Thousands of NSW teachers to strike over ‘unsustainable workloads and uncompetitive salaries’
NSW public school teachers and principals will strike next month over workloads and salaries.
Teachers will walk off the job for 24 hours on December 7 for what will be the first major industrial action in a decade.
The strike is over teacher shortages that are contributing to “unsustainable workloads and uncompetitive salaries”.
NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said the council voted unanimously for the 24-hour stoppage at a meeting in Sydney this morning.
“This will be the first 24-hour stoppage in a decade and it reflects the gravity of the situation we find ourselves in,” Mr Gavrielatos said.
“The Perrottet Government doesn’t seem to care that the shortages are so bad that one in five teachers are teaching outside their subject area.”
A statewide advertising campaign will also be used to encourage the government to fix the teacher shortages.
“Principals and teachers don’t take this decision lightly,” Mr Gavrielatos said.
“Over the course of the last 18 months we have exhausted all options available to us to arrive at a negotiated settlement with the government.”
The federation said the number of vacant permanent positions in schools has increased by 80 per cent since June.
The federation also claims the Education Minister was warned in July that NSW is facing “a large and growing shortage of teachers”.
“We are facing a perfect storm: plummeting new graduate numbers, rising enrolments, an ageing workforce which spell out acute teacher shortages.”
Premier Dominic Perrottet said today there has been a pay increase for public servants.
“I’ve made it very clear to the Teachers Federation yesterday the government’s position and that is we have a 2.5 per cent pay increase here in NSW for public servants,” he said.
Mr Perrottet said he is committed to work through the issues raised by the teachers federation.
“I understand and had a very, I thought, constructive discussion with Angelo yesterday in relation to the issues that the teachers federation
have. I said I would take them on board,” Mr Perrottet said.
“Ultimately this is a matter that will be before the industrial relations commission that’s where it will be resolved.”
The industrial award that determines the salaries and conditions of teachers expires in December.
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Teachers are seeking a salary increase of between 5 to 7.5 per cent a year “to recognise the increase in their skills and expertise and begin to reverse the decline in teachers’ wages compared to other professions”
