Principals prepare to join statewide teachers’ strike

Government school principals and assistant principals are set to take part in a teachers’ strike next week after joining their teaching colleagues in rejecting the state’s offer of a 17 per cent pay rise.

The industrial action is set to go ahead on Tuesday after the Australian Education Union (AEU), which represents tens of thousands of teachers in the Victorian public system, rejected the proposed four-year deal on Monday and branded it “completely unacceptable”.

The Australian Principals Federation (APF), representing state school leaders in Victoria, formally joined the opposition to Education Minister Ben Carroll’s proposal on Wednesday, saying the offer failed to recognise the difficulty and complexity of running a modern school.

It marks the latest chapter in a wage dispute that has already dragged on for eight months, as Victorian teachers – the nation’s lowest-paid public education workforce – chase a 35 per cent pay rise over three years, reduced workloads and improved mental health support.

The federation is not pursuing industrial action yet, but principals who are AEU members are entitled to join their teaching colleagues in walking off the job, heaping further pressure on the Education Department’s effort to keep schools open during the strike.

The department has asked principals and assistant principals intending to take part in Tuesday’s strike action to nominate a teacher to be in charge of the school in their absence.

APF president Andrew Cock said he expected that some principals, who are entitled to take protected industrial action if they are AEU members, would join the state’s first strike in 13 years, but could not say how many leaders were expected to join teachers on the picket line.

Cock said the government’s offer fell short of his members’ expectations.

“The department’s offer does not acknowledge the complexity of the principal role or the challenges school leaders are currently navigating every day,” he said.

“Principals are responsible for leading increasingly complex organisations – managing staff, escalating student needs, growing compliance obligations and heightened community expectations – all while remaining fully accountable for the educational outcomes and operational performance of their schools.”

Carroll previously said schools would be open on March 24 despite the strike. But within hours of the minister’s pledge, some families were being advised by schools that classes would not be held and that only the children of emergency service workers should attend on the day.

Cock said that in addition to a better pay deal, principals wanted help with the “growing and unsustainable workload facing school leaders” and fight for better conditions to keep principals and assistant principals in their jobs.

“If we want great leaders in our schools, the system must properly recognise the role and provide the conditions that make the principalship sustainable,” he said.

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