The Allan government has made a revised pay and conditions offer to Victoria’s public school workforce in a last-minute attempt to prevent teachers, principals and education support staff from walking off the job next week.
Education Minister Ben Carroll said the proposal would increase salaries by at least 28.3 per cent over four years, including a 12.75 per cent rise by October 2026.
The government says more than 90,000 full-time teachers would receive more than $1,000 extra each month by October, rising to almost $3,000 more a month by 2030. Education support staff would receive up to $1,600 more each month by 2030 under changes intended to align their wage increases with those offered to teachers.
Required meeting hours would also be reduced from 80 to 40 hours a year, while principals would be given greater flexibility over how meetings are scheduled.
Teachers at the top of the salary scale would receive an annual lump-sum payment, although the government has not publicly detailed the value of that payment in its statement.
Mr Carroll urged the Australian Education Union’s Victorian leadership to present the revised proposal to members and cancel the planned 24-hour statewide strike on Thursday, July 23.
“Students should be in classrooms and parents shouldn’t be left scrambling for childcare or losing a day’s pay,” he said.
The AEU said it received the revised offer late on Thursday and would convene an extraordinary meeting of its 120-member Joint Primary and Secondary Sector Council on Friday afternoon to determine its position.
Victorian branch president Justin Mullaly acknowledged the proposal contained “some improvements” but stopped short of saying the union would recommend it to members. The union has also accused the government of attempting to bypass it by communicating details of the offer directly to school employees.
The government has rejected suggestions that its approach is anti-union, maintaining it is acting in good faith and wants school employees to consider the revised terms before proceeding with industrial action.
The dispute follows the rejection of an earlier in-principle agreement reached between the government and AEU leaders in May.
That proposal offered public school employees pay increases ranging from about 28 to 32 per cent over four years, along with changes to conditions and additional student-free days.
However, 57.7 per cent of participating union members voted against the deal, while 42.3 per cent supported it. The result came despite the AEU leadership recommending its acceptance.
Teachers opposing the earlier offer argued that salary increases alone would not resolve excessive workloads, staff shortages, large class sizes and the amount of unpaid work being performed outside school hours.
The union has been seeking a 35 per cent pay increase over three years, rather than a four-year agreement, alongside smaller classes, additional planning time, stronger support for education support workers and reduced administrative demands.
The revised proposal directly addresses two major sources of dissatisfaction with the previous deal: the different pay outcome offered to education support staff and the amount of time employees are required to spend in meetings.
The AEU had argued that education support workers, including classroom aides, administrative employees and staff assisting students with additional needs, were not receiving wage outcomes comparable to those offered to teachers.
Mr Carroll said the new offer would align their increases and allow staff to spend less time in compulsory meetings and more time supporting students.
However, union campaigners say the proposal still does not adequately address class sizes, unpaid overtime or broader funding pressures across Victorian public schools.
The AEU claims teachers, principals and education support staff perform an average of about 12 hours of unpaid overtime each week. It also argues Victoria’s public schools face a $2.4 billion funding shortfall and says only three in 10 employees expect to remain in the system until retirement.
Those figures are central to the union’s argument that the dispute is about the long-term sustainability of the public education workforce rather than wages alone.
The July 23 strike would include a 24-hour stoppage and a ban on unpaid overtime. Other industrial measures have included restrictions on non-urgent emails, selected meetings and work associated with visits by Labor politicians.
It would be the second statewide teacher strike this year.
In March, teachers and other school employees held their first statewide 24-hour strike since 2013, with police estimating about 35,000 people attended a rally and march through central Melbourne.
The latest offer places pressure on both the government and the union.
The government is presenting the proposal as a major financial commitment that would make Victorian educators among the best paid in Australia, while warning that another strike would disrupt students and force parents to arrange care or miss work.
The union must now decide whether the changes are substantial enough to justify delaying industrial action after its members rejected the previous agreement.
Any proposed workplace agreement would ultimately need the support of employees before being submitted to the Fair Work Commission.
Unless the AEU council decides to suspend the action following its meeting, public school teachers, principals and education support staff remain scheduled to strike across Victoria on July 23.
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