Queensland teachers strike for second time over pay dispute

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Striking teachers have rallied in Queensland as part of their ongoing pay dispute with the state government. Union members last month rejected an offer of an 8 per cent pay rise over three years.

Transcript

00:00Thousands of Queensland school teachers have walked off the job today to protest this pay

00:07deal. This is the second time that teachers have held a 24-hour strike during this pay dispute

00:13with the state government. And this of course comes after union members last month rejected

00:18an EBA that included an 8% pay rise over three years. But the union members, the teachers that

00:24we spoke to today at today's rally here in Brisbane, say this isn't just about pay,

00:29they're also concerned about issues such as violence in the classroom and their workload

00:33outside of school hours. Now before this protest occurred, the Education Minister John Paul Landbrook

00:40had expressed concern and disappointment that it was going ahead. In particular, he expressed concern

00:45about the impact that this could have potentially on the well-being of students, particularly

00:50year 11 students sitting exams today. Now the teachers union, they haven't ruled out a third

00:5624-hour strike before the end of the school year, but they can see it'll be hard to fit in before

01:00the end of the school year. There's only a few weeks left to go before the school holidays. They're

01:05calling for the Premier David Christofulli to intervene in these negotiations and they really

01:11want the state government to grant teachers an administrative pay rise of 3% before this dispute

01:17heads to arbitration. Now schools were still open today despite this protest. The state government says

01:24that students who turned up to school were safely supervised.

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