"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)

Primary: Victoria 22 hours 30 minutes; NSW 21 hours 45 minutes.
Secondary: Victoria 20 hours; NSW 18 hours 20 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.