Public school teachers in South Australia have voted to strike next week in the middle of year 12 exams unless the state government bumps up its pay offer.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Blair Boyer, thank you for your time this afternoon.
00:04 What's your response to this strike action that has been voted on by public sector teachers
00:11 in South Australia?
00:12 I'm disappointed, Matt, because I've said from the outset that I didn't think industrial
00:19 action was necessary.
00:21 If the strike goes ahead next week, it would be the second day that we have had in the
00:24 last few months of industrial action.
00:27 But negotiations have been going along positively from the very start.
00:32 The government has made two offers already.
00:35 We are looking to make a third offer on Monday, which is the timeline that the union has set
00:40 us.
00:41 But my message has been to the union that if the plan is for the threat and strike action
00:47 next week to somehow strengthen their case or jolt the government into action, that's
00:51 not necessary, because we've remained at the table with positive conversations the whole
00:55 time, have been making offers, and we're working towards a third offer next week anyway.
01:02 So I think all this does is, I guess, cause concern, particularly for those Year 12 students
01:09 who will be having exams next week.
01:10 I noted that of those who voted in favour of this strike, it's more than 80%, I believe,
01:17 of those who voted.
01:19 Doesn't that suggest that the offers and the negotiating so far, in the fact that it's
01:23 been fruitless, they also believe that the offers put forward simply aren't cutting the
01:28 mustard?
01:29 Well, listen, the union's made it clear to us before the threat of strike action that
01:36 they didn't think that the second offer was enough.
01:38 And we so remained at the bargaining table with them and have been discussing different
01:42 options.
01:43 And instead, we would work towards a third offer.
01:46 The first offer we made was a record offer.
01:48 The second bigger than that.
01:49 And the third will be bigger again.
01:51 So yes, I understand that 80%, I don't know what the actual voting figure was, having
01:56 said that, but 80% of those who voted, voted in favour.
02:00 But I don't necessarily think that that is a fair reflection, I guess, of the government's
02:06 willingness to come to a final agreement.
02:08 I don't think that threat of strike action is going to somehow precipitate any change
02:15 in the government's demeanour, because we've been really devoted and keen on getting to
02:20 a final outcome and delivering a pay rise and a workload reduction to teachers from
02:24 the outset.
02:25 So what's the offer that's currently on the table, noting that you have got a third
02:29 office offer under, you're working on a third offer, but what's the offer that you've
02:34 currently or the most recent offer you've put to the union?
02:39 So without going into the nitty gritty detail of all the things in the offer, the headline
02:43 figures, I guess, are 3% pay rise for three years.
02:47 So 3%, 3%, 3%.
02:48 Then we added in, in offer two, two $1,500 one-off payments, which came at an additional
02:54 cost to government or the taxpayer of about $70 million.
02:59 And then the other kind of point that has been the sticking point, although we're making
03:02 real progress, is an hour increase in non-instructional time.
03:05 So to deliver that, of course, we need teachers to be able to backfill those hour blocks to
03:11 make sure that it doesn't, you know, or that it isn't actually delivered by just reducing
03:15 the time that a student in South Australia gets in the classroom.
03:19 So we are committed to offer or deliver that across seven years.
03:24 The union has come back asking us if we can phase in that extra hour faster, and if we
03:29 can provide a bigger salary increase.
03:31 They're the things that we're considering.
03:33 I know that the union's demands when it comes to pay increases, they're looking for a minimum
03:37 of I think it's 5.5%.
03:40 There's various increments over the next couple of years or so.
03:43 Do you think that that is an unreasonable ask?
03:46 Well, the first ask is 8.4% in the first year, and that is unreasonable.
03:51 It's just not possible to do.
03:52 There's never been an unwillingness on behalf of this government to actually deliver a pay
03:56 rise.
03:57 I said from basically the first day in this job last year that, you know, that would be
04:01 an issue and that workload is an issue and we would need to address them.
04:04 But if 8.4% was something that, you know, we would have to deliver, which we can't,
04:11 I would have to close programs or shut programs in the education department to be able to
04:16 fund that.
04:17 It's just not something that we can do.
04:18 We've told the education union that, and we are in the process of putting together what
04:24 would be a third offer to them by Monday next week.
04:28 Do you think that this current dispute is indicative of a broader problem in the education
04:34 sector, not only in South Australia, but right across the country?
04:37 Is feeling like they are underpaid, they are overworked and not properly valued and
04:42 appreciated in the community?
04:44 I think the job is harder than it's ever been.
04:47 And I say that as the son of a public teacher in the country Victorian system for 40 years,
04:53 in fact, taught me on three occasions.
04:54 So it's been a part of my growing up.
04:57 I'm not an educator myself, but my dad always said at the end of his career, the job was
05:01 much harder than in terms of managing classrooms than it was when he started.
05:05 And I make no bones about that.
05:06 I think it is.
05:07 And I think post-COVID, which was really tough for teachers too, there has been an understandable
05:13 feeling amongst the workforce of a need to acknowledge that and reflect that in paying
05:19 conditions.
05:20 But putting that aside, we have said we want to do that.
05:23 It's just about how we get there.
05:24 And we have been on a really good trajectory.
05:26 Neither party's ever walked away from the bargaining table.
05:30 It's always been positive.
05:31 We continue to talk.
05:32 So insofar as you might use industrial action as a way of getting things going or bringing
05:39 parties back to the table, it's just not necessary because we're already there.
05:43 And just finally, I note that the union says that even though or even if this strike action
05:48 does go ahead, it is saying that year 12 exams won't be affected.
05:52 Are you satisfied by that that that assertion?
05:55 Well, we're busily working on that now, Matt.
05:58 So obviously, that's my ambition.
06:00 It's the SACE board's ambition here as well to make sure there is no disruption.
06:04 What I've said and I've just tried to be as frank in my comments as I can be, we don't
06:08 have much time between now and the threat and strike action of Thursday.
06:11 We also don't know exactly how many teachers are going to be on strike yet.
06:15 So we're doing the best we can in that environment.
06:17 I hope there won't be disruption.
06:19 But I'm just giving my honest answer that right now, we're trying to do everything we
06:23 can to make sure that's the case.
06:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]