More than 50,000 Victorian state school teachers and principals are preparing to strike unless the Andrews government fixes their "crushing" workload.
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Lengthy pay and workload negotiations between the Australian Education Union and the state government escalated on Friday, with the union's branch council voting to take steps towards industrial action.
The sticking point is not so much about pay, but relief from excessive workloads.
The move towards widespread industrial action could result in schools closing as teachers take part in planned workplace stoppages.
It is a significant blow to the Andrews government, which campaigned heavily on education ahead of the 2014 election, promising to make Victoria the "education state". Labor is also desperate to avoid another bitter industrial dispute after its ongoing drama with the firefighters' union.
AEU Victorian branch president Meredith Peace said teachers were overworked and needed to be given more time to plan their classes and assess students.
"We will not be the education state without investment in the most critical resource, and that is the staff in our schools," she said.
"We are not able to do the best job that we can do because we are under enormous pressure."
The union is calling on the government to invest in up to 2000 new teachers to ease the pressure off existing staff.
Teachers claim they are working an average of about 53 hours a week, which amounts to about 15 hours of unpaid overtime a week. They have also asked for a 21 per cent pay rise over three years.
The union will now lodge documents with the Fair Work Commission to request a ballot for protected industrial action.
It has been negotiating with the state government for 11 months, and its previous enterprise bargaining agreement expired on October 31.
The AEU had hoped to avoid a repeat of its bitter 18-month pay dispute with the former Napthine government, which led to Victoria's largest ever strikes over three days in 2012 and 2013. As part of the industrial action, teachers also banned comments in report cards and teachers working outside the 38-hour week. It followed the former state government breaking its promise to make Victorian teachers the highest paid in the nation.
During this round of enterprise bargaining negotiations, teachers are pushing for smaller class sizes, with a maximum of 20 students across prep to year 12, down from current average class size of 25 and 26 students.
The AEU is also calling for a reduction in the use of short-term contracts, amid growing concerns about the increasing casualisation of the teaching workforce.
One in five Victorian teachers and 45 per cent of support staff, including teaching aides, are on short-term contracts.
The Andrews government has been embroiled in a lengthy pay dispute with the firefighters' union and in 2015, Melbourne's trains and trams ground to a halt for the first time in 18 years as part of industrial action organised by the Rail, Tram and Bus Union.
But it secured a quick deal with the police union and resolved a long-running pay dispute with paramedics as soon as it won office.
Education Minister James Merlino said: "Our teachers do an amazing job and we will continue to bargain in good faith over their EBA."
The Opppsition's education spokesman Nick Wakeling said the Andrews government had neglected the needs of teachers and students. "Daniel Andrews is too busy pushing his radical social agenda," he said.
