- The Guardian
- Issue #2195
Victorian teaches’ strike in March. Photo: AEU facebook
Since early May, the Australian Education Union’s Victorian branch executive has been travelling around to the regions trying to sell the proposed Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2026 to us as a good deal.
It has been clear at these briefings that the rank-and-file members around the state are more convinced than ever that we should vote NO.
Our log of claims clearly specified what it would take to make teaching and working in public schools sustainable. This included a wage claim of 35% across three years that would address the real loss of wages – 15% in real terms – we suffered during the life.
The proposed in-principle agreement does not offer enough to end the crisis in our schools and does not address the profound inequality between teachers and education support staff.
SALARIES
The proposed increases are unequal for teachers across different classifications.
In particular, it has a massively lower wage offer for Education support staff and the proposed offer spans four years not three.
The percentages that are discussed in the media are misleading as they are cumulative amounts. If you look at the actual numbers, no Victorian teacher will be on par or better off than a NSW teacher with equivalent years of experience.
We need a meaningful pay rise, beginning with 15% in the first year to address the significant real wage loss since 2021, followed by the two further 10% increases that ensure our salaries keep pace with and exceed inflation over the life of the agreement.
TEACHER WORKLOAD AND STUDENT LEARNING CONDITIONS
School staff need real, practical workload relief, including additional education support in every classroom, smaller class sizes, and a reduction in face-to-face teaching hours to 17 hours per week across both primary and secondary settings.
This agreement offers no face to face teaching hour reductions and no reductions to class size. This is despite Monash University research on class sizes which highlights that smaller classes, particularly in the first four years of school and for disadvantaged or vulnerable students, significantly improve academic achievement, behaviour, and teacher well-being. The benefits of small classes are particularly profound for culturally, linguistically, and economically disadvantaged children, as well as those with learning and behavioural difficulties. Public schools teach over 80% of all disadvantaged students.
It was clear during the briefings that our elected leadership are out of touch with the reality of teaching in public schools.
In one inner-west meeting, a teacher who explained how many extra hours they were putting in each week to correct work, was told that the agreement covered these kinds of work load issues and that basically he needed to understand. The room erupted in disbelief.
EDUCATION SUPPORT STAFF – STUDENT LEARNING CONDITIONS
Education Support (ES) are only being offered a 25.8% pay rise while teachers are offered 28%.
This wage offer leaves education support staff a long way behind teachers. This is divisive. ES staff are already the lowest paid.
We need an agreement which includes fair and equitable conditions for all Education Support staff, including matching 35% pay increases to teaching staff, paid lunch breaks, and clear, enforceable job descriptions. The vague and easily exploitable “dimensions of work” remain key to determining education support classification.
At the briefings we were told that education support staff are over the moon with the wages offer despite many ES explaining that if the deal gets voted up it will lead to four more years of ES pay getting even further behind and workloads growing past unsustainable levels.
This inequity is the main reason we need to go back on strike. It is absolutely unacceptable that the union leadership consider an offer that divides members and offers our ES colleagues less of a wage rise.
We are being asked to approve a deal that falls far short of what we could win if we used our collective strength to go out on strike.
To end the crisis in our schools we need real enforceable workload relief, real enforceable funding to each school for the full cost of the agreement, and better conditions for ES – as well as wages that pull ahead of inflation, rather than barely catch up.
Our strike in March forced the government to change its position earlier in the year from no offer to a leaked sub-par offer, but we cannot afford to accept a mediocre agreement.
The question has to be asked, why the union leadership are asking members to agree to this substandard deal. The objective of a union is to enable workers to harness their collective strength in the workplace so that they can act in defence of their pay and working conditions.
We had over 40,000 members at our rally in March and while we don’t want strike action to cause unnecessary hardship to members, we have only had one day of action so far. There are many sub branches that are calling on the union to at least organise two more stop work meetings and to reject any offer that does not meet our core demands for fair pay, manageable workloads and properly resourced schools.
This is a moment for standing together with clarity and purpose, to act as lions rather than lambs, and to bargain, not beg.
