dailyloe.com – The Victorian government plans to offer teachers a 28 per cent pay rise over four years to prevent strikes scheduled for May and June. This proposal is a notable increase from the previous 17 per cent offer but falls short of the 35 per cent sought by the Australian Education Union (AEU).
The Australian Principals Association (APA) has also indicated plans to join the industrial action, citing insufficient progress in negotiations. Education Minister Ben Carroll informed cabinet members that his department is preparing a revised deal for the 52,000 teachers.
Details on how the 28 per cent increase will be distributed annually remain unclear. Additionally, there is no information on addressing the 13 per cent pay rise offered to 34,000 government school classroom assistants, significantly lower than the proposed increase for teachers.
Key issues in the negotiations include workloads, class sizes, and unpaid overtime. Currently, a graduate teacher in Victoria earns $78,801, while the salary for the same position in New South Wales is $90,177.
The disparity in pay for experienced classroom teachers also reaches $15,000. This situation has led to significant industrial action, with 35,000 educators participating in a mass strike last month, marking the first such action in 13 years.
Upcoming actions include rolling regional stoppages starting May 6, coinciding with the Labor government’s pre-election budget announcement. Teachers from various schools in Melbourne’s north and west plan to strike for half a day next Wednesday, targeting Carroll’s electorate office in Niddrie.
Following this, teachers will focus their actions on the offices of other Labor MPs and ministers in a series of half-day strikes over the coming weeks.
