School strike to go ahead as teachers reject pay offer

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Victorian school staff have voted to reject the state government’s latest pay offer, paving the way for statewide school strikes to go ahead on Thursday.

Teachers, principals and education support staff voted against a pay offer of 28.3 per cent over four years, during an online ballot of union members that began last week and ended at 1pm Tuesday.

Striking teachers took to the streets of Melbourne in March to push for a better pay offer from the state government.Joe Armao

School staff will stage a mass walkout on Thursday in an attempt to force the Labor government back to the negotiating table.

Australian Education Union branch councillor Lucy Honan said teachers would be out on the streets “bigger than ever” this week.

Honan, a hard-left unionist, said the union’s left faction would push for further strikes early next month if Education Minister Ben Carroll was unable to provide a more satisfactory offer by next Thursday.

“Ben Carroll called it a watershed offer, but we could all see it was a leaky tap. His mucking around is inflaming the workforce,” she said. “We’re giving him until July 30 to make an offer that satisfies our core demands, or there will be another strike on August 4.”

Teachers last walked off the job in March, when 35,000 educators thronged the streets of Melbourne.

Union members began additional industrial action in term 3, including a ban on state Labor MPs visiting public schools and a ban on implementing new government programs.

An acceptance of the pay deal would have allowed Education Minister Ben Carroll to sign a long-awaited funding agreement with the Commonwealth later this year, to eventually bring the state’s schools up to the minimum funding standard, a much-needed pre-election win for a government trailing its opponents in the polls.

The Education Department and Education Minister Ben Carroll have been contacted for comment.

More to come.

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