Vic teachers take action in term 2

“Victorian teachers, principals and education support staff are taking further industrial action this term. Work bans have been introduced in a number of areas, including writing comments in student reports, the implementation of new government initiatives, and responding to Department of Education emails. There is also still an existing ban on visits to schools by Labor members of the Victorian Parliament. The latest move follows the historic statewide strike last term , when more than 35,000 teachers and staff marched through Melbourne – the largest teachers’ strike in the state’s history – and stopped work for 24 hours for the first time in 13 years. The Australian Education Union (AEU) Victorian branch is seeking a 35 per cent pay increase over four years, along with measures to address workload pressures. Teachers have previously rejected the government’s offer of 18.5 per cent over the same period. AEU Victorian president Justin Mullaly said teachers and school staff had been pushed to take the new action.. “Victoria’s public-school staff are overworked and undervalued, with the average school employee doing 12 hours of unpaid overtime a week and experienced teachers set to earn over $15,000 less than their NSW counterparts by October. It is a similar story for many education support staff and school leaders,” Mr Mullaly said. In addition, the union has announced rolling half-day stop-work actions across regions, which are scheduled to happen during state budget week in May. Mr Mullaly has called on Premier Jacinta Allan and Education Minister Ben Carroll to fully fund public schools and deliver pay increases that reflect the value of educators’ work. “If they care about public school students and families, and want to properly address chronic staffing shortages, they need to immediately fully fund public schools and offer public school staff pay increases that properly reflect the value of their work,” he said.

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