Tasmania’s public schools will close next week after the state’s teachers’ union called a system-wide strike amid a bitter pay dispute.
The Australian Education Union (AEU) has ordered stop-work action across all government schools and colleges, accusing Premier Jeremy Rockliff of walking away from negotiations until after next month’s interim state budget.
Schools will close on Tuesday in north-west, Wednesday in the north and Thursday in the south, with teachers not set to attend school until 11am.
“Educators have been left with no choice but to take industrial action,” the union said.
The AEU said the government’s decision meant there would be no pay rise before Christmas.
“Denying a pay rise to our lowest paid and least secure workers in schools and colleges is an outrage,” it said.
“Many support professionals are already forced to find a second job due to being forcibly stood down over the holidays.”
But Rockliff rejected the union’s claims, insisting his government remained committed to delivering wage increases before the end of the year.
“We want our teachers and school staff to have a pay rise before Christmas,” the premier said.
“The government has offered an immediate 3% wage increase while we continue good faith negotiations on a new, longer-term agreement.”
The 3% offer has been rejected by several unions, including those representing health workers and police officers.
The AEU is instead seeking a 21.5% increase over three years – including an 11% jump in the first year – along with improved working conditions.
Rockliff said such demands were unaffordable. “Tasmanians would understand that we simply cannot afford the union’s claim,” he said.
“The wage offer made to unions is well above Tasmania’s annual inflation rate of 1.7%.”
The premier said the strike action – which is also being considered by other unions – should be called off.
There are 192 public schools in Tasmania, including three support schools, eight colleges for Years 11 and 12 and the Tasmanian eSchool, serving almost 60,000 children and young people.
“The last thing unions should be doing is impacting on families and robbing children of valuable classroom time,” he said.
“I urge the unions to call off their strike action, agree to a fair pay rise in the interim while we work together towards a longer-term agreement.”
Education Minister Jo Palmer said the planned strike action would be “really hard” on students and families.
She said arrangements would be worked through on a per-school basis should the strike go ahead as planned.
“I’m pretty shattered that the union has gone straight to strike action. I’m really disappointed for our students,” she said.
