TARNEIT Secondary College was closed and other Wyndham schools operated with a skeleton staff as teachers staged Victoria’s largest strike over a bitter pay dispute with the state government.
Teachers have vowed to hold another mass strike next year unless the government increases salaries and scraps its plan to introduce performance-based pay.
Tarneit Secondary College principal Michael Fawcett said all 10 staff members walked off the job, rejecting the offer of performance-based bonuses. He said staff at the school, which opened at the start of this year, were putting in the hard yards.
“Our teachers are working twice as hard as they normally would every single day, so the notion that I, as principal, would need to choose staff who wouldn’t get a pay rise . . . the sheer notion of that is terrible.”
Australian Education Union state president Mary Bluett said performance-based systems had failed overseas. The union also wants a 30 per cent pay rise over three years, a 50 per cent reduction in the number of teachers on short-term contracts and maximum class sizes of 20.
At Point Cook Senior College, 70 employees totalling 80 per cent of staff walked off the job in protest.
Eight teachers stayed back to accommodate a modified program for year 10 students. Ten teachers at Truganina South and 45 at Galvin Park went on strike.
Galvin Park principal Julie Myers supported the action for better pay, but hoped an agreement would be reached soon.
Ms Bluett said teachers would refuse to work more than 38 hours a week from next year and strike again on February 14 if their dispute was not resolved.
Tarneit Labor MP Tim Pallas said the industrial action was particularly pressing for Wyndham, which needed to attract teachers for another 37 schools over the next 20 years.
“Low pay and lack of job security makes life more difficult for teachers when we should be ensuring that the role they play in our community is truly valued.”
Teaching Minister Peter Hall said rewarding teachers on merit would build a “fair and balanced” system. The government has offered teachers a 7.5 per cent pay rise over three years, with bonuses worth between 1.4 per cent and 10 per cent for the best performers.
