State school teachers demand 35 per cent pay rise, smaller classes, reduced workload
In its log of claims for a new enterprise agreement covering 1570 schools across the state, the Australian Education Union wants a 15 per cent pay boost in the first year of a new deal followed by 10 per cent in each of the second and third years. The increases would be based on the initial salary figure, and not compounded each year.
In addition to the large wage rise, the teachers want smaller class sizes, more allied health and classroom support for students, more flexible working options, workload reductions and lower administrative burdens.
Rank-and-file teachers and principals are in a mutinous mood after years of underfunding to government schools, a workforce crisis and a pay deal three years ago that delivered annual pay rises of 2 per cent, just as the cost-of-living crisis began to bite.
They remain the nation's lowest-paid state education workforce with Victorian graduate teachers earning $13,000 less than the best-paid graduates in the Northern Territory and $8700 less than those in NSW.
A group of unionists running on a 'strike now' ticket pulled in 37 per cent of the vote in internal elections late last year, and the union's state branch president Justin Mullaly told The Age in April that strike action was not off the table as part of teachers' campaign for better pay.
Several hundred unionised teachers rallied at the electorate office of Education Minister Ben Carroll in Melbourne's north-west last month to voice their determination to fight for more money and better conditions.
But the state's capacity to pay may be in doubt, with Treasury grappling with debts set to hit $167 billion this year and the government looking to cut 1200 jobs in a bid to save $3 billion. The government also secretly stripped $2.4 billion from future school spending by delaying by some years, money due to be spent under the long-promised Gonski reforms.
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