NSW teachers will be asking for "more than thanks" as they walk off the job this Wednesday in protest over wage and working conditions.
Members of the NSW Teachers Federation voted up the 24-hour strike on May 4 asking for change in condition and a pay rise of between 5-7.5 per cent.
This comes on the heels of an initial school term in which teachers and their union granted the State Government a "grace" period, where they agreed to take no industrial action.
Their hope was that during that period the Perrottet Government would come to the table and have a "good-faith" bargaining meeting with teachers.
One demand from the NSWTF is the doubling of non-contact time that teachers are given, going from the current two hours a week to four.
It's during this time that a teacher is meant to complete the administrative part of teaching, such as planning their classes and requisite material, correcting their student's work and dealing with individual issues that have occurred with their students.
Ms Bianca Bertalli, a Federation Representative and teacher at Pomona Primary School has said that this is nowhere near enough time to do all of this work.
"I love my school, I love my kids, I love my community but I have to work a four-day week so I can have my fifth day to do all my planning," she said.
"I actually pay to put my kids into care for that fifth day so that I can not be in the classroom and not paid and work every Friday anyway."
In a 2018 report from Sydney University it was found that classroom teachers worked on average a 55-hour work week, with people in leadership roles working up to an average of 62 hours.
The 2020 independent inquiry into the work of teachers, chaired by former WA Premier Geoff Gallop, found that issues around workload were why two-thirds of teachers were considering a change in occupation.
The figures around teacher workloads become even more startling when put in the context of the statewide public sector wage cap. This cap has been in place since the NSW Liberal Government introduced it in 2011.
The union argues not just that teachers deserve to be paid better overall but that in particular during this period where the inflation rate has risen to a record 5.1 per cent, that for teachers to be offered a max of a 2.5 per cent raise, it essentially gives them a pay cut.
NSWTF and Unions NSW argue that the government shouldn't just give teachers a raise above the cap but that the cap should be entirely abolished for everyone in the public sector.
The local NSWTF organiser Brett Bertalli said that the wage cap is evidence of a government that is happy to treat "the public sector with absolute disdain and disrespect".
He argues that over the past few years it's been these public sector workers that have been hardest hit by extreme weather events or the COVID pandemic.
"Let's look at the nurses who were putting themselves on the front line and their families at risk. Before vaccinations were even available they were treating everybody and looking after them, but 2 per cent that's it," Mr Bertalli said.
"Firefighters who lost their lives during the drought and the fires, 2 per cent, no more. Police who were on the borders, again, putting themselves in the firing line of the virus, but no, 2 per cent that's it. It's time for it to be abolished."
During a period with a record high cost of living and inflation, he described the wage cap as a "kick in the guts" to public sector workers.
The wage gap, teachers say, isn't just affecting their hip pocket but is also acting as a deterrent for people considering teaching as an occupation.
Rebecca Nixon, President of the Wentworth Teachers Association and teacher at Coomealla High School, says that this in conjunction with the workload is causing the teaching shortage that NSW is currently facing.
According to the union in June 2021 there were 1148 schools that had vacant positions, this accounts for almost a third of all public schools in the state. The Department of Education has said that the number of unfilled positions has doubled since 2012.
Ms Nixon said she feels this problem is even more dire in smaller regional towns where it can be harder to get casuals.
This ends up meaning that teachers at her high school are forced to take up that extra workload and teach outside of their area of expertise.
"In the last couple of years we've really seen that there are a lot of days where you can't get any casuals so for us we have classes that go uncovered regularly," she said.
"We figure out how to have enough for supervision but it means that it's not always the correct teacher from the correct teaching area because it's not always possible."
Ms Nixon expressed that this was particularly hard for kids in their later years of high school as they dealt with the stress of HSC while not always having a consistent teacher.
She said that teachers have always done their best to help the students and get more teachers.
"We've had different positions vacant permanently and advertised repeatedly," she said.
"Even with incentives to help entice teachers from the coast to come and teach in our area."
She said that this has not been enough to overcome the systematic issues, such as workload and pay, that she says are the reason why the teacher shortages.
The strike will be on Wednesday, May 4.
