Teachers to strike over ‘insulting’ payrise, push for reduced hours, smaller classes

Victorian teachers are planning to strike in the coming days, calling for pay rises and better working conditions - including reduced face-to-face teaching hours and smaller class sizes.

In 2004, Catholic & State School teachers protested at Parliament House seeking pay increase due to teacher shortages. Picture: Sharon Walker

Victorian teachers are gearing up to strike for the first time in almost a decade to demand a pay rise and better working conditions. 


Teaching staff are set to protest outside Parliament on Friday afternoon to call for a pay rise above inflation and an increase in superannuation of 16.5 per cent. 


They will demand the proposed Victorian Government Schools Agreement be amended to reduce the number of face-to-face teaching hours to 18 hours and smaller class sizes. 


Teacher and protest organiser Lucy Honan said the Victorian government’s current two per cent pay rise was “insulting” in the wake of Premier Daniel Andrews’ 11.8 per cent pay increase last year. 

The last teachers strike was a decade ago - demanding a payrise and to address the teacher's shortage in Victoria.

“Education Minister James Merlino and the Andrews government have offered small improvements as trade offs for a real pay cut for teachers and an inconsistent and messy reclassification system for education support,” Ms Honan said. 

“Public school teachers and education support staff in Victoria deserve much better than the proposed agreement, and we are willing to fight the Andrews government for it,” she said.

“After two years of the remote learning roller coaster and years of eroded conditions, teachers and ES rightly expect much better, for our own sake and that of our student.”


The industrial action will be the first time the education sector have organised mass action since 2013 when tens of thousands of teaching staff rallied at Melbourne Park, forcing hundreds of schools to close. 


About 30,000 teachers are believed to have walked off the job in support of that industrial action.