, 2022 will see pay remain the same but will have their hours dropped from 38 to 35 per week, bringing this in line with employees on the old agreement.

New TasTAFE teachers will also receive an extra week of leave - creating equity with existing workers - all with no loss of pay, he said.

Mr Genford said the decision came as unions prepare for a new round of pay negotiations on behalf of TasTAFE workers.

"The starting point for negotiations are now the full set of conditions won by TasTAFE teachers and staff before they were expelled from their public service jobs," he said.

Unions are arguing that higher wages are needed in order for the government to keep its promise of employing 100 more teachers.

TasTAFE became a government business on July 1, 2022 following controversial government reform.

As part of that change, existing staff retained their current wages, annual leave and break times, with their current teaching staff awards and industrial agreements transferred to the new business.

New staff were not included in those transferred award agreements, however.

The pay dispute at TasTAFE comes amid a difficult period for the training provider.

TasTAFE has been forced to cancel dozens of courses due to a teacher shortage and some employers have instead opted to send apprentices to mainland trainers instead.

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