Three-day industrial action commences by state service workers in Tasmania

2 months ago

Public school teachers walked off the job in northwest Tasmania, demanding better pay and conditions from the state government. They were joined by firefighters, parks rangers and hospital staff on the first of three days of planned industrial action by state service workers.

Transcript

00:00A school day starts hours later than normal. Stop work action by teachers forcing parents

00:09and kids to modify morning routines.

00:13I think it's weird, so weird.

00:15We had to stay home, I work full time so it's a bit frustrating to have a nurse to sit around

00:19all day.

00:20What do we want?

00:21Fair time!

00:22When do we want it?

00:23Now!

00:24Tasmanian public school staff rallying alongside other state service workers, say they're feeling

00:31undervalued and disrespected by the state government.

00:35Teachers working environments are our students learning environments and every day we're

00:40pretty well letting our students down with the conditions that we're put under.

00:43The striking workers included firefighters, park rangers, child safety staff and North West

00:50Regional Hospital workers.

00:52I've been there for 28 years, I've done trolleys, I've done kitchen hand and it's

00:57actually the worst it's ever been and we're on the lowest wage for the rest of the hospital.

01:03The government is offering state service workers a one off 3% pay rise.

01:09But the unions say that does not address the cost of living and workforce retention challenges.

01:14The reality is that workers are extremely angry, they're not going to stop until the government

01:20actually treat them with respect.

01:22And that's what this is about, fair wages, fair conditions.

01:25No union takes stop work action lightly.

01:29A lot of thought has been put into this and it's come about simply because Jeremy Rucliffe

01:33has failed to listen to his own workforce.

01:36The education minister says the government intends to continue negotiations.

01:41It's really important to remember that this was just an offer for 12 months.

01:46To try and get a 3% pay rise into the pockets of public servants before Christmas while we

01:51work our way through a longer term agreement.

01:54The effects of the industrial action will spread to other parts of the state this week.

01:59With stop work meetings closing public schools in the north tomorrow morning and in the south

02:04on Thursday morning.

Three-day industrial action commences by state service workers in Tasmania

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