Public school teachers will go on another full-day strike this year unless the government makes progress to resolve a pay offer dispute, the main teachers' union says.
The Australian Education Union said its ACT branch council had rejected the ACT government's offer for teaching staff and endorsed escalating industrial action later this month and into term 4.
"There has been some welcome and hard-won progress, but after more than 12 months of bargaining, this offer still falls short. The government can do better," the union's ACT branch president, Angela Burroughs, said.
"If the government wants to avoid escalation in term 4, there is a clear pathway: listen to our members and improve the offer."
The union said short, rolling stop-work actions would start in term 4 with a full-day strike on the agenda if the government does not make sufficient progress to resolve the dispute.
Ms Burroughs said the union was giving the government every opportunity to resolve the dispute.
"But this is not an indefinite period for more talk. There is a clear timetable and a clear consequence if the government fails to act," Ms Burroughs said.
"Our members have already shown they are prepared to stand up for themselves, their colleagues and their students. They are ready to do so again."
Deputy Chief Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith, who is also responsible for education, said the pay and conditions offer was a genuine attempt to reach a fair and balanced agreement.
"It would have seen our public school teachers become the highest paid in the country, outside of the Northern Territory, from February 2027," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"We understand the AEU's Branch Council has today rejected the government's offer, and we acknowledge the union's feedback about staffing and workload.
"This is something that has been explicitly recognised with additional resources and staffing for 2027, as well as improving centralised processes to better support schools experiencing staffing shortages."
Ms Stephen-Smith said the government would continue negotiating in good faith while also responsibly managing the ACT budget.
"We know teachers are keen to see an outcome sooner rather than later, so we'll be working quickly on the next steps forward," she said.
Earlier on Friday, the union said the offer included a 9 per cent increase to salaries over three years, with an extra pay rise for teachers at the top of the classroom pay scale and some school leaders.
Teachers called a full-day strike for the first time in 15 years earlier this year, forcing the ACT's public schools to close for a day in June.
The union said it had made 25 claims as part of the bargaining process, of which only one covered pay.
Ms Burroughs had said the government's core offer, which covered learning support assistants and was rejected in a ballot this week, was cynical because inflation-linked payments would not come into effect until after the government expected inflation to ease.
"A whole lot of our members are impacted by this, all the school assistants who perform crucial work, particularly in inclusive ed, supporting students with disability. They are the majority of the workforce in our specialist schools. So, that revised offer is significant for them. And I'd have to say it's a shocker. It's an absolute shocker," she told ABC radio in July.
