INDUSTRIAL ACTION DURING NEGOTIAATIONS

Several incidents have occurred in recent days at secondary schools, despite agreements made with the PPTA to refrain from industrial action while employment negotiations were going on, Education Minister Wyatt Creech said today.

The Minister was concerned about media reports of several incidents at a range of schools which have decided to accept the Fully Funded Option.

"When negotiations with the PPTA began over the employment claim, one of the commitments made by the teachers' union was to refrain from industrial action.

"Media reports of recent incidents indicate a failure on the part of PPTA to meet the conditions that were agreed with Ministers for industrial negotiations with the Secretary for Education to recommence," he said.

Specifically Mr Creech said he was concerned that:

the PPTA does not appear to have spoken out at a national level against the industrial action at schools mentioned in media reports, although Roger Tobin, acting President, was clearly asked by the media for comment in relation to the Mountainview High School situation, thus creating the opportunity for such a statement;

there is no indication in these reports to suggest that the PPTA National Office has made an effort to persuade these branches to see their activities in the broader context and to express their opposition in terms other than the directly industrial;

industrial action is occurring or has been threatened at several schools around the country, despite the Government's clear statement that it sought an environment genuinely free of industrial action.

Mr Creech said he was requesting the PPTA leadership's views on these matters, specifically what action they would now be prepared to take to ensure compliance with requirements established and agreed, so that he could consider the matter further with Ministerial colleagues.