Teachers take Ted to task- Hampton Park Secondary College teacher Ian Booth hopes Premier Ted Baillieu will keep his promise. 62115

By Emma Sun
TEACHERS in the City of Casey are maintaining their call for Premier Ted Baillieu to keep his election promise and make Victorian teachers the best paid in Australia.
Hampton Park Secondary College teacher Ian Booth is disappointed that the government will only be granting a pay increase of up to 2.5 per cent and said he wasn’t the only one to think so.
“It’s been a reasonably hot topic among the staff and union members here,” Mr Booth said. He said 2.5 per cent is effectively a pay cut because the cost of living is 2.7 per cent.
“He ( Premier Baillieu) talks about productivity, and teachers work 50-60 hours, so I’m wondering what I can do; am I meant to start night working to get a modest increase in my pay?”
President of the Australian Education Union (Victorian Branch) Mary Bluett said it was understandable that teachers are upset about this issue.
“It was an absolute commitment that goes back to 2008 where Ted Baillieu delivered a speech, which included a commitment that under a Coalition Government, he would make the Victorian teachers the highest paid at every level,” Ms Bluett said.
“The AEU rejects outright the Premier’s 2.5 percent “offer” with any additional increase to be offset by “dollar for dollar” productivity savings. Victoria is already the lowest funded education system in the nation. Our schools receive over $1100 per student less than the Australian average.”
However, a spokesman for the Department of Education said the government has not reneged in their commitment.
“Negotiations haven’t even commenced in relation to the next enterprise agreement,” he said.
“The current teacher enterprise agreement is not due to expire until December.”
Mr Booth hopes that Premier Baillieu will have meaningful discussions with the union and back up his original promise.
“He needs to realise that offering people less than the cost of living is an unrealistic thing to do,” he said.
“He already said that in many areas teaching positions are hard to fill, but people aren’t going to enter the profession if things like this keep happening.”