A fresh pay and conditions offer has been presented to teachers and principals in a bid to head off further strikes and other work bans in WA’s public schools pay dispute after the first two offers were roundly rejected.
The third offer was outlined at a meeting called at short notice late on Thursday, more than a week after thousands of teachers walked off the job for the first time in a decade.
In a sign of the importance being attached to resolving the dispute, it’s understood that Education Department director-general Lisa Rodgers also attended the meeting.
The State School Teachers Union’s executive leaders are set to meet on Friday and Saturday to consider the latest offer.
If the union executive endorses the offer, then it would be put out to members to vote on whether to accept or reject it.
SSTUWA president Paul Jarman said the union was pleased to receive the third offer from the State Government as part of negotiations for a general agreement that had been continuing since October last year.
“Our members turned out in their thousands around the state last week to make it very clear that the previous offer was not good enough,” he said.
“We have made it clear to the government that our members consider workload issues to be just as important as improving their pay and we are hopeful that this new offer reflects that.
“The union’s State Executive will meet on Friday and Saturday to fully consider this offer in detail before making a decision on whether to put it to our membership.”
The Cook Government has been battling fires on multiple fronts as public sector workers fed up with six years of wages suppression threaten industrial action in their quest for a 12 per cent pay hike over two years.
The second deal put before teachers – which prompted around 10,000 to walk out of the classroom in protest for half a day last week – was for a wage rise of 11 per cent over three years, including 5 per cent in the first year and 3 per cent in both the second and third.
During the half-day strike members agreed to consider further industrial action – including a full-day strike – if no agreement was reached by May 10.
Principals Federation of WA members have also launched work bans until they receive a better offer.
The SSTU claims teachers have been leaving the profession in droves because they are overworked and underpaid as they battle with soaring rates of violence in schools, managing more children with special needs and the biggest class sizes in the country.
The PFWA wants to see pay scales restructured to take into account the vast difference in responsibilities between the highest-paid teachers and entry-level deputy principals.