State school teachers walk off job, blaming premier

Tuesday’s strike will be the second 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.
It would be weeks out from Christmas, putting a hole in teachers’ first December pay cheque, which would usually include leave loading from the year on top of regular pay.
Teachers remained 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 would automatically begin on December 31, after which point industrial action would not be protected.
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