Hundreds of schools to shut classes as teachers strike
Teachers across Victoria will walk off the job today, as their pay dispute with the state government escalates and is now set to disrupt the first week of the new term.
About 1600 public schools will not hold classes today with parents urged to keep their children home if possible.
Teachers in Victoria have already walked off the job once this year. Louis Trerise
In a social media post, the Australian Education Union Victoria (AEU) president Justin Mullaly declared that union members would not work today after rejecting the most recent pay offer of a 28.3 per cent raise over four years.
“If they want Victoria to be the education state, then they need to fund us like we’re the education state and deliver the pay and conditions that our members deserve and that we need,” he said.
“The message for the state is really simple: fund our schools properly.”
In a ballot of union members that ended on Tuesday, 48.82 per cent of teachers voted in favour of accepting the pay rise, while 51.18 per cent rejected it.
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There were 50,677 union members who voted in the poll.
“It’s not tolerable our schools are the lowest funded in the country,” Mullaly said.
In its social media post, the AEU said it will hold a rally in Melbourne and march on state parliament.
Members from the Independent Education Union (IEU) in Victoria said they will stand in solidarity with the AEU.
“Both government and Catholic education staff face the same pressures: excessive workloads, workforce shortages and the urgent need for salaries and conditions that properly value their work,” IEU General Secretary David Brear said.
Union members will gather at Bourke Street Mall at 10.30am on Thursday before marching to Victorian Parliament House.
Mullaly said that the Victorian government needs to better the working conditions of teachers in the state. Luis Enrique Ascui
The rally comes after more than 30,000 teachers walked off the job over their pay and working conditions in March.
Staff from around 500 schools joined the strike in what was the first time the state’s teachers had walked off the job since 2013.
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