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Parents are being warned to brace for further disruption after 35,000 educators brought Melbourne\u2019s CBD to a standstill in their fight for better pay and conditions on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Australian Education Union says the state government has disrespected its members with an offer of a 17 per cent wage increase over four years.<\/p>\n
While it is due to return to the negotiating table on Wednesday, it has warned that the issue is a long way from being resolved and there could be more school strikes and other industrial action, including bans on communicating with parents and filling in school reports.<\/p>\n
The union\u2019s leadership bodies rejected the government\u2019s offer<\/a> within hours of receiving it on Monday of last week, without putting the proposal to a vote of the membership, and pressed ahead with Tuesday\u2019s strike, which had been planned for weeks.<\/p>\n Police believe up to 35,000 state school teachers, education support workers and principals marched through the CBD on Tuesday \u2013 numbers that exceeded organisers\u2019 expectations. Many arrived by bus from regional centres.<\/p>\n City traffic and public transport came to a halt and some businesses closed their doors as the crowd made its way from Trades Hall in Victoria Street to outside state parliament.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Hundreds of schools cancelled classes completely<\/a>, offering only supervisory care for the day, while schools with significant numbers of non-unionised teachers \u2013 who were not legally entitled to take strike action \u2013 were able to offer some classes on Tuesday.<\/p>\n When state Education Minister Ben Carroll was questioned on the day about whether the government had done enough to avoid the strike, he said it had done all that it could.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have done everything we can \u2026 there were meetings with the union yesterday and there are meetings with the union tomorrow,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always said to the union, please prioritise making sure that kids go to school; let\u2019s not disrupt them.\u201d<\/p>\n The minister said the government\u2019s offer of 17 per cent over four years as well as a 1.5 per cent overtime allowance, combined with improvements to working conditions, would bring Victorian state school teachers \u2013 the nation\u2019s lowest paid public education workforce \u2013 to parity with their interstate counterparts.<\/p>\n The union is seeking a 35 per cent pay rise over three years.<\/p>\n Branch president Justin Mullaly defended the leadership\u2019s decision to reject the government\u2019s offer without presenting it to the membership.<\/p>\n \u201cThe AEU branch executive made a decision on Monday,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re an elected representative group of our membership. It also went to our joint primary and secondary council. They\u2019re representative of principals, education support staff and teachers right around the state, in every corner of the state, in every type of school that the state has.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Widespread anger and high-profile resignations from the union followed the previous pay deal \u2013 worth just 2 per cent a year \u2013 in 2022. A group of unionists running on a \u201cstrike now\u201d ticket pulled in 37 per cent of the vote in internal elections in late 2024.<\/p>\n Union membership fell from about 48,000 in 2018 to less than 42,000 at the most recent elections. But organisers told the crowd on Tuesday that membership numbers had grown to more than 60,000 after a sustained recruitment campaign linked to the current round of pay talks.<\/p>\n Mullaly denied the union\u2019s current robust approach to negotiations and industrial campaigning was about atoning for past mistakes.<\/p>\n \u201cOur approach is driven by our members, and our members want to see a significant pay increase,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re focused on what we need to do now.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier in the day, Mullaly told the crowd that in the absence of an approved offer from the government more stop-work actions would follow.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we will do as a next step if we need to is \u2026 move to rolling regional stoppages,\u201d the union leader said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got the parent support, we\u2019ve got the broader community support, and that what they need to do is get the minister and the premier to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n Parents interviewed by The Age on Tuesday were broadly supportive of the strike action, but some expressed a desire for the disruption to their children\u2019s schooling to be shortlived.<\/p>\n Engineer Ian Sims, who dropped his children for supervisory services at Bentleigh West Primary School, said he supported the strike but hoped for an early resolution.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt is disruptive for the kids,\u201d Sims said. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t want it to drag on.\u201d<\/p>\n On the streets of the CBD, a sea of marching educators, some of whom took part in the state\u2019s last mass industrial action 13 years ago, said they were angry as much about government underfunding of schools as they were their relatively low pay rates.<\/p>\n Teacher Sue Davis, who took part in the 2013 strike, said she and her colleagues at Richmond West Primary were frustrated with working in under-resourced schools.<\/p>\n \u201cMany young teachers feel so disappointed about the amount of work they need to do. And the stress they\u2019re under because they don\u2019t have the resources they need, it\u2019s very difficult,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo get us to be like this it requires a lot, and we\u2019ve been pushed to the limit. The offers they\u2019ve given us; they\u2019ve taken away much more than they\u2019ve given.\u201d<\/p>\n The government and the union are to continue negotiations on Wednesday.<\/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![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ff5cc2792b81ca2c036411b2536951ee6d0eaf8d.jpeg\")
Protesters at Tuesday\u2019s rally in Melbourne\u2019s CBD. Louis Trerise<\/p>\n![\"Jackson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4024faa7e42c773f745045be8e18d252909a649a.png\")
Jackson Graham<\/a> is an education reporter at The Age. He was previously an explainer reporter.Connect via email<\/a>.![\"Caroline](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/06fa76a02da0ea72f813d704e42fc410aebdab64.png\")
Caroline Schelle<\/a> is an education reporter, and joined The Age in 2022. She previously covered courts at AAP.Connect via X<\/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 24, 2026 \u2014 7:55pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-560968","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\/560968","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=560968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}