Teachers walk off the job, blaming Premier David Crisafulli
Tuesday’s strike will be the second that the 51,000-strong QTU has held this year.
The date, in week eight of term four, was selected to avoid clashes with year 12 exams and end-of-year activities set for the final two weeks of the year, the union said last week.
It falls just weeks out from Christmas, putting a hole in teachers’ first December pay cheque, which normally includes leave loading from the year on top of regular pay.
Teachers remain at loggerheads with the state government over their pay and conditions.
The government has 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.
The QTU said they believed it would not resolve Queensland’s teacher shortage and the issues behind it, including workload, occupational violence and aggression.
Arbitration talks at the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission will automatically begin on December 31, after which point industrial action will not be protected.
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