School workers say flat no to teacher pay deal

Hundreds of school workers have unanimously rejected the state government’s wage offer in an early sign that attempts to settle the long-running dispute with the education workforce may face trouble.

Education support (ES) employees in the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) have voted 100 per cent to reject the offer of a 24 per cent wage increase over four years – up to 6 per cent less than what some of their teaching colleagues have been offered.

Hundreds of school nurses, who are with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, have also baulked at accepting the deal.

The nurses’ union has not rejected the deal outright but has lodged a counter-proposal with the Department of Education.

The rejection from CPSU members comes as the Australian Education Union (AEU), which represents more than 60,000 public school employees – among a total workforce of about 85,000 – works to persuade its members to accept the four-year deal offering pay rises of 28 to 32 per cent for teachers and principals and 24 per cent for educational support workers.

But the AEU leadership faces a well-organised and determined campaign of opposition from teachers and ES workers who are urging union members to reject the deal, agreed between the union bargaining delegates and the state government.

The internal opposition wants the unions to stick with its original demand of 35 per cent over three years for all school workers, and to stage a repeat of the strike action that brought 35,000 educators onto the streets of Melbourne’s CBD in March.

The bulk of the workforce will vote on the agreement over the coming weeks in a school-by-school ballot process.

If union members vote to accept the deal, a workforce-wide ballot will then be held.

An email sent to members by the CPSU’s branch secretary Jiselle Hanna on Monday, and seen by The Age, outlined the key sticking points for her members.

“The offer does not provide genuine, ongoing wage increases that keep pace with inflation and cost-of-living pressures, particularly given its heavy reliance on one-off, lump-sum payments rather than permanent salary growth,” Hanna wrote.

“The offer appears to widen the gap between teachers and ES staff, creating a two-tiered outcome that does not properly value the contribution of ES employees.”

The lack of movement on a key long-term workplace demand for ES employees, paid lunch breaks, was also unpopular among the CPSU members, Hanna wrote.

“Proposals around unpaid meal breaks and allowances fail to address ongoing unpaid work and do not deliver clear, enforceable entitlemen