Victoria’s state government is preparing an offer of a 28% pay rise over four years to teachers amid planned May–June strikes. Key disputes include conditions and pay for classroom assistants.
A 28 per cent pay rise over four years is being prepared for Victorian teachers as the state races to prevent planned strike waves across May and June.
28% offer aimed at cooling May–June school strike plans
Victorian teachers are expected to be offered a 28 per cent increase spread across four years. with the government seeking to avoid weeks of industrial action that could disrupt schooling for thousands of families.. The proposal. while not formally presented to the Australian Education Union (AEU). is described as a significant shift from the government’s earlier position of 17 per cent over the same period.
Why the 28% offer may still fail: conditions, assistants, and pace of bargaining
Even with the apparent jump in pay. the offer is still short of the 35 per cent over four years that union members have been pushing for.. The bigger challenge may be that pay alone is not the only sticking point.. Teachers and education leaders have repeatedly pointed to workload pressures. class size concerns. and the issue of unpaid overtime as areas that need clarity in any final agreement.
On top of that, classroom assistants—who work in government schools alongside teachers—are facing a separate dispute track.. A 13 per cent pay rise has been offered to around 34. 000 classroom assistants. which is less than half of the increase proposed for teaching staff.. If that gap is not addressed in parallel. teachers may see the wider staffing imbalance as part of the same bargaining failure. rather than a separate negotiation.
There’s also the question of how the 28 per cent would translate into each year of the deal. Without a clear year-by-year structure, it’s harder for unions to judge the deal’s real impact right now—especially for teachers comparing their situation to pay levels in other states.
What planned strikes could mean for students and Labor’s political pressure
The threat of further disruption is not hypothetical.. In March, roughly 35,000 Victorian teachers marched through Melbourne’s CBD as part of strike action over wages and conditions.. Rolling regional stoppages are now planned to begin from May 6. the day after the Labor government hands down its pre-election budget—an timing detail that matters politically as well as practically.
The next stage of action is designed to be visible and targeted.. Teachers from schools in the north and west are planning half-day stoppages as they converge on Education Minister Ben Carroll’s electorate office in Niddrie.. Further half-day actions are expected to follow. with protests aimed at other Labor MPs and ministers. and regional educators preparing to gather at Premier Jacinta Allan’s Bendigo East electorate office on May 13.
This matters because education workforces have become a persistent political test for the Allan government.. The broader public-sector context is already loaded: the government previously settled a bitter industrial dispute with police in February after a vote of no-confidence and leadership upheaval.. Teacher industrial action sits in the same category of “high visibility” dispute—one that affects families directly and quickly becomes a campaign issue.
There’s also a sense of momentum that unions may be reluctant to step back from without a concrete shift.. The principals’ union has signaled it intends to seek permission for a protected action ballot due to a lack of substantive progress in bargaining. suggesting that leadership groups may join pressure efforts if the offer remains unclear or incomplete.
The human stakes: pay disputes, but also staffing strain and classroom stability
For families. teacher strikes tend to register first as a schedule problem: what happens to childcare. work rosters. and homework routines.. But for teachers. the dispute is often also about long-term sustainability—whether the job still feels viable after years of pay frustration and growing workload.
A graduate teacher in Victoria earns $78,801, compared with $90,177 in NSW, and the pay gap between experienced classroom teachers is about $15,000.. When workers perceive that gap as widening—or that other states are moving while Victoria lags—it can accelerate anger inside the profession.. That is the kind of feeling that can turn a bargaining “process” into a public “moment. ” and it’s the reason the government’s pace and clarity on both pay and conditions will be scrutinized.
At a systems level, unresolved disagreements also risk feeding a cycle: pay disputes can worsen staffing shortages, which then increases workload for remaining staff, strengthening arguments for stronger conditions clauses in the final settlement.
What comes next: clarity on year-by-year pay and workable conditions
For the 28 per cent offer to genuinely de-escalate the dispute, it will need to be more than a headline figure.. Teachers and school leaders will want specifics on how the increase is delivered across the four years. how conditions such as workload and class sizes are addressed. and whether education support workers—particularly classroom assistants—receive a closer alignment in pay.
Negotiations are now described as accelerating, with the department and AEU meeting more frequently. Still, the government’s ability to prevent action will likely hinge on whether the next version of the offer looks “real” to workers on the ground, not just improved on paper.
If the timeline remains tight and the terms remain incomplete, May and June could become a test not only of bargaining strength, but of whether education disruption can be contained before it spreads beyond Victoria’s classrooms.