Teachers to be offered 28 per cent pay rise in bid to avoid more strikes

Victorian teachers will be offered a 28 per cent pay rise over four years by the state government, as it tries to avoid weeks of school strikes planned throughout May and June.

The offer, which has not been formally presented to the Australian Education Union (AEU), is a significant advance on the government’s previous position of a 17 per cent increase over four years, but less than the 35 per cent over four years sought by union members.

The news comes as the school leaders’ union, the Australian Principals Federation, also flagged its intention to join industrial action at the state’s 1570 schools, citing lack of progress in the bargaining process.

State government sources, not authorised to speak publicly, have confirmed that Education Minister Ben Carroll told cabinet colleagues this week his department was preparing to offer the 52,000 teachers a revised deal.

But it is unclear how much of the 28 per cent increase would be delivered in each year of the deal, or if the government has a plan to resolve another key sticking point in the disputes: the 13 per cent pay rise offered to the 34,000 government school classroom assistants, which is less than half that offered to their teaching colleagues.

Nor was there any detail available on Tuesday about what conditions will be included in the offer, with issues such as workloads, class sizes and unpaid overtime forming key parts of the teachers’ demand.

A graduate teacher in Victoria earns $78,801, compared with $90,177 in NSW, while the pay gap between experienced classroom teachers is $15,000. Years of frustration at being the nation’s worst-paid public education workforce boiled over into massive industrial action last month.

Up to 35,000 teachers, principals and education support workers walked off the job for a day in March in pursuit of a better deal on pay and conditions, taking to the streets of Melbourne’s CBD in the state’s first mass teachers’ strike in 13 years.

A fresh series of dozens of rolling regional stoppages is planned to begin on May 6, the day after the Labor government releases its crucial pre-election budget.

The actions are set to begin with teachers from scores of schools in the city’s north and west planning to walk off the job next Wednesday for half a day to converge on Carroll’s electorate office in Niddrie.

Striking teachers would then target the offices of other Labor MPs and ministers as they take half-day actions over subsequent weeks. Educators from the regional towns of Bendigo, Castlemaine, Kyneton and Maryborough are preparing to descend on Premier Jacinta Allan’s Bendigo East electorate office on May 13.

Public sector workforces have been politically problematic for the Allan government, which settled a bitter industrial dispute with its police force in February. After a vote of no-confidence from officers, then-chief commissioner Shane Patton left the top job after resigning in 2025.

Teacher union members have also taken note of the last round of bargaining for the state’s nurses, who rejected a deal brokered between their union’s leadership and the state government in 2024, eventually winning a 28.4 per cent pay rise over four years.

Principals Federation Victorian branch president Andrew Cock told his members on Tuesday that the decision, to apply to the Fair Work Commission for permission to hold a protected action ballot, had “not been taken lightly”.

“However, in the absence of a substantive and revised offer from the government, it is necessary to maintain momentum in the bargaining process and ensure that the voice of the principal class is clearly heard and appropriately recognised,” Cock told his colleagues.

A spokesperson for Carroll would not confirm on Tuesday that another offer was on its way.

“We recognise that our public school teachers and school staff have always deserved a pay rise,” they said.

“Negotiations have accelerated, the Department of Education and AEU are meeting more frequently, and we continue to negotiate in good faith.

“We urge unions to keep students in the classroom and not disrupt families when considering further industrial action.”

The AEU has been approached for comment.

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