South Australian public school teachers will strike again this Thursday after rejecting a revised pay and conditions offer from the state government, which the union says is “meagre” and an expression of “contempt”.
Key points:
- The government says its latest offer is the “largest” it has ever made to teachers
- But the union says it is in no way an improvement on the last offer
- It says it will proceed with its plan to strike on Thursday
Last week, the Australian Education Union (AEU) members voted in favour of walking off the job for a second time in just over two months as negotiations over a new deal failed to achieve agreement.
Thousands of teachers took to the steps of Parliament House after the last offer in September, forcing hundreds of schools to close.
The union had been seeking an 8.6 per cent pay rise in the first year of its new agreement, and a 5.5 per cent increase in the following two years.
However, the government responded with an offer of 3 per cent per year over three years.
Education Minister Blair Boyer today announced the government had revised the offer to a 4 per cent pay rise in the first year, followed by 3 per cent in the second year, and 2.5 per cent in the third.
“We have just submitted to the union an offer worth about $1.4 billion which of course is the largest offer we have ever made to teachers in South Australia,” Mr Boyer said.
“Having the 4 per cent in the first year means that larger percentage increase is compounded in the future years, giving a benefit in years two and three as well.
“It’s my job and it’s the government job to not just offer a pay increase to our staff, we have to do one that is sustainable in the budget that we can deliver and that’s what we have done here.
“Offer number one was a record, two was bigger than that and three is bigger than that again.”
But after a meeting this evening, the AEU executive said it had “decided to proceed” with Thursday’s proposed full-day strike, saying that the offer did not represent any improvement on what was already on the table.
“This offer is essentially the same as, if not worse than, the last,” SA branch president Andrew Gohl said in a statement.
“Since taking industrial action in September, we have been negotiating with the government and expected today’s offer to reflect those discussions. It is disappointing to see such contempt.”
Mr Gohl described the government’s offer as “meagre” — saying that, despite the proposed percentage increase, it would leave some teachers “worse off in real terms”.
“This offer actually sends some people backwards compared to the second offer,” he said.
The union has also been calling for additional school support officers in classrooms and more time for teachers to complete admin work.
Mr Gohl said teachers had been “expecting something far more significant, particularly in terms of addressing workload concerns”, and that the offer contained little that would address retention issues that are currently impacting the sector.
“The decision was unanimous to reject the offer, and the reason being that workload and work overload have not been addressed,” he said.
“Members will be waiting up to seven years to see any reduction in their workload.”
‘It’s clearly an improved offer’
Earlier today, the education minister said the government’s offer also contained a commitment to make it easier to access disability support plans for students.
That would cost taxpayers almost $50 million over four years but the minister said it would save teachers hours in paperwork.
“Other items which have been added to today’s offer include what will be the biggest shake-up of disability funding in the South Australian public education system,” Mr Boyer said.
“We are also making a commitment to increase the permanency in the system for temporary relief teachers and permanent relief teachers. We know that nationally we have issue with retaining and attracting staff.”
Speaking this afternoon, prior to the AEU’s decision, Mr Boyer said the government had met the union’s request for an “improved offer”, and was “looking forward to hearing that the strike action on Thursday won’t be going ahead”.
“We’ve met the deadline, it’s clearly an improved offer — by a lot of money — so, on that basis, if the union’s true to their word, there won’t be a strike on Thursday. The ball’s in their court,” he said earlier today.
“Certainly, I don’t think strike action on Thursday will further the union’s case at all — in fact, I think the opposite is true.”
The union has insisted that Thursday’s Year 12 exams would not be affected by the proposed action, but Adelaide High School student Grace Ames said she had some concerns about the strike.
“I personally haven’t talked to many of my friends about it but personally I felt like the teachers strike was a bit at a wrong time, considering exams,” she said.
“From my understanding it’s a physics exam and I do have a few friends that do physics.”