Teachers in the Eurobodalla Shire will go on strike tomorrow for the second time in as many months as part of industrial action organised by the NSW Teachers Federation and the Independent Education Union of Australia NSW/ACT Branch.
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The strike is organised for a 10am rally at the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club for teachers in the public and Catholic schools sectors.
Elected Assistant Secretary of the IEUA, Pam Smith, said the strike was to fight for the "future of the profession".
"We have people in all facets of the profession are completely concerned about the future of education," she said.
"We're experiencing major staff shortages that were exacerbated by COVID, and we need to look at how we attract and retain people in the profession.
"We're in a period where salaries have been allowed to become stagnant and unsustainable, workloads are out of control, and this hasn't been recognised by the State Government.
"The wage cap is three per cent, but we know inflation is at 5.1 per cent. The national minimum wage rise was 5.2 per cent.
"Our members want to come to school and know they can do their jobs and not be affected by staff shortages, and we need to attract people with reasonable play and manageable work loads.
"It's about investing in the future of the profession."
Country organiser for the NSW Teachers Federation, Waine Donovan, said it was time for the State Government to "raise the status" of teaching.
"We're in a situation where classes are being split on a daily basis, students are on quadrangles with minimal supervision, and we have Year 12 students unable to access teachers to finish their HSC," he said.
"This has been brought about by the fact a 2.5 per cent wage cap (now offered at three per cent) has lowered the status of the profession markedly.
"Salaries have gone backwards in real terms, and work loads have increased exponentially."
Some schools are expected to be "non-operational" due to tomorrow's strikes, but Mr Donovan was unable to confirm which schools would be open or closed.
"We know some local schools will be non-operational because there won't be enough staff on premises to ensure the safety of students," he said.
"We welcome that, because we need this Government to realise this isn't something that will just go away, and we'll be working on more action in the future if necessary."
Mr Donovan said the union put a claim in with the Department of Education for a five per cent pay increase for all teachers, a further 2.5 per cent increase for executive and experienced teachers, and two hours of release from face-to-face teaching each week.
"All they've come back with is a capped three per cent salary increase, which is essentially a cut," he said.
"A teacher at the top of the scale will be down $3000 a year if we accept that cap - people aren't wanting to get into the profession because of uncompetitive salaries.
"A doctor or lawyer would only take as many patients or clients as they could handle, and there's no way they'd accept a three per cent salary cap. Why do teachers have to settle for that?"
Ms Smith said data from university backed the unions claim that young people weren't interested in the teaching profession.
"The universities are telling us there's been a 30 per cent reduction in the number of entrants to teaching degrees," she said.
"The Catholic sector anticipates a shortage of around 15 per cent by 2030, so the employers know there's a problem, but the recent State budget has done nothing to address it.
"Catholic school teachers are paid at the same rate as public teachers, so the Catholic School system is saying they can't do anything until it's sorted in the public sector."
Mr Donovan was also fearful of rampant teacher shortages in the future.
"We've got research that shows we'll have a growth of 200,000 students over the next 20 years in NSW, and we're going to need between 11,000 and 14,500 teachers," he said.
"We can't fill teaching positions now. I've got seven schools being built in my patch up until 2024, which is fabulous, but where are we going to get teachers to fill them?"