By Natalie Blewitt
Growth Team coordinator

Calling for educators to be given priority vaccination against COVID-19 is just one way in which the SSTUWA is advocating for its members.

The SSTUWA is the only organisation recognised to represent the industrial and professional interests of all educators in WA public schools and TAFEs.

When you join the SSTUWA you join a team of people dedicated not only to protecting every member’s industrial rights but who also are committed to promoting the value of public education to the community as a whole.

Log of Claims update

Our senior officers – President Pat Byrne, Senior Vice President Matt Jarman, Vice President Samantha Schofield and General Secretary Mary Franklyn – work tirelessly for the members, leading the SSTUWA’s advocacy and lobbying processes, developing and implementing policy under the guidance of member-elected State Council Conference delegates and the SSTUWA Executive, ensuring your rights and entitlements are upheld.

Most recently, the senior officers, State Council delegates and Executive endorsed a Log of Claims. This Log of Claims, if accepted by the membership, will form the basis for negotiations with the Department of Education.

The Log of Claims has been sent to union reps for discussion at branch levels during the first few weeks of Term 3.

Keep an eye out for this document at your worksite and via the SSTUWA website so you can have your say.

Only SSTUWA members are permitted to vote on their terms and conditions of employment. If you would like to have your vote counted, become a member today.

Funding of public education

The SSTUWA strongly promotes the benefits of properly funded and accessible public education for all.

Every school should be provided with the resources to ensure every child gets the best education, regardless of their background or circumstances.

Across Australia, public schools are making a significant difference in the lives of Australian children, helping to level the playing field, overcome disadvantage and achieve excellence for all. That is despite governments failing to properly and fairly fund public schools.

It is not acceptable that less than half of all public schools across the country will ever reach 95 percent of the School Resource Standard (SRS) by 2023, denying public schools the vital resources needed for their students and entrenching school funding inequity across Australia.

In Western Australia alone, by 2023, public schools will only by funded to 95 percent of the SRS, while private schools will get combined federal and state funding support of 104 per cent.

Just imagine what your school could do if they were funded properly! The SSTUWA and Australian Education Union are campaigning for fair and proper funding for public schools via the Every School Every Child campaign.

Members are urged to get involved in the campaign and to raise awareness of the seriousness of the underfunding to public schools.

Find out more by visiting everyschooleverychild.org.au

Public Sector Alliance

Being a member with the SSTUWA has never been more important. Your membership adds an important voice to the growing call to end the current government wages policy.

The SSTUWA has joined with other public sector unions to form a new alliance that will work to reform the WA government’s fixed wage policy.

The policy imposes a cap to percentage- based wage increases, meaning a decline in real terms for six years for the vast majority of public sector workers.

The SSTUWA is calling on the WA government to return to negotiating percentage rate wage increases.

This ask is included in our Log of Claims and is the right path to take in light of the state’s expected budget surplus totalling into the billions of dollars.

As you can see, there are many issues facing public education currently that the SSTUWA is deeply involved in and committed to changing for the better.

Membership with the SSTUWA not only ensures coverage on an individual level but also on a state and national level, advocating for public education and acting on behalf of our members and fighting for what is right.