‘No money, no resources’: Teachers demand better as state stonewalls strike

Brisbane state primary school teacher Jen McMahon was among thousands of union members who marched through the CBD on Tuesday, demanding a better deal on pay and work conditions from the Education Department.

She said despite the 24-hour strike, she’d had to spend several hours marking before arriving for the rally.

“How else am I going to get it done?” McMahon said.

McMahon and her former colleague Rod Heggie – who is now semi-retired and works between schools – said the biggest issue they faced in the classroom was being overloaded.

“[There’s] no money, no resources – the pay issue has received a lot of focus, understandably, but really the conditions and respect of all levels of society really for teachers is not as good as it used to be,” Heggie said.

“I would think teachers would be happy [for] the pay stay the way it is, or a slower increase, if they knew that going to work was a lot easier than what it is at the moment.”

The pair said it was common to see their peers break down in the staffroom as parental expectations, workloads, and a drop in funding meant teachers were being “hammered from all sides”.

“The classes are so big, there are teachers that just can’t get their assessments done, they feel like, unless you are working before school, after school, weekends – it’s just all the time,” McMahon said.

“You go home and then [you] think ‘I’ve got to do those emails, I’ve got to do those behaviour reports, I’ve got to write-up on OneSchool’ … there’s a lot of time pressure on having to respond to things.

“I also have a family, I also want to just go home and relax.”

Striking state school teachers gathered from mid-morning on Tuesday, before marching to Education House – the home of Queensland’s Education Department – where they demanded the government “pay us now” shortly before midday.

Ahead of the Brisbane rally, Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek all but ruled out meeting with the Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU), accusing it of moving the goalposts throughout wage negotiations.

He said he was disappointed in the QTU’s decision to strike.

“It will make no difference to what they’re trying to achieve,” he said.

“The suggestion that the minister or the premier will sit down in a one-off process to cut a deal is not how this process works.”

Union executives have repeatedly called on the minister or Premier David Crisafulli to contact the union personally, with QTU president Cresta Richardson asserting both men had her number and email.

Richardson said the minister might have had “a little bit of a misunderstanding”.

“I’m no industrial expert myself … but we know from past experience that education ministers have stopped arbitration or further action by picking up the phone,” she said.

“Premiers have stopped further action or arbitration by picking up the phone.

“We’ve been prepared, we’ve got our witnesses, they haven’t picked up the phone.”

The minister said year 10 and 11 students at 109 schools would have their end-of-year exams interrupted by the strike.

“Year 11 exams, these exams are ones that contribute up to 25 per cent towards their senior assessment,” he said.

Ahead of the strike, the union asked parents to keep children at home if possible, to ease reduced staffing numbers at most state schools.

The state reported up to 28,000 teachers were not in schools on Tuesday, although that number included long-term leave arrangements alongside those on strike.

Long-time teacher Debbie said her school, based in the Brisbane region, was “well represented” at the inner-city rally, but said some members had chosen to remain at work.

“We’re making sure that our children are safe as well,” she said.

Contrary to government promises, she believed Queensland teachers were among the worst-paid in Australia, and occupational violence was a growing issue.

“Over the years we’ve watched our funding decrease, decrease, decrease, and now we’ve got our teachers having to cope with everything,” she said.

“They’re dealing with kids with medical issues, they’re dealing with kids with behavioral issues, and the people that are losing out is every other kid in the classroom.”

Richardson said the union wanted teachers better protected against occupational violence and said workplace measures offered in the state’s previous deal weren’t enough.

“Let’s make it an offence for people to come into our schools and assault our teachers and school leaders,” she said.

The government’s last deal, made in late October, offered a three-year 8 per cent wage increase, attraction and retention incentives, a new experienced senior teacher pay bracket, and anti-occupational violence measures.

Richardson said the QTU wouldn’t rule out a third strike, although teachers were running out of time, with 2.5 weeks left in the school year.

On December 31, arbitration talks at the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission would automatically begin, after which point industrial action would not be protected.

On Tuesday, Langbroek said the state would not reissue its last offer, and hinted the new agreement could just as easily leave teachers worse off as benefit them.

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