Victorian teachers strike LIVE: Schools to close to students as teachers walk off job to protest pay deal

Good morning, and thank you for joining our live coverage as Victoria’s public school teachers and principals strike for the second time in four months.

I’m education reporter Bridie Smith, and I’ll be helming our blog while my colleagues Alex Crowe, Jackson Graham and Caroline Schelle bring you live updates from the rally.

Today’s industrial action comes after teachers, principals and education support staff rejected a revised government pay offer of 28.3 per cent over four years made in April and a 17 per cent pay offer over three years proposed in March.

You can catch up with what has been happening here.

The peak organisation representing Victorian government school parents has urged the Australian Education Union and state government to reach an agreement in the protracted wage negotiations for the sake of students, families and staff.

“School communities are understandably tired of the uncertainty,” Parents Victoria wrote in an email to members on Wednesday.

“While the enterprise agreement is a matter for the negotiating parties, parents see this as part of a broader conversation about properly valuing public education. Competitive salaries, manageable workloads and fully funded public schools all work together to attract and retain the teachers our children need.”

Speaking on ABC News Breakfast this morning AEU Victorian branch president Justin Mullaly said the extra hours worked by teachers took a toll.

He said teachers were leaving the profession at a time when there was a shortage because pay and conditions weren’t enough.

“Teachers, education support staff, school leaders are working around 12 hours unpaid every week, it’s their goodwill, it’s their unpaid work that is actually filling the funding gap left by the Allan government.”

He said attracting and retaining teachers was a problem that needed to be addressed in any wage deal signed with government.

“We’ve got to change things because it’s driving too many people out of our profession,” he said.

“They leave in a time when there’s a [teacher] shortage which means that students may not get access to the teachers that they need to get access to. Workload is a real challenge. So is pay. We’ve got to attract people, and we’ve got to retain them.”

Will Nash, whose son is in grade 2 at Port Melbourne Primary School, said public school teachers had his full support.

“I can understand there would be frustrations for some people because it changes the dynamic of their week,” he said.

“But for the sake of a day of school that might change the lives of the teachers, who are the people who are looking after our kids, I think it’s fine. It’s a drop in the ocean of a disturbance.”

Nash said he saw it as giving back to the people, teachers, who had given so much of their time and lives to so many.

“I’ve only got two kids, but imagine looking after 42 for a whole day,” he said. “They need more help and support, and I think we need to give that back to them.”

Australian Education Union Victorian Branch President Justin Mullaly was on the Today Show earlier and said Victorian teachers had excessive workloads which hadn’t been addressed in the revised pay deal.

“AEU members are carrying the can for the inaction of the Allan Labor government,” Mullaly said.

“We need to see school funding delivered, we need to see the government deliver on the promise that they made at the start of 2025.”

“The number in terms of the salary outcome needs to be both about the amount of pay, but also the period of time in which the pay comes. That’s a core concern for members right now.”

Today’s mass walkout is the result of an Australian Education Union ballot which saw 90.2 per cent of eligible voters participate.

In a tight result announced on Tuesday, union members voted 51.18 per cent to 48.82 per cent in favour of rejecting the revised pay offer of 28.3 per cent over four years.

The result heaps pressure on the Allan government ahead of November’s state election. On Tuesday, Education Minister Ben Carroll urged the union to call off today’s strike and described the ballot result as disappointing.

In March, the government proposed a 17 per cent pay offer over three years which was swiftly rejected. It prompted the first government schools strike in 13 years, with 35,000 educators taking to the streets of the CBD.

Union officials, who initially asked for a 35 per cent increase over three years, have not named a new figure.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare says he hopes the issues motivating teachers to walk off the job in Victoria will be addressed.

“Teachers do the most important job in the world. I want to see them being paid as good as they possibly can be,” Clare told ABC News Breakfast this morning.

“The big pay rise for teachers in NSW has seen vacancies in classroom drop to a 12-year low ... the Victorian government’s got a big offer on the table here of a 28 per cent pay rise, which would be even bigger than NSW,” Clare said.

Pressed on whether he thought Victorian teachers had been underpaid compared to other states, Clare said he was not getting involved in individual negotiations.

“But the truth is we need more teachers, and we’ve got a shortage of teachers,” Clare said.

“We’re seeing some really big jumps in the number of people enrolling in teaching, and that’s a good thing. But we also want to make sure that our teachers are paid what they deserve, as well as taking some of that unnecessary admin burden off them, so they get more time to teach,” Clare said.

Parents and grandparents picking up children at St Kilda Primary on Wednesday said they had made arrangements for the kids today.

Serge, whose daughter is in grade 1, said his household would be working from home and had plans for activities, weather permitting.

“If the weather is good we’ll go to the beach,” he said.

Grandparents are also stepping in for the day. Jerry Manuel said his two grandsons would be with their grandparents on the other side of the family on Thursday.

Speaking on 774 ABC Melbourne this morning, Victorian branch president Justin Mullaly acknowledged that a 28.3 per cent pay increase was significant but that educators were still disappointed with the government offer.

“What [members] want to see are the best possible conditions, the best rates of pay in the context of making sure that we’ve got a supply of staff in our schools because that’s critical to the delivery of programs for students,” he said.

Despite the close vote rejecting the second offer, Mallaly said he had no doubt that there would be tens of thousands of education staff on the streets of the CBD today.

Mallaly also said he believed parents were supportive of teachers’ quest and the industrial action.

“Ultimately, it’s about the provision of education,” he said.

“I think parents and school staff share a common goal that we want the best quality education for our children and young people, and we need the funding to do that.”

The Victorian government has insisted schools will remain open today, despite some principals advising parents to keep children at home.

Schools will inform parents and families through usual communication channels, with some flagging last week that alternative arrangements would need to be made.

Most government schools have told their communities that supervision will be available for the children of emergency workers, by prior arrangement with the schools.

For those in the Catholic and independent sector, schools will operate as normal.

Tens of thousands of union members are expected to meet at Bourke Street Mall at 10.30am and march through the Melbourne CBD wearing red.

The rally will end at Parliament House where AEU Victorian branch president Justin Mullaly will address the crowd.

All the state’s 1570 government schools are expected to remain open during the industrial action. However, many will only provide supervision for a limited number of students.