ACT public school teachers have indicated they will refuse to accept anything lower than pay parity with NSW through their EBA negotiations, no matter how much it costs the Government.
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The Australian Education Union passed a motion on Saturday threatening further rolling stoppages in two weeks' time if the Government did not provide an acceptable offer at a meeting with negotiators this morning.
ACT branch president Penny Gilmour said November 7 had been nominated for two-hour stoppages by the North, Gungahlin and Belconnen school networks, with a similar strike of South, Weston and Tuggeranong schools the next day.
If the Government provided a new offer, but it was deemed unacceptable, further stoppages could be held for the remainder of that week.
Ms Gilmour admitted significant progress had been made over the past few months, with a number of issues ''ticked off for inclusion in the final agreement''.
But achieving pay parity with NSW remained the key sticking point and members were not willing to back down until this was achieved.
She said the Government continued to argue it had given as much money as it could spare, but the excuse simply wasn't good enough. ''Members are not prepared to wear that argument, because we have sucked in our belts in the past and tried to support the local economy and, in our view, we have not seen a repayment of that effort by the Government,'' she said.
''We are now in a position of having huge gaps between salaries in the ACT and our nearest competitor, which is NSW ... and our members feel they cannot accept that the situation should be allowed to continue.''
Ms Gilmour said teachers would consider accepting if they were given parity in the first year plus 3.5 per cent increases in the remaining years of the agreement.
A spokeswoman for Education Minister Andrew Barr said the Government would continue to negotiate with union executives at their meeting this morning.