Teachers, principals, and support staff at 1600 Victorian government schools will walk off the job next Tuesday after the state government failed to make a reasonable pay offer or to address the staffing shortages that are leading to unsustainable high workloads.
Victorian public schools are the lowest funded in Australia and every school in the state is affected. In an overwhelming result, 98% of returned ballots endorsed the taking of a 24 hours stop-work, the first such action in 12 years. AEU teachers, principals, and support staff in public schools will take the protected industrial action on Tuesday 24 March in a march to Parliament.
The AEU hopes their action will send the message that for every student to get the best educational and wellbeing outcomes possible the Victorian Government must provide the pay and conditions needed to attract and retain public school staff.
AEU Victorian Branch President Justin Mullaly said Victorian public-school teachers, principals, and education support staff were being disrespected and undervalued with excessive workloads and serious wage disparity compared to other states.
The AEU log of claims includes pay rises to bring Victorian teachers in line with other states, and an urgent review of staffing levels to address the reported 12 hours of unpaid overtime teachers are performing each week. The union and members have been attempting to negotiate a new agreement for eight months. The Victorian government made an offer to public school staff on Tuesday this week that the union has described as “completely unacceptable”.
The government’s offer fails to address unsustainable workloads and the challenges of administration and other work that teachers are required to complete. Instead, it proposes to abolish existing time-in-lieu arrangements and replace them with an annual overtime allowance. Attendance can be required at any or all school activities without a cap on the hours of overtime required.
The offer also proposes to abolish face-to-face teaching maximums, maintain current class size arrangements, increase teacher meeting time up to three hours per week, and introduce one additional professional practice day.
In an industry that is already experiencing a staffing shortage the failure to properly fund and staff government schools will only worsen the teacher shortage. Children and young people – and their families, teachers, education support staff, and school leaders – deserve better than that.
Sign the AEU petition to show your support for public school teachers