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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 11 Hansard (20 October) . . Page.. 3344 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

of bursars in our schools successfully for eons. They are part of the success story of our school system, and they have been engaged in a debate with the Government about their wages and conditions.

These workers shouldered the additional duties which came to them as a result of school-based management. None of this was taken into account in their enterprise bargaining arrangements. They soldiered on, carrying out these significant additional duties. Bear in mind that there were significant numbers of employees in central office made redundant, and their duties were shifted to bursars in our school system. Nevertheless, the bursars soldiered on with their work, as it was loaded on to them, and continued to try to negotiate with government for increased wages and conditions, resulting from the increased responsibility that they had taken on.

The department prevented them from reaching a successful outcome, and it was made impossible for the bursars to continue on. Out of frustration they were forced to withdraw their goodwill. Let us not forget that these bursars were carrying out extra duties over and above those which they were being paid for, because they had been loaded up by the department when the department moved to school-based management. Mr Speaker, some of the things that the bursars had to take on involved accrual accounting and complex financial statements. They were also required to let contracts for building maintenance, and they had increased budget responsibility as a result of school-based management.

There was an examination of this following the industrial confrontation between the Government and the bursars, and the bursars' claims were vindicated when it was discovered that there was high work value incurred. And I understand that the bursars have endorsed, in principle, an offer which includes significant upgrading of their positions because of the additional workload they were subjected to. It is a matter of great shame for this Government that this particular dispute was allowed to elevate to the temperature that it rose to in the end. There has now been, and I emphasise, a recognition of the additional workload that these workers were subjected to.

Bill Stefaniak, trying to mirror image Peter Reith, waded into the bursars, and all that was missing was the dogs and the balaclava. That was all that was missing. He waded into the bursars, and of course they were stood down on instructions from the department, as I understand it. Now, why would this Government wade into this group of workers? Why do you think? Well, it is pretty obvious; because they were an easy target. As I mentioned earlier, they were low-paid, part-time, middle-aged women, isolated in their workplaces, away from industrial colleagues where they could struggle in unison.

Mr Speaker, they were an easy target. I am told that it was recognised by the Industrial Relations Commission that the bursars were left with little alternative but to withdraw their goodwill for the additional work that they had been carrying out. This flies in the face of what Ms Carnell said in her amazing press release which was issued either today or yesterday. She talks about this work as core work of the bursars. Of course, that is completely untrue.

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