Victorian state school educators and support staff today walked off the job for a second time, after members of the Australian Education Union (AEU) rejected a subpar EBA offer from the state government.
In the weeks and months since the previous strike action, the state government put an offer to teachers that not only fell short of the pay increases (28% over 4 years, versus the 35% in their log of claims) that teachers are demanding; but failed to adequately address conditions and resourcing. Plus it left education support staff in the lurch.
Needless to say, a lot of educators weren't happy with the offer. Although the AEU leadership recommended a 'yes' vote, rank and file union members voted down the EBA offer and to continue industrial action. In the run up to today's strike action, the state government put a 'revised' (if it can be called that as it barely improved on its initial offer save for halving mandatory meeting hours) EBA to educators in an attempt to prevent the strike action, however the revised offer was also voted down by union members.
Educators have vowed to escalate their industrial action until they're given a fair deal - including giving more resources and cutting back excessive workloads.
See photos from the strike action below.
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