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Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is Michelle Airs,

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Speaker 1: who is indeed the Australian Education Union NT branch president.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Michelle.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Michelle, thank you so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Are you out there at that gathering and how's it

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Speaker 1: all looking.

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Speaker 2: I am in Alice Springs actually this morning in Darwin

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Speaker 2: and headed down to the gathering and it is cold

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Speaker 2: and rainy here, but we're've got members coming out and

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Speaker 2: drove brilliant.

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Speaker 1: I'm not surprised I know that in Darwin. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: there's plenty of them. Erin earlier told us yesterday she

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Speaker 1: was expecting hundreds to turn up. I'm sure that there's

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Speaker 1: going to be a healthy crowd in Alice. Also, Michelle,

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Speaker 1: as I understand it, there was another offer put on

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Speaker 1: the table this week. What was that offer?

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Speaker 2: So the OCPE has offered or is offering our teachers

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Speaker 2: a shift in salary increments, and it's kind of a

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Speaker 2: confusing thing to explain over the phone. It's even confusing

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Speaker 2: to look at. It means that some teachers will be

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Speaker 2: receiving like a bump in salary, and there's other of

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Speaker 2: our teachers, and especially our principles who actually wouldn't be

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Speaker 2: getting anything at all. But they're not calling it a

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Speaker 2: real pay rise. It's just they're shifting the salary increments

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Speaker 2: and it's a whole confusing offer.

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Speaker 1: So why have they done it that way? Why has

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Speaker 1: that been the way that they've put this offer on

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Speaker 1: the table.

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Speaker 2: Look, I wasn't involved in any of the discussions where

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Speaker 2: they were preparing the offer, but my understanding is that

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Speaker 2: this is a way that they can provide some incentives

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Speaker 2: to teachers to get them to stay here without actually

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Speaker 2: having to break the pay freeze, which would be a

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Speaker 2: political issue for them or for the government.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so what was the reaction then? As I understand it,

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Speaker 1: it hasn't gone like, it's not gone to a full

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Speaker 1: vote to all of your members. It is something that's

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Speaker 1: now sort of gone to just the executs from the union.

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Speaker 1: And what's been the reaction from the executive?

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Speaker 2: The executive moved a motion yesterday to reject the offer

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Speaker 2: and ask the OCP to engage in real negotiations. We

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Speaker 2: haven't had a negotiation back and forth. This was the

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Speaker 2: OCPE coming out to us and saying here's something accept

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Speaker 2: it or don't accept it. But that's my final offer.

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Speaker 2: That's not a negotiation that saying please don't go out

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Speaker 2: on Thursday, but we would like for them to sit

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Speaker 2: down with us so that we can say no, we

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Speaker 2: would like to see something across the board. We would

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Speaker 2: like to see a real, real wage right.

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Speaker 1: All right now. And know the Education Minister's been out

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Speaker 1: and said that the offer would mean that territory teachers

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Speaker 1: are the highest paid in the country. Is that the case.

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Speaker 2: It is the case for some of our teachers. So

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Speaker 2: our early career teachers would be very well paid until

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, and the very top of the line

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Speaker 2: for our CT nine, the teachers have been in classrooms

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Speaker 2: for ten years, would be the highest paid until twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three. But teachers in the middle of the in

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Speaker 2: the middle of the field would be They barely see

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Speaker 2: any kind of salary increase at all. And we weren't

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Speaker 2: happy to accept something that was only going to benefit

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Speaker 2: some of our members. And also, this has always been

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Speaker 2: about attracting and retaining teachers. It doesn't work for us

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Speaker 2: to only have early career teachers and teachers a ten

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Speaker 2: years experience. We need a strong field throughout from all

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Speaker 2: levels of experience.

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Speaker 1: So why would they have done it that way where

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Speaker 1: it's only actually, you know, going to help those that

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Speaker 1: are the new teachers or the you know, the very

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Speaker 1: experienced ones.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be a question, I guess for the OCPE.

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Speaker 2: But my guest would be that they are looking to

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Speaker 2: use as little money as possible, but still have that

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Speaker 2: line that they are offering something that would keep our

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Speaker 2: teachers the best paid, which is you know, half truth,

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Speaker 2: it would keep some of our teachers the best paid,

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Speaker 2: and they're looking to want to be able to attract

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Speaker 2: teachers here, the most likely teachers to attract a graduate.

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Speaker 2: The thing is, we need people who can mentor those graduates.

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Speaker 2: We need people who can be you know, properly compensated

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Speaker 2: for the hard work that they do.

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Speaker 1: So, Michelle, is this a case where our teachers are

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Speaker 1: being greedy by not accepting this offer.

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Speaker 2: No, I think it's actually the opposite. If our teachers

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Speaker 2: were greedy, we would be you know, we would be

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Speaker 2: jumping at it and saying, yes, go for it. Because

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Speaker 2: there are certain teachers who would be receiving an interesting

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Speaker 2: amount of money. I wouldn't necessarily call it a good

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Speaker 2: amount of money in the context of what's going on here.

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Speaker 2: But there would be teachers who would be receiving money.

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Speaker 2: But even those teachers are saying, no, I wouldn't want that.

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Speaker 2: My colleagues aren't going to receive receive money. Also, people

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Speaker 2: are saying I wouldn't want to sign on to this

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Speaker 2: half offer when we've we've formed solidarity across the NTPs

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Speaker 2: to break the wage frees us signing onto this offer

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Speaker 2: would put the other unions in a poor position, and

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Speaker 2: especially the people under our general Agreement, who if we

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Speaker 2: break the wage freeze and get real incentives for territorians,

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Speaker 2: it could roll onto our AOS and other people under generally. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Right, So Michelle, where to from here? Is it a

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Speaker 1: situation now that you know that it is just the

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Speaker 1: executive of the union that get to decide whether this

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Speaker 1: offer is a good one or is it going to

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Speaker 1: go out to all teachers.

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Speaker 2: So the OCPA emailed it out to all teachers yesterday afternoon, yep,

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Speaker 2: and we'll be conducting a ballot of all teachers to

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Speaker 2: see whether or not they are willing to accept it.

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Speaker 2: It's my strong belief that that ballot will not be successful.

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Speaker 2: We've got teachers going out and drove today in strike

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Speaker 2: despite receiving this offer. And where to from here is

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Speaker 2: that our motion from our executive was we want to

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Speaker 2: engage in negotiations. So that's what we're we're putting to

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Speaker 2: the OCPE. We'll be saying, please come and talk to

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Speaker 2: us so that we can negotiate a deal rather than

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Speaker 2: having you back us into a corner.

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Speaker 1: And if they don't, is there going to be more

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Speaker 1: strike action?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely? We have our industrial action now and we've really

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Speaker 2: only started. We've had our half day in Darwin. Today's

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Speaker 2: our first full day strike across the Northern Territory. We're

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Speaker 2: headed into term four and we've got teachers who are

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Speaker 2: questioning whether or not they want to be teaching in

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Speaker 2: the territory next year, and they're very ready to go

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Speaker 2: out and continue to go out as long as it

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Speaker 2: takes to get the OCP to E to understand and

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Speaker 2: the government and cabinet to understand that they need to

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Speaker 2: be valuing our teachers and the people who provide education

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Speaker 2: to children in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Well, Michelle Airs, I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for having a chat with us,

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Speaker 1: and please keep us up to date and let us

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Speaker 1: know how those discussions progress.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Katie, thank you