Denis Napthine has taken performance pay for teachers “off the table” for now.
VICTORIAN Premier Denis Napthine yesterday announced he would dump performance pay from teacher negotiations but the relief was only brief.
Dr Napthine told MPs that performance pay would be taken “off the table” in the teachers’ enterprise bargaining agreement talks but the government was still interested in implementing the scheme outside of negotiations.
Australian Education Union North East branch president Kim O’Shea said Dr Napthine’s announcement was heartening.
“I think we’re one step closer and it’s excellent news,” she said.
But she confirmed the union would never agree to performance pay, nor would it accept the government’s 2.5 per cent a year pay increase offering.
“Our position hasn’t shifted — we’re totally against performance pay,” Ms O’Shea said.
“We believe it tends to discourage the great camaraderie among teachers.
“To judge an individual performance lessens teamwork.
“If they’re interested in performance pay down the track, maybe we’d be interested in performance pay of pollies.”
Ms O’Shea, who teaches at Wodonga Middle Years College, said she was not optimistic nor pessimistic about future discussions on performance pay because she couldn’t predict what would happen.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but unfortunately what the state government have shown in the past is that they don’t stick to their word,” she said.
In November the Australian Education Union adjusted its pay claim of 30 per cent to 12.6 per cent over three years.
The government only offered 7.5 per cent plus performance pay in return.