SA teachers vote to strike unless demands met by Monday
The South Australian branch of the Australian Education Union has voted in favour of strike action next Thursday unless the state government comes to the table with an improved offer on Monday.
Public school teachers rally at Parliament House during their first strike on September 1. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
A state-wide ballot of AEU members which closed yesterday afternoon saw 83 per cent of teachers vote in favour of the strike action.
The industrial action will be called off if the State Government puts forward an “acceptable” enterprise agreement offer on Monday.
It follows a major demonstration from teachers in September that forced the closure of 167 public preschool, primary and high schools.
“Whether we strike is now a matter for the Malinauskas Government who have the power to make an offer which demonstrates a commitment to public education in South Australia,” AEU SA Branch president Andrew Gohl said.
“AEU Executive expects the offer on Monday to reflect several improvements, including greater workload control and an increase on the previous pay offer.
“The Government’s own inflation indexation figure was 8.64 per cent this year and petrol is $2.20 this week. Anyone reasonable would agree that 3 per cent is insufficient in the current economic climate when educators haven’t had a pay rise since May last year.”
Gohl said he expected an acceptable offer to be higher than a 3 per cent raise.
“While salary is important, we’ve said consistently that this is not just about pay, but also securing a set of working conditions that ensure our educators can provide the very best for their students,” Gohl said.
“Every day, thousands of South Australian students are going without a consistent teacher. It is a crisis affecting schools and preschools right across our state, requiring urgent and significant action.
“This is about priorities, and when the Premier can find $2 billion for submarines and $450 million for a university merger, we should not accept that public education and our students aren’t worth the same investment.”
Education minister Blair Boyer this morning said the government would make an offer on Monday – its third over three months – “each bigger than the last”.
“I won’t accept any suggestion that we haven’t been working towards a positive outcome,” Boyer told the ABC this morning.
“I’ve said from the outset I didn’t think that industrial action was needed. Both parties have been negotiating positively – yes these things take some time – but we’re talking about more than $1.3 billion expenditure of public monies over the lifetime of the agreement.”
