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Victorian school staff have voted to reject the state government’s latest pay offer, paving the way for statewide school strikes to go ahead on Thursday.
Teachers, principals and education support staff voted against a pay offer of 28.3 per cent over four years, during an online ballot of union members that began last week and ended at 1pm Tuesday.
School staff will stage a mass walkout on Thursday in an attempt to force the Labor government back to the negotiating table.
The result of the Australian Education Union members’ vote was 48.82 per cent to 51.18 per cent in favour of rejecting the offer. More than 50,677 union members voted, representing 90.2 per cent of those eligible.
Victorian branch president Justin Mullaly said the vote sent an undeniable message to the premier and the education minister to fully fund the state’s public schools.
“AEU members have been telling the Victorian Labor government for years that the under-resourcing of public schools in Victoria is making their work untenable,” he said.
“When just three in 10 public school teachers plan to stay working in public schools in Victoria, it is obvious there is a problem.”
Union members will stop work for 24 hours on Thursday, gathering at Bourke Street Mall at 10.30 am for a rally and march to Victorian Parliament House.
Mullaly said Victorian public school teachers, principals and education support staff are demanding the Allan government act in line with what they say Victoria is.
“This government says this is the education state. But this can’t be the case when this government has deliberately ripped $2.4 billion out of our public schools,” he said.
“If Victoria was actually the education state, public school staff would have access to the funding and resources they need to deliver the education their students deserve.”
Australian Education Union branch councillor Lucy Honan said teachers would be out on the streets in a rally “bigger than ever” this week.
Honan, a hard-left unionist, said the union’s left faction would push for further strikes early next month if Education Minister Ben Carroll was unable to provide a more satisfactory offer by next Thursday.
“Ben Carroll called it a watershed offer, but we could all see it was a leaky tap. His mucking around is inflaming the workforce,” she said. “We’re giving him until July 30 to make an offer that satisfies our core demands, or there will be another strike on August 4.”
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.
An acceptance of the pay deal would have allowed Education Minister Ben Carroll to sign a long-awaited funding agreement with the Commonwealth later this year, to eventually bring the state’s schools up to the minimum funding standard, a much-needed pre-election win for a government trailing its opponents in the polls.
The Education Department and Education Minister Ben Carroll have been contacted for comment.
More to come.
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