Teacher stoppages on cards as premier refuses to budge

TALKS to end the two-year Victorian teacher pay dispute have collapsed.

TALKS to end the two-year Victorian teacher pay dispute have collapsed, sparking further strike action after the Baillieu government rejected a markedly reduced union claim.

The government said the Australian Education Union had dumped its push for a 30 per cent pay increase, in favour of a more modest 12.5 per cent over three years.

But the government has rejected the compromise and is refusing to move from its stated offer of 2.5 per cent a year plus productivity gains.

Victorian Treasurer Kim Wells said yesterday teachers should return to the negotiating table, adding that the 12.5 per cent offer did not comply with the government's wages policy.

"We have a negotiating team in place, I thought we were heading in the right direction," Mr Wells said.

But AEU Victorian president Mary Bluett said the revised offer should have been accepted because it represented a big compromise on behalf of the union.

While the government had previously promised to make Victorian teachers the highest-paid in Australia, they would be second to Western Australia under the AEU offer.

She said the government's failure to address the offer within three weeks was against the spirit of the negotiations.

"The AEU advised the department negotiators that there would be no further negotiations until the government comes back to the AEU with a revised offer," Ms Bluett told her members.

The AEU has told members that the ban on writing comments on report cards should remain in force, "and there is now no prospect of comments being provided for the 2012 school year".

Ms Bluett also told schools to prepare for a 38-hour week from the start of the first term next year. This will mean teachers will stop work once they reach 38 hours, meaning there are unlikely to be school camps, out-of-hours fundraising and other tasks that require teachers to work extra hours.

There will be half-day rolling stoppages in regional areas from Tuesday, starting in the border town of Mildura.

JOHN FERGUSON