Teachers push four day week and work from home rights

Victorian public school teachers are preparing for a 24 hour statewide stopwork on 24 March 2026, with calls for four day working arrangements and clearer work from home rights at the centre of the dispute.

The Australian Education Union Victorian Branch is seeking greater flexibility in the next enterprise agreement, arguing current workloads are unsustainable and driving staff burnout across metropolitan and regional schools.

AEU Victorian Branch president Justin Mullaly said after seven months of negotiations, the Allan Government had failed to deliver a fair offer.

“Public school teachers, principals, and education support staff are being disrespected and undervalued, with salaries falling significantly behind other states,” Mr Mullaly said.

While the state government is drafting landmark legislation that would grant many workers the right to work from home two days a week from 2026, classroom teachers face different practical challenges. The union says flexibility in schools could include structured job sharing, reduced face to face teaching loads, four day teaching models and defined work from home provisions for planning, assessment and administrative tasks.

The Department of Education has already piloted a Flexible Work for Classroom Teachers initiative, offering $20,000 grants to help schools manage job sharing and non classroom duties.

Union figures indicate Victorian teachers will earn $15,359 less than their New South Wales counterparts by October 2026. Educators are also reportedly working an average of 12 hours of unpaid overtime each week.

The planned stopwork marks the first statewide teachers strike in 13 years. Parents are encouraged to contact their local schools to confirm arrangements ahead of 24 March.