Consider these three facts about the teachers’ strike

NSW public school teachers will strike for the first time in a decade on Tuesday, despite an Industrial Relations Commission order that they abandon the action. Jordan Baker’s Herald article on the weekend (‘New battle for teachers pay is an age-old fight’) provides excellent historical context, but the issues in dispute do not affect only teachers. They concern a significant proportion of Australian workers. The teachers’ claims are of relevance to all of us.

Fact No. 1 concerns economics: wages are too low. A recent report I co-authored examining teachers’ pay found they should receive a 15 per cent increase simply to ensure their pay, relative to other comparable professions, is restored to what it was three decades ago.

Low wage growth has not only been a problem for teachers. For several years the Reserve Bank, along with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have been calling for wages to rise. These bodies have urged employers to share increased prosperity in the form of higher pay.

Striking teachers rally in Sydney in 1988. Today’s teachers would need a 15 per cent pay rise to restore them to their wage status three decades ago alongside comparable professions.Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald

Wages’ share of GDP is at historic lows. This not only increases inequality – it retards economic growth, which in turn limits employment growth. A wage increase will benefit not only teachers – it will be good for an economy with stubbornly high levels of unemployment and under-employment. The importance of appropriate wage rises for employment growth was one of the key insights of the work of US-based David Card, a winner of this year’s Nobel prize for economics.

Fact No. 2 concerns working time. Valuing the Teaching Profession, the report by former West Australian premier Geoff Gallop and others, comprehensively canvassed the long working hours and work overload affecting teachers. Contrary to popular understanding, teachers do not work 9am to 3pm. His inquiry found many work 55 to 60 hours a week. Again, this is not unique to teachers.

One of the significant changes in work, which researchers such as myself have documented over many years, concerns the duration, insecurity and intensity of work. Part-time work has increased greatly (and often involuntarily and on a casual basis). Full-timers in Australia now work among the longest hours anywhere in the developed world. And work intensification – meaning there is not enough labour for the tasks set – has increased for all.

Fact No. 3 concerns civil liberties: the right to strike. International conventions of the United Nations’ International Labour Organisation have long defined this as a human right. This right is recognised in federal and other state labour laws – but not NSW. If we were in Victoria or Queensland, there would be no legal controversy or intimidation of teachers preparing to strike. It is the law in NSW – not the teachers – that is the problem. It is time this anomaly was rectified.

Because the dispute raises concerns that go far beyond the teaching profession, unless they are resolved it can be assumed other workers will follow and there will be strikes in other industries.

Teachers stood by us during the pandemic. They were widely praised for their skill and commitment by parents afforded a ring-side seat in the classroom during lockdowns. A just wage and improved working conditions are deserved – and overdue.

Professor John Buchanan, from the University of Sydney Business School, led a team of four that examined the relative pay of teachers in NSW and how it has changed over the past three decades. The report, funded by the NSW Teachers’ Federation, informed the findings of the Gallop inquiry, Valuing the Teaching Profession.

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