SA public school teachers call off planned strike action after revised offer from state government

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Two major strikes planned for this week have been called off in South Australia. The education union has dropped plans for another day of industrial action on Friday, meanwhile tram drivers have decided to cancel their planned 24-hour strike, today.

Transcript

00:00 This second teachers strike planned for this Friday has been called off after the South

00:06 Australian Government provided a new pay and conditions deal to the State's Education Union.

00:12 More than 300 public schools closed or operated on a reduced program less than two weeks ago

00:18 when thousands of teachers went on strike here in Adelaide CBD.

00:22 That action was in response to an enterprise bargaining offer from the SA government of

00:27 a 3% pay rise over three years.

00:30 The union had been seeking an 8.6% increase in its first year and then a 5.5% increase

00:37 in the following two years.

00:39 The State Government has now come back with a revised offer of more than $1.3 billion

00:45 following two meetings.

00:47 The union says that deal would include incentives like reduced teacher workload but says the

00:52 government has not increased its initial pay offer.

00:55 It will now go back and consider that deal.

00:58 Here's what the union's SA branch president Andrew Goll said about the progress being made.

01:03 Well we're closer than we were a few weeks ago so we're going to continue having those

01:09 discussions.

01:10 There's some things there which are positive and there's some things there which need some

01:15 more work and so that's really where it's at with us at the moment and why we want to

01:18 continue negotiating with the government to work through those matters.

01:22 It wasn't only teachers who had planned industrial action in Adelaide this week.

01:26 A 24-hour tram strike was also set to go ahead today but has been cancelled following further

01:32 discussions between the union and tram operator Torrens Connect.

01:36 Tram drivers stopped work during peak hour less than two weeks ago, the same day as teachers

01:42 over a pay dispute.

01:43 The union says today's industrial action has been cancelled as it's now considering a revised

01:49 offer from Torrens Connect so it's no doubt welcome news to tram commuters in Adelaide

01:54 today.

01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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