Al Siraat College teachers take fight for pay and rights to parents

Teachers at an Epping Islamic school have issued a warning to parents, saying they come to work “sick” because of a personal leave dispute with the college. This is what parents think.

Al Siraat College pupils with Fazeel and Rahat Arain at the Epping school.

Teachers at a independent Islamic school have taken their fight for better pay and leave to parents, warning they come to school ill because of a lack of paid sick leave.

Last week more than 300 pupils went home with letters signed under the group name ‘Al Siraat teachers’ asking for support for salaries to be increased to the industry standard and for parental leave to be included in contracts.

In July, Whittlesea Leader revealed teachers at the school voted to take industrial action after a fourth round of bargaining with the college failed.

Staff at the school do not receive paid maternity leave, and three teachers, who asked to remain anonymous, claimed their annual wages were between $2500 to $9000 less than staff in similar positions at other schools.

The letter said teachers were “being forced to come to work sick”.

Al Siraat College in Epping.

“Teachers at Al Siraat get less than one day of personal leave each month,” the letter said.

“Many of us are being forced to come to work sick, which isn’t good for us or our students.”

It also stated “with salaries up to $13,000 behind the industry standard (and falling further), Al Siraat will not be able to continue to hire and retain the best teachers”.

Independent Education Union Victoria Tasmania organiser Simon Schmidt said parents were “overwhelmingly supportive” of the teachers’ requests.

“This action is a chance for teachers to be heard by the community, and to get support from parents who agree that Al Siraat should be a great school with great teachers who don’t need to take a big cut to their pay and conditions to work here,” Mr Schmidt said.

A parent, who did not want to be named, said he had removed three of his four children from the school because they had become “depressed” by the high turnover of teachers at the school.

“There is a lot of unfair treatment of teachers and many of them leave,” he said.

The parent said he would support a teacher strike if it meant they could be paid fairly.

Another parent who did not want to be named said the people they trusted to educate their children “deserved” to be paid in a way which showed they were “valued like other teachers”.

The letter asked parents to “encourage the college to resolve this fairly” by emailing the school.

The school’s principal Fazeel Arain said he hoped staff would not take action that disrupt the education of students.

Teachers have not ruled out further action.