Queensland teachers union: Teachers’ demand safety action after work ban declared illegal
Queensland’s public school teachers have called on the government to do more for workplace safety after their attempted work ban was shot down.
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Queensland’s public school teachers have called on the Queensland Education Departmet to do more for workplace safety after their attempted work ban was shot down by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.
Statewide industrial action set to begin on May 1 across Queensland schools was put on hold at the eleventh-hour with the Education Department warning the planned work bans were “unprotected and unlawful”.
The Queensland Teachers Union advised its 48,000 members to partake in low-level work bans, starting on Wednesday and continuing through to next Thursday, May 9 after more than 90 per cent voted in favour of the bans late last week.
The QTU advised members to refuse to do outside-of-rostered-duty commitments. This included not attending non-essential staff or faculty meetings, refusing to do extra-curricular duties, or partake in parent-teacher interviews.
However, late on Tuesday, Department of Education Director-General Michael De’Ath issued a warning to all state school employees.
“This afternoon, the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission issued orders to the QTU and its members to not participate in the work bans,” he wrote.
“These actions are deemed to be unprotected and unlawful industrial action and cannot proceed.
“It is disappointing that the QTU did not communicate their member directions to the Department until late this morning.”
The QTU have responded by issueing a statement saying the QIRC would “not stop the QTU from campaigning for greater resourcing for our members to assist with the workload and safety issues they are currently facing”.
QTU president Cresta Richardson said campaign action continued because “the Department of Education needs to systematically address the unintended workload caused by an ad hoc approach to the teacher shortages, workload inconsistences associated with the implementation of the new Australian Curriculum, and the use of school disciplinary absence (SDA) data as a performance measure”.
QTU members are determined to stand together to ensure the department adheres to its obligations to deliver safe working conditions and tangible reductions to workload, Ms Richardson said
Queensland’s public school teachers will soon be voting on a proposal for a 10 per cent pay rise across the next three years which would see the most senior teachers paid $188,000 per year for by 2027, as they prepare for a week of work bans next month.
A QTU faction of “rank and file members” called Fightback says on the QTU website the last three annual pay increases of between three and four per cent have a “disparity with cost of living increases”.
It says a 10 per cent per year increase over the last three years would make up for “lost ground on our purchasing power since the cost-of-living crisis”.
This would mean an increase current salary for senior teachers (four year trained teacher with four or more years’ satisfactory service as a senior teacher or any three-year trained teacher with seven or more years’ satisfactory service as a senior teacher) of $119,000 per annum to $131,000 in 2025, to $144,000 in 2026 and $159,000 in 2027 — not including superannuation.
After July 1 the teachers in the top band will be paid $142,000 - the year on year increase the ‘Fightback’ campaign is asking for would result in their salaries being at least $188,000 a year by 2027.
It’s a move angered independent schools.
“We couldn’t compete, our staffing costs would go from $12m in 2024 to $26m in 2026. Senior Teachers would get paid more than the highest paid principals,” one source said.
The proposed state schools Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA), which needs to be voted for by a majority of teachers before it is put to the state government for approval, also asks for superannuation contributions to be lifted from 12 per cent to 16 per cent, additional sick leave and an extra week for personal leave.
QTU has also made a list of demands including “no engagement in … whole of school reviews”, “no classroom observations”, “no teaching of oversized classes” and no “professional goal/annual performance”.
An education sector source said teachers were using media coverage of safety issues in schools as part of their negotiation.
“They think these safety issues are helping with their negotiation,” they said.
It comes after a parliamentary question on notice from opposition education spokesman Dr Christian Rowan to Education Minister Di Farmer on March 24, indicating an increase in the amount paid to teachers and other staff for stress-related Workcover claims over the past two years.
In 2022-23, more than $27m was paid to teachers and other staff for psychological injuries, with almost $24m paid out so far this year — showing an increase of $300,000 per month in this financial year to date.
Combined with increased Workcover payments for physical injuries at $48m, the annual Workcover bill for state schools looks set to top $100m for the first time in June.
The final EBA has to be concluded by the end of the year and expires in June 2025.
If a majority of teachers vote in favour of the current EBA, then industrial action becomes permitted under Fair Work if the government rejects it.
Newly released Education Department figures show that in Queensland 1684 teachers quit in 2020 but in 2023, the number rose to 2607 teachers..
Correction: An original version of this school said that $119,000 was the average salary for Queensland teachers and has been amended to say that $119,000 “is the salary for a four year trained teacher with four or more years’ satisfactory service as a senior teacher or any three-year trained teacher with seven or more years’ satisfactory service as a senior teacher”.
The article has been further amended to state that a four year teacher refers to a teacher who has studied for four years at university not a teacher who has worked for four years.
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Originally published as Queensland teachers union: Teachers’ demand safety action after work ban declared illegal
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