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A last-minute plea for teachers not to walk out of their classrooms appears set to fall on deaf ears, with tens of thousands of government school educators planning to strike tomorrow.<\/p>\n
The Australian Education Union (AEU) remains adamant that its members will push ahead with a 24-hour-stopwork action, the state\u2019s first government-school strike in 13 years, after rejecting what it calls a \u201ctotally unacceptable\u201d 18 per cent pay deal.<\/p>\n
![\"Premier](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fab19e51d6e6183affa4728a4ab82b3cbf74981a.jpeg\")
Premier Jacinta Allan has urged teachers to continue pay deal negotiations.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n
The state government continued to insist on Monday that schools will be open on Tuesday, despite some principals advising parents to keep children at home on the day.<\/p>\n
Most government schools have told their communities that supervision will be available for the children of emergency workers, by prior arrangement with the schools.<\/p>\n
The union says it expects more than 10,000 striking educators to take to the streets of Melbourne and rally outside Parliament House on Spring Street.<\/p>\n
But Premier Jacinta Allan said on Monday morning that the strike did not need to go ahead.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
With all teachers, principals and assistant principals at some schools planning to take part in the industrial action, the government is relying on a strike-breaking workforce of casual relief teachers and retired teachers to fulfil its pledge to keep schools open.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a strong offer on the table,\u201d the premier said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way to get agreement on that offer is to stay at the negotiating table, and that\u2019s why the leadership of the AEU should really be rethinking this action tomorrow because it\u2019s only really providing inconvenience for families at a time when families have got enough on their plate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union\u2019s Victorian branch president, Justin Mullaly, said the teachers had been disrespected by the Allan government, which made its offer a week ago, nine months after talks on a fresh pay and conditions deal began.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cVictorian teachers, principals, and support staff would much rather be in the classroom teaching Victorian students today, but because of the disrespect from the Allan government, they are having to stop work for 24 hours,\u201d Mullaly said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the Allan Labor government really values the work of Victorian teachers, principals, and education support staff, they must come forward with an offer that addresses their real concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parents Victoria, the peak group for school families, said it supported \u201cthe principle behind the strike\u201d and that the relatively low wages paid to Victorian state school teachers was a serious threat to the quality of education in government schools.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s chief executive, Gail McHardy, said parents were broadly sympathetic to the strike, but would still come under pressure juggling work and care on the day.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201c[Families] can see the pressure teachers are under but that support is often tempered by concern about disruption to their children,\u201d McHardy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven among parents who support the action, there\u2019s still the very real challenge of managing the day.<\/p>\n
Related Article \u201cMost families will be relying on a mix of options \u2013 taking leave, adjusting work arrangements, or leaning on extended family and friends \u2013 but that\u2019s not easy to organise at short notice.\u201d<\/p>\n More to come<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/d0c551fb72ffacef8698179b36a7af5fc5dffbba.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Nicole](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4f1538ddabce0333c200819c125bb89ef36630fe7a4f9f7b0bf55fda4255b455.png\")
Nicole Precel<\/a> is an education reporter at The Age. She was previously an audio video producer. She is also a documentary maker. Get in touch at nicole.precel@theage.com.auConnect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.![\"Chip](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c933d487c0923e425b125b59fa4140f217688025.png\")
Chip Le Grand<\/a> leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper\u2019s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years\u2019 experience.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 23, 2026 \u2014 1:33pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-558386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}