B.I.I.T.E. STAFF RAISE THE STAKES
September 12, 2005
The Australian Education Union has joined with the NTEU supporting the call by Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff employed at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Education (BIITE) at Batchelor, Darwin and Alice Springs to ensure that only Indigenous Australians be allowed to apply for the Institute’s senior executive positions, recently advertised nationally.
Nadine Williams, President of the AEU NT Branch, yesterday said the AEU policy on identified positions within the Batchelor Institute has been underlined to all members as endorsed by the Australian Education Union at its 2004 Federal Conference. “AEU Policy strongly supports the identification of positions of educational leadership in Indigenous Education settings,” Nadine Williams said in Darwin today.
AEU reiterated that the call for these positions to be only offered to Indigenous Australians is not only consistent with current AEU Federal Policy but any suggestion that a recent internal letter to BIITE Council on this matter was connected to the AEU was incorrect.
As a result of the Institute not responding to staff demands issued last week, NTEU yesterday formally notified a dispute on the grounds the Institute is in breach of the EBA in not considering promoting existing Indigenous staff into these roles.
The EBA includes, as one of the Institute’s primary objectives, a commitment to “enhancing opportunities for employment and career development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the staff of the Institute.”
The dispute is about this clause and its operation in the context of the decision by the Institute to not to ensure that only Indigenous Australians be allowed to apply for the positions on offer.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Ms Alma Mir, President NTEU B.I.I.T.E. Branch, (08) 8939 7486