Teachers still without a deal, escalation on the table

A WEEK since more than 30,000 public teachers marched off the job in Victoria, a collective bargaining agreement is still yet to be finalised.

Australian Education Union (AEU) Victoria members stopped work for 24 hours on 24 March after eight months of unsuccessful negotiations with the Victorian government.

AEU Victorian branch president, Justin Mullaly, said the existing working conditions for teachers are unacceptable.

“Our students and their families do not deserve to have teachers, principals, and education support staff that are underpaid and undervalued,” Mullaly said.

“Instead the delivery of high quality public education requires that they are properly respected and paid what they are worth.

“The premier and the education minister need to act immediately on this, and on delivering full funding through an agreement with the federal government which lifts Victoria off the bottom of the funding pile and delivers the resources in full, like other states and territories.”

 

While unable to stop work, Catholic and independent school teachers threw their support behind their public colleagues.

Across the state, Independent Education Union (IEU) members shared acts of solidarity in support of improved pay and conditions for state government employed teachers.

Geelong-based Catholic teachers funded $1300 worth of coffees for AEU members to redeem on their way to strike action.

Others held solidarity morning teas, shared messages of support and wore AEU red or IEU black on strike day.

The public school stop-work has highlighted an ongoing legal battle between IEU and the Victorian Catholic Education Authority.

Under their existing multi-enterprise agreement, IEU members cannot take protected industrial action.

Negotiations between AEU and the state government are continuing following March’s strike action, the first in 13 years.

In February, AEU member kindergarten teachers and educators stopped work for the second time in five months after 20 months of unsuccessful negotiations with the state government.

The AEU confirmed before the March stopwork the industrial campaign will escalate further if members are not provided a “fair and decent offer”.