Teachers have been offered a pay rise of up to 32%. I’m turning it down

I’m a school teacher who has always voted for and supported the Labor Party, including handing out how-to-vote cards for my local member for Niddrie, now Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, Ben Carroll.

I write as one of 35,000 teachers and education support staff who took to the streets of Melbourne in March to fight for better pay and working conditions. Now rank-and-file members of the Australian Education Union are being asked to decide whether they think the in-principle agreement negotiated between the AEU and the Victorian government is adequate. I can’t in good conscience vote in favour of this deal.

I started my career teaching in government schools in Victoria 20 years ago. I have been a VCE teacher, and also undertaken roles as a year level coordinator, leading teacher and acting assistant principal. In that time, I’ve witnessed the workload and administrative burden on teachers and school leaders increase exponentially. Despite ever-increasing workloads, it is the commitment and professionalism of teachers that has driven a dramatic improvement in the quality of teaching and learning. As the Victorian government likes to celebrate – while still not fully funding our schools – Victorian students ranked first or second in 18 of 20 NAPLAN measures nationally.

Victoria has not yet reached full funding under the Gonski Schooling Resource Standard for government schools after the state government quietly delayed its commitment to reach these targets from 2028 to 2031. Until then, our schools, staff and students will continue to be asked to do more with less — below the level experts say every child needs to succeed.

Victorian teachers experienced a real wage decline of around 11 per cent over the life of the previous agreement due to inflation. This is one reason teachers were fighting for a 35 per cent increase over three years in our log of claims.

Some media reports have celebrated the in-principle agreement between the Victorian government and the union as a “win”, but those reports overlook some critical details. First, the government rejected a three-year agreement and instead proposed a four-year deal, with no back pay since the previous agreement expired in December 2025. As a result, there’s a significant gap. While the headline figure of 28 to 32 per cent sounds impressive, the vast majority of teachers and principals would receive a pay rise of 23 per cent in the first three years of the new agreement, and 4.9 per cent in the fourth year. It’s nothing to sneeze at, sure, but given the backwards position from which we’re starting, and projections around inflation, it’s a far cry from the 35 per cent over three years that we demanded and deserve.

Those talking up the deal fail to recognise that there are very few meaningful improvements to working conditions on offer. Teachers are already performing, on conservative estimates, around 10 hours of unpaid work each week outside of school hours. Significant workload reform is essential if we are to stem ongoing workforce shortages and retain experienced educators in our classrooms.

We must also recognise that education support staff have not been offered pay increases equivalent to those offered to teachers, despite this being a key demand of AEU members. These are the amazing people working one-to-one with our students with a disability, those smiling at school reception desks across the state, our mental health practitioners, those maintaining the grounds, or the lab techs ensuring science pracs are available to amaze, delight and educate. We know their value, and this should be recognised in their pay.

The claim by Premier Jacinta Allan that this agreement will make our workforce “the best-paid teachers in Australia” requires scrutiny. It does not apply uniformly across all pay ranges: nine out of 11 pay ranges for Victorian teachers would remain below that of their NSW counterparts, and, yes, first-year teachers in Victoria would be paid a fraction more than first-year teachers in NSW by this October, but NSW teachers are yet to negotiate their agreement that expires in October 2027, which will likely take them higher again.

A funny thing tends to happen when teachers talk about the fact their pay and working conditions must be improved – comments from the peanut gallery claiming they’d love “12 weeks of holidays” a year and to be paid as well as we are. The crazy thing is, Victoria is still suffering from a teacher shortage (ask any school in the western suburbs, like mine, how many times they’ve had to readvertise jobs over the past few years just to get one viable candidate). It seems as though the pay and working conditions (and “holidays”) just aren’t tempting enough to sway people to join our noble profession.

So, between June 15-18 I’ll be voting no against the in-principle agreement between the union and the government. Teachers and support staff deserve a better deal. This is not a rejection made lightly or a selfish cash grab. It is a decision informed by many years teaching in Victorian government schools and by a deep concern for the 667,000 students who rely on our public education system every day.

In 2024, Victorian nurses rejected the inadequate offer that both their union and the government urged them to accept. Rather than ending the campaign, that vote compelled a return to negotiations and secured a stronger outcome. I’m confident that, if we hold the line, the Victorian government will come back to the table with an offer our teachers deserve and our schools need.

Jessica McGinnis is a teacher at a government school in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

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