[Greens-Media] Greens call for quick resolution for Victorian public school teachers (Sue Pennicuik MLC Victoria)

[Amanda.Sharp at parliament.vic.gov.au]

13 February 2008

Greens call for quick resolution for Victorian public school teachers


Greens MLC Sue Pennicuik today calls on the State Government to lift
teacher wages, reduce class sizes and contract teaching.

"Continuing poor pay and conditions has forced Victorian teachers to take
stopwork action tomorrow. The stopwork action attended by thousands of
teachers on November 21, 2007 after eight months of negotiation failed to
produce an agreement," she said.

"Experienced teachers in Victoria are paid 15% less than their counterparts
in NSW which equates to nearly $10,000 per year and beginning teachers are
paid 9.5% less than in NSW. Victorian teachers attend for work on the same
number of days as teachers in NSW. Victorian teachers, both primary and
secondary, teach more face to face teaching hours than in NSW. Teachers
last received a salary increase of 3% in 2006.

"The Productivity Commission report confirms that Victoria remains the
lowest spending state on education despite this government's promise that
education would be its number one priority.

"The government needs to fulfil its promise by increasing funding for
education and making a revised offer in negotiating a new certified
agreement as a matter of urgency," Ms Pennicuik said.


Further information:  Sue Pennicuik    0407 000 270


Background:

Face to face teaching hours (Victoria vs NSW)

VIC                                           NSW
Primary 22.1/2 hours                 21 hours 45 minutes
Secondary 20 hours                  18 hours twenty minutes.

The AEU served its current log of claims on the Department of Education and
Early Childhood Development (DEECD) in December, 2006. Negotiations began
in March 2007. The current agreement expired on August, 4 2007.



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