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As students return to school for Term 2, Victoria’s public school staff have placed bans on written comments in student reports for parents, won’t implement new government initiatives in schools, and will escalate stopwork action, as part of their campaign aimed at securing fair pay and conditions, and full and fair funding for public schools.
As part of the escalation, teachers, principals, and education support staff will stop work for half a day on a rolling, region-by-region basis, starting in state budget week.
Other actions commencing today include not attending some meetings and not responding to Department of Education emails. These new actions sit alongside the existing ban on Labor members of Victorian Parliament visiting schools.
These actions follow the statewide, full-day stopwork last term – the first such action in 13 years – with more than 35,000 public school staff marching in Melbourne’s CBD and rallying at the Victorian Parliament.
Australian Education Union Victorian Branch President Justin Mullaly said public school staff had been driven to these lengths because Victoria had the lowest funded public schools and lowest paid public school teachers in the country, with principals and education support staff also underpaid.
“Victoria’s public school staff are overworked and undervalued, with the average school employee doing 12 hours of unpaid overtime a week and experienced teachers set to earn over $15,000 less than their NSW counterparts by October. It is a similar story for many education support staff and school leaders,” Mr Mullaly said.
“These are the dedicated professionals whose work helps to shape the course of children and young people’s lives, but Premier Jacinta Allan and Education Minister Ben Carroll are taking them for granted.
“If they care about public school students and families, and want to properly address chronic staffing shortages, they need to immediately fully fund public schools and offer public school staff pay increases that properly reflect the value of their work,” Mr Mullaly said.
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Schedule of half-day stopwork rallies
Members in each region will participate in a half-day stopwork, rallying locally before returning to work in the afternoon.
Wednesday 6 May
Region: Maribyrnong, Broadmeadows, Sunbury
Location: Ben Carroll MP office, 473 Keilor Rd, Niddrie
Thursday 7 May
Region: Cranbourne, Berwick/Pakenham
Location: Pauline Richards MP office, Shop A3, Marriott Waters SC, Lyndhurst
Thursday 7 May
Region: Wodonga, Wangaratta
Location: Junction Place, Cnr High St & Elgin Blvd, Wodonga
Tuesday 12 May
Region: Frankston, lower Longbeach/Moorabbin
Location: Paul Edbrooke MP office, 49 Beach St, Frankston
Tuesday 12 May
Region: Hamilton, Portland, Warrnambool
Location: Department of Education, 99 Fairy St, Warrnambool
Wednesday 13 May
Region: Bendigo, Castlemaine/Kyneton, Maryborough
Location: Jacinta Allan MP office, 140 Mollison St, Bendigo
Wednesday 13 May
Region: Werribee
Location: John Lister MP office, 1–13 Watton St, Werribee
Thursday 14 May
Region: Springvale, Dandenong
Location: Gabrielle Williams MP office, 18 Princes Hwy, Dandenong
Thursday 14 May
Region: Shepparton
Location: Department of Education, 178-180 High St, Shepparton
Tuesday 19 May
Region: Latrobe/Plenty
Location: Bronwyn Halfpenny MP office, 221 High St, Thomastown
Tuesday 19 May
Region: Horsham, Stawell
Location: Department of Education, 26 Darlot St, Horsham
Tuesday 19 May
Region: Echuca/Kyabram
Location: 2 Heygarth St, Echuca (site of farmers' market)
Wednesday 20 May
Region: Inner city
Location: Kat Theophanous MP office, 404 High St, Northcote
Wednesday 20 May
Region: West Gippsland, Latrobe Valley
Location: Harriet Shing MP office, 216 Commercial Rd, Morwell
Thursday 21 May
Region: Ballarat
Location: Juliana Addison MP office, 211 Dana St, Ballarat
Thursday 21 May
Region: Prahran, Longbeach/Moorabbin
Location: Nick Staikos MP office, 723 Centre Rd, Bentleigh East
Tuesday 26 May
Region: Geelong, Colac
Location: Christine Couzens MP office, 95 Pakington St, Geelong West
Wednesday 27 May
Region: Melton
Location: Luba Grigorovitch MP office, 11 Commercial Rd, Caroline Springs
Thursday 28 May
Region: Doncaster/Warringal, Diamond Valley
Location: Anthony Carbines MP office, 149 Burgundy St, Heidelberg
Thursday 28 May
Region: South Gippsland
Location: Jordan Crugnale MP office, 9 McBride Ave, Wonthaggi
Tuesday 2 June
Region: Outer Eastern, Knox/Dandenong Ranges, Yarra Valley
Location: Jackson Taylor MP office, 7 High St, Bayswater
Wednesday 3 June
Region: Sale
Location: Department of Education, 64–66 Foster St, Sale
Thursday 4 June
Region: Inner West
Location: Katie Hall MP office, 204 Nicholson St, Footscray
Tuesday 9 June
Region: Inner East
Location: Matt Fregon MP office, 240 High St, Ashburton
Tuesday 9 June
Region: Benalla, Seymour
Location: Department of Education, 12 Elizabeth St, Seymour
Wednesday 10 June
Region: Glen Waverley
Location: John Mullahy MP office, 2 Brentford Square, Forest Hill
Thursday 11 June
Region: Mildura
Location: Department of Education, 161 Langtree Ave, Mildura
Wednesday 17 June
Region: Swan Hill
Location: Department of Education, 509 Campbell St, Swan Hill
Wednesday 17 June
Region: East Gippsland
Location: Victorian Academy of Teaching and Learning, 179 Main St, Bairnsdale
Thursday 18 June
Region: Peninsula
Location: Paul Mercurio MP office, 13 Eramosa Rd West, Somerville
Contact
Australian Education Union Victoria
(03) 9417 2822
[email protected]
aeuvic.asn.au
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Media contact
Alys Gagnon (04) 38 379 977