The 28 April leak from the Victorian state government about an alleged pay offer for teachers is a transparent attempt to undermine the school staff’s industrial campaign. It claims the government is preparing to offer teachers a 28 percent pay rise over four years, but provides no details about who will be covered or how conditions will be affected.
The right-wing press broke and amplified the story, with the Australian Financial Review (AFR) leading with the headline “28pc pay rise: Victorian Labor’s massive offer for teachers”, while the Herald Sun sensationalised it as a “whopping 28 percent pay rise”. The AFR’s anonymous government source delivered Labor’s typical threat: “Teachers will not get a better deal under a Liberal government if Jess Wilson were elected in November”.
The use of this tactic on the one hand shows that the government is feeling the pressure from the teachers’ campaign. But we also need to recognise this leak for what it is: an attempt to weaken teachers’ resolve, undermine public support for the campaign and take momentum away from the upcoming industrial actions, in particular the regional stop-works planned for term two.
The government is banking on the idea that a 28 percent pay rise over four years will be perceived as generous. But it is woefully inadequate and miles from what teachers deserve and are demanding. Prices are currently rising by 4.6 percent each year, and are predicted to continue to rise. Added to that, the sub-par 2022 agreement has seen teachers’ pay go backwards by 11 percent. This means a 28 percent increase over four years is not a real pay rise—it will merely return teachers to our 2021 wage levels ... by 2029.
The silence on conditions and coverage is also telling. The last government offer, just days before the statewide strike in March, contained serious attacks on conditions. It proposed replacing time in lieu arrangements with an uncapped overtime index and replacing caps on face-to-face teaching time with an opaque index that would likely mean more teaching hours for many. It also included an additional hour of mandatory meetings for teachers each week.
And while teachers were offered a paltry 17 percent wage rise over four years, low-paid education support staff were offered just 13 percent—a disgraceful attempt to pit teachers and education support staff against each other.
With a workforce of 100,000 people spread across 1,500 workplaces, it is hard to tell what teachers are making of this leak tactic. But so far, the evidence points to indignation and anger. Online teacher forums have been flooded with comments like, “28% is a joke, and a VERY calculated maneuver[sic] by the gov. I’d vote no on this instantly”, and, “Garbage. Don’t fall for it. 28% over four years would STILL leave us chasing our tails”. Angry teachers chimed in on talk back radio the next day, saying, “Hard no from me [on a 28 percent pay rise]. We’re asking for a pay raise that would be 35 percent over three years. The government is [only] offering 28 percent over four”.
Despite the inadequacy of the mooted 28 percent pay rise, the improvement from the first offer shows that there is significant pressure on the government. And that means if we can increase the pressure, they are likely to offer more. This will require escalating our campaign with more statewide strikes, not delaying and de-escalating by limiting our actions to rolling, regional strikes and partial work bans.
Tasmania is a cautionary tale. The teachers’ industrial campaign there featured a wave of rolling, half-day regional strikes in October 2025 followed by a statewide half-day strike in December. The Tasmanian government responded with a pathetic offer in February, which included a measly 8.75 percent pay rise over three years and very little progress on conditions. Teachers responded with a wave of regional strikes in late March.
But these rolling regional strikes were never enough to win a good deal from the government. The next offer included some dubious improvements to conditions, but no improvement to the below-inflation pay rise. Presenting this as a victory, the union leadership pushed for members to accept the offer. On 10 April, support staff voted up their portion of the deal and last week teachers followed suit. Now they are locked in to a 3 percent pay rise this year and next, followed by a 2.75 percent pay rise in 2028, well below current and predicted inflation.
The terrain is different in Victoria, where both the government and union leadership know they can’t get away with another below-inflation sellout. But there is still a risk that drawing out our campaign with rolling, regional strikes and partial bans will wear members down while failing to adequately pressure the government into making the necessary concessions. And while Labor are trying to hold the November state election over teachers’ heads, that logic can work in reverse—the government is under significant pressure and can hardly afford to alienate such a significant section of the workforce. This strengthens the argument for decisive action, including multiple full-day statewide strikes both this term and next.
Some argue that cost-of-living pressures make statewide strikes too expensive for teachers to undertake. But if we fail to take the decisive action needed to win serious pay rises, cost-of-living pressures will only intensify and we will have no recourse to address them. A 35 percent pay rise would add between $27,856-$41,322 to our annual wages—well worth missing several one-off days of pay. Then there is the pressing issue of our unsustainable workloads, which are driving so many staff to misery or causing them to leave the profession they love. We can’t afford not to strike.
The statewide strike on 24 March was incredibly popular and powerful, and inspired many thousands of school staff to join or re-join the union. Clearly, teachers want a union that takes effective action and doesn’t settle for crumbs—witness the 98 percent of union members who voted in favour of strike action in the mandatory ballot.
We should maximise attendance at our rolling, regional strikes and organise solidarity actions when other regions are striking. But we also need to fight for our union to adopt a strategy that can win. Socialists in Schools have written a model motion to reaffirm our key demands and for multiple statewide strikes in term two, which has so far been passed in more than twenty schools and at two regional meetings. We are encouraging union members to pass motions like these at their schools and regional meetings in order to build the pressure on the union leadership to call more statewide strikes and continue rejecting sub-par offers. There is also an open letter in support of more statewide strikes for staff to sign.
Finally, while our fight for better wages and conditions is essential, the problems school staff face are even bigger than this. Public education is treated as a cost to be minimised by those in power, whatever party they hail from. The rich and powerful would rather prioritise tax cuts for the wealthy, military spending and handouts for businesses, including fossil fuel companies. Only workers have an interest in, and the ability to, stand up to this agenda and fight for a society that puts people’s needs first. And we are better off when more of us fight for this goal. Socialists in Schools sees the fight to improve and defend public education as part of a larger struggle for the kind of society we deserve. If you agree, please join us.
The next organising meeting of Socialists in Schools is at 1pm Sunday 24 May at the Victorian Socialists Volunteer Centre, 83 Sydney Road, Brunswick.
Brendan Stanton is a secondary school teacher, Australian Education Union member and activist with Socialists in Schools in Melbourne
