Queensland teachers to stop work for the first time in 16 years

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Queensland teachers will take industrial action next week for the first time in sixteen years as they battle the state government for improved wages and conditions. 570-thousand state school students will be affected by the strike.

Transcript

00:00Queensland teachers will stop work for 24 hours next Wednesday as pay negotiations which have

00:08been ongoing with the state government for five months have stalled. So far the government has

00:13offered a pay rise of eight percent over three years but the union says that doesn't make

00:18Queensland teachers wages nation-leading. The union says they're struggling to attract teachers to

00:25the state and are seeing an increase in staff with less than five years experience leaving the

00:31profession. They're also seeing more experienced teachers retire early. Today the union's president

00:37also said that teachers are worried about their working conditions. You know our teachers and

00:43school leaders are suffering from workload pressures, occupational violence, not feeling respected in

00:48their workplaces and you know we have an attraction and retention problem. The state's education

00:53minister John Paul Langbrook says he's met with the teachers union 17 times in the past five months

01:00and he's committed to getting a deal done with them.

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