Teachers to be offered 28 per cent pay rise in bid to avoid more strikes
The state government will offer Victorian teachers a 28 per cent pay rise over four years as it tries to avoid school strikes planned for weeks in May and June.
The offer, which has not been formally submitted to the Australian Education Union (AEU), is a significant improvement on the government’s previous position of a 17 per cent increase over four years, but is less than the 35 per cent increase over four years that union members were seeking.
The news comes as school leaders’ union the Australian Principals’ Association (APA) has also signaled its intention to take industrial action across the state’s 1570 schools, citing a lack of progress in the bargaining process.
State government sources who were not authorized to speak publicly confirmed that Education Minister Ben Carroll told cabinet colleagues this week that his department was preparing to offer 52,000 teachers a revised deal.
But it’s unclear how much of the 28 percent increase will be delivered in each year of the deal, or whether the government has a plan to resolve another key point in the disputes: the 13 percent pay increase offered to 34,000 public school classroom assistants, less than half of what is being offered to their teacher colleagues.
Nor were any details available Tuesday about what conditions would be included in the offer; Issues such as workloads, class sizes, and unpaid overtime were important parts of teachers’ demands.
While a graduate teacher in Victoria earns $78,801 compared to $90,177 in NSW, the pay gap for experienced classroom teachers is $15,000 and frustration at being the country’s lowest-paid public education workforce led to a mass strike last month.
Nearly 35,000 teachers, principals and education support workers walked off the job for a day in March to secure a better deal on pay and conditions and took to the streets of Melbourne CBD in the state’s first mass teachers’ strike in 13 years.
A new round of dozens of regional cuts is scheduled to begin on May 6, the day after the Labor government announces its critical pre-election budget.
The protests will begin with teachers at several schools in the city’s north and west planning to take a half-day off work next Wednesday to gather at Carroll’s constituency office in Niddrie.
Striking teachers will then hold half-day protests over the coming weeks, targeting the offices of other Labor MPs and ministers; Educators from regional towns including Bendigo, Castlemaine, Kyneton and Maryborough are preparing to attack Premier Jacinta Allan’s Bendigo East constituency office on May 13.
The public sector workforce has been politically problematic for Allan’s government, which settled a bitter labor dispute with the police force in February. Following a vote of no confidence from civil servants, then chief superintendent Shane Patton left the senior post, resigning in 2025.
Teachers union members also took note of the latest round of bargaining for the state’s nurses, which rejected a 2024 deal between union leaders and the state government that eventually won a 28.4 percent pay increase over four years.
Managers Association Victoria branch president Andrew Cock told members on Tuesday that the decision to apply to the Fair Work Commission for permission to hold a protected action vote was “not taken lightly”.
“However, in the absence of a concrete and revised offer from the government, it is necessary to maintain momentum in the bargaining process and ensure that the voice of the Principals Class is clearly heard and appropriately recognised,” Cock told colleagues.
A spokesman for Carroll would not confirm Tuesday that another offer was in the works.
“We recognize that our public school teachers and school staff always deserve a pay raise,” they said.
“Negotiations have accelerated, the Ministry of National Education and the AEU meet more frequently and we continue negotiations in good faith.
“We call on unions to keep students in class and not disrupt families while they consider further industrial action.”
The AEU has been approached for comment.
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