Thousands of Tasmanian public school staff walk off the job to demand wage rise

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Thousands of Tasmanian public school staff walked off the job, demanding a pay rise for support staff and workload relief for teachers. The industrial action meant schools opened late for the second time in two months.

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00:00A quiet morning for a usually bustling primary school, only opening at midday due to industrial

00:08action by teachers and support staff.

00:11I think the kids enjoyed it because they go to school late.

00:15We just spent some quality time together but I'm fortunate we don't work at the moment

00:20so it didn't really affect me.

00:24Thousands of government school staff rallied in Hobart, calling for an improved pay and

00:29conditions offer.

00:31It was needed to have a strike and I think the teachers, they do an amazing job and they

00:37really deserve to be valued.

00:39We have to make adjustments at work and stuff and then kids, we need to keep them engaged

00:43for the half of the day.

00:46The industrial action also impacted some end of year celebrations scheduled for today but

00:51the ABC understands some schools have scheduled events for this afternoon and earlier in the

00:56week instead.

00:57The Tasmanian government says its pay offer of 3% for support staff is fair and affordable.

01:03We want to see an improvement in the wage offer the government's got on the table.

01:07We also want to see legitimate actions to take place in our schools that actually can fix the

01:12workload and fix the violence.

01:13They need the government to sit at the table, work through this maturely and give schools

01:18the support they need to engage students in learning.

01:21We're listening and we encourage the unions to join us at the table and work out a long-term

01:26agreement.

01:27An agreement unlikely before schools break for Christmas.

01:31Good Christmas!

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