Public school teachers will walk off the job at hundreds of government schools across the state next week over an ongoing dispute regarding pay and conditions.
School staff voted for a 24-hour statewide strike next Thursday and a ban on working unpaid overtime during a meeting of more than 100 union representatives on Tuesday evening.
Teachers will stop work unless a last-minute agreement can be reached with the Allan government, having last month rejected the state’s offer of a 28 per cent pay rise over four years.
Long-time Australian Education Union activist Lucy Honan said the previous offer did not address the workload or cost-of-living crisis. Victorian state teachers are the lowest-paid in the country.
“Teachers and education support are furious at the state of our schools,” Honan said.
“The education minister should feel ashamed of himself and get to work making a satisfactory offer.”
About 120 union representatives voted during Tuesday’s meeting, which was brought forward from Friday, after more than 90 per cent of the 17,480 teachers who responded to a union survey voted to strike.
The survey, which also included responses from 5575 principals and support staff, identified a range of issues members wanted addressed before an agreement could be reached.
Key sticking points, which union officials have brought up during ongoing negotiations with Education Department officials this week, included pay for employees at the top of their salary range, class sizes and more work flexibility – including the right to work from home when possible.
The education union, which includes more than 60,000 Victorian members, will notify the government of the stop-work action immediately and introduce the ban on working unpaid overtime as soon as the industrial action is approved.
The action will be an embarrassing setback for a Labor government keen to get a deal across the line ahead of the November election.
The “No” vote followed a hotly contested internal union campaign. A well-organised faction urged members to reject the deal, arguing that a 28 per cent raise over four years fell significantly short of their initial demand for 35 per cent over three years.
Honan, a key figure in the “No” camp, said the government’s offer did not do enough for education support staff and widened the pay gap between them and teachers.
“What an abysmal legacy for this education minister,” she said. “He can expect more strikes until we get a watershed deal that makes every public school a really fabulous, world-class, safe place for children to learn, and for adults to work. Why shouldn’t we expect that?”
Teachers last walked off the job in March, when 35,000 educators thronged the streets of Melbourne.
Union members began additional industrial action in term 3, including a ban on state Labor MPs visiting public schools and a ban on implementing new government programs.
Union branch president Justin Mullaly said teachers, principals, and education support staff were working an average of 12 hours of unpaid overtime every week.
“The government must stop relying on the goodwill of school employees as a core part of their funding model for schools,” he said.
“School staff are stretched thin, putting in extra unpaid hours in the evenings and on weekends to ensure Victorian public school students have high-quality educational and wellbeing programs.”
Mullaly said current conditions in Victoria’s public schools were driving people out of education professions.
“There is already a chronic shortage of teachers, which the state government has not adequately addressed.
Education Minister Ben Carroll has been contacted for comment.
Be the first to know when major news happens. Sign up for breaking news alerts on email or turn on notifications in the app.
From our partners
Read the full article here
