Talk to us: Why ACT teachers are going on strike

ACT public schools will close on Friday morning as educators across the Territory escalate their dispute with the ACT Government over a new deal on pay and conditions. The action follows a ballot in which nine out of ten teachers and principals responded, and no less than 95 percent voted to strike.

The breakdown in negotiations has much to do with the government stonewalling in response to the teachers’ demands for improved learning and working conditions in schools, but the government’s current proposal of pay increases well below the Consumer Price Index (CPI) certainly hasn’t helped.

There is important history which explains the strength of feeling on this point. Experienced teachers in ACT public schools have seen their income go backwards in real terms over the life of the current agreement. In fact, in real terms, they are earning around four thousand dollars less than they were in 2022.  

If there are teachers wandering around ACT schools who believe that they deserve a pay cut, I haven’t met them. In a world in which a third of young people now have a diagnosable mental health problem, and my colleagues and I wrestle with how we support students facing a plethora of emotional and behavioural challenges, you just don’t encounter educators who volunteer that they feel overpaid.

Nor, as educators assiduously check student work for inappropriate use of AI, follow up students to perform validation tasks, and sit down for one-on-one conversations about honesty and integrity, do you hear exclamations across the staffroom that “This job is getting easier.”  

So when the employer proposes what amounts to another cut in real pay – 3 percent annual increases when inflation is running at 4.6 percent and forecast to remain elevated well into next year – it just doesn’t stack up. It certainly doesn’t make sense if the goal is to maintain teacher morale, retain staff and continue to strengthen our public education system.

If accepted, the current pay offer would have the immediate effect of putting public school teachers thousands of dollars behind their counterparts in the Catholic system, and leave them lagging well behind their colleagues in New South Wales and Victoria. 

This is the opposite of what Labor promised would happen before the last Territory election. “The Chief Minister personally committed in writing pre-election to ACT teachers being the best paid in the country,” says Australian Education Union branch secretary, Patrick Judge. “People have gone to the election believing ACT Labor’s commitments, and I think they’ve got a legitimate expectation that those will be met.”  

There is another dimension to the salaries dispute that is easily overlooked but at least as important. It concerns school assistants. This group of educators include learning support assistants who work with students with disabilities and diverse learning needs, provide physical care, mealtime and medical support, and team up with teachers to deliver individualised learning in the classroom.

It also includes youth workers, science laboratory assistants, and food technology and art assistants. In other words, they are bloody important. And they make up almost a quarter of the staff in schools. Even though they don’t get as much attention as teachers and principals, schools would fall apart without them.   

In a town where the average salary is $116,000, school assistants earn between $55,000 and $85,000. This group of Canberrans work directly with the most vulnerable young people in our community; they are more exposed to workplace violence than most, and they receive some of the lowest pay in the ACT public sector. They do not deserve to see their already modest incomes eroded even further.  

When school assistants, teachers and principals walk out on Friday, they will be striking in solidarity with each other and their colleagues across the ACT public service. We know what happens when we don’t stand up for ourselves, because Australia has been conducting this experiment for decades. As strike activity has dropped precipitously, real wage growth has spluttered along, with only subdued increases when it hasn’t gone backwards. It’s clear that if we want a fair go, we have to demand it.  

But let’s be clear: Canberra’s educators do not down Chromebooks and march out at the sound of a school bell. The last time ACT teachers went on strike was in 2011, a decade and a half ago. In fact, amongst a profession dedicated to the well-being of children, there is a reflexive resistance to anything that might disrupt student learning

The unanimity of feeling across the education community right now reflects the ACT Government’s complete failure to respond to a series of issues that fundamentally affect the learning conditions of young Canberrans. “Some of our schools do not have sufficient staff to operate a five-day week, and they’re on four or four-and-a-half day timetables,” says Patrick Judge. “The students at those schools are getting really shortchanged.” In other instances, schools lack the specialised staff necessary to support safe classrooms and inclusive practice

The union has called for a guarantee that every school has a psychologist, a qualified teacher-librarian, sufficient learning support assistants and other essential staff. Another objective is to minimise the collapsing or splitting of classes by providing adequate systematic funding of relief teachers. The union is also demanding a systematic response from the Education Directorate to incidents of violence, intimidation, and harassment that occur in schools.  

Are improvements like these complex and in some cases costly? Yes. Is that a reason not to even begin negotiations on these serious matters? No. It requires an approach that acknowledges the challenges in our schools, recognises the impacts they are having on student learning and wellbeing, and works constructively to find solutions.

Instead, almost a year into bargaining, the Directorate’s negotiators have failed to even present a log of claims and have been so laggardly in meeting with the union that Minister Berry felt compelled to issue a direct instruction to pick up the pace.
 
This is why educators believe we have no other choice but to bring our case to the Canberra community. If the government is allowed to renege on its promise to deliver competitive salaries, our school system will not be able to retain the teachers, school assistants and school leaders it relies on.

If our schools are not staffed with a full complement of expert and experienced professionals, the capacity to provide a safe, inclusive learning environment in which every child can flourish is correspondingly reduced. If we don’t stand up for the profession now, it is our children who will lose out in the long run.  

Tom Greenwell is co-author with Chris Bonnor of Waiting for Gonski: How Australia Failed Its Schoolsand Lessons from Canada: An Equal School System is Possible. He is a member of the Australian Education Union.