HUNDREDS of western suburbs teachers who walked off the job on Friday for better pay have vowed to keep fighting.
More than 300 teachers and school staff rallied outside the Sunshine office of Western Metropolitan Liberal MP Bernie Finn between 10 and 11am, coinciding with rolling half-day stoppages affecting about 80 schools across Maribyrnong, Hobsons Bay, Brimbank and Wyndham. Many schools closed until noon or operated with reduced staff.
Wearing union T-shirts and raising placards, protesters rejected the state government’s offer of a 2.5 per cent pay rise and performance-based bonuses.
Teachers want a 30 per cent increase over three years, in line with Premier Ted Baillieu’s pledge to make Victorian teachers the highest-paid in the nation.
Braybrook College teacher Spiro Falieros said systems of performance-based bonuses had failed overseas. He criticised the government’s failure to invest in education, saying the situation was worsened by savage cuts of $300 million from the TAFE sector.
Robert Sieminski, of Bayside P-12 College, Newport, said the offer of a 2.5 per cent pay rise was “effectively a cut in real terms”.
He urged the government to commit to a halving in the number of teachers employed on short-term contracts and maximum class sizes of 20.
“In the west, we have a higher proportion of disadvantaged students, and the best way to deal with them is smaller class sizes and more time to see students one-on-one, giving personalised advice and support,” he said.
“We have high numbers of students with multicultural and ethnic backgrounds who need a lot of support, more than your average middle-class school, so to not offer us what we need is a real blow and will bring negative economic outcomes in the area.”
Dinjerra Primary School, Braybrook, teacher Ivy Leach said all staff at the school had stopped work to call for better education for students.
Work stoppages began on October 16 with more than 1500 school staff and community members attending a rally outside Mr Baillieu’s Camberwell electorate office.
Mr Finn said the government was pleased talks with the Australian Education Union had resumed but protests “do little to demonstrate genuine commitment to these negotiations”.
He said students were being disadvantaged repeatedly and parents inconvenienced by work bans. “It is out of touch with the workplaces of most Victorian parents and the wider community to demand a 30 per cent pay rise without meeting performance review indicators or productivity improvements.” —Nick Toscano
