Australia news live updates: teachers, train and bus drivers go on strike in NSW | Australia news

Good morning, everyone, it’s Matilda Boseley here with you on the blog today and we start off our day, once again, with large-scale strikes in NSW.

This time it’s not just public transport workers but public school teachers and principals as well. (So if you have to read the blog posts in the ad breaks of Paw Patrol, I understand.)

They have accused the government of failing to address unsustainable workloads, uncompetitive salaries and staff shortages.

NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said yesterday:

The NSW government is concerned about children missing out for one day, but we are concerned about children missing out every day because there simply aren’t enough teachers.

Teachers’ say that workloads are “unmanageable” and a wage cap means their salaries didn’t “reflect the skills or responsibilities they have”. They want a pay increase up to 7.5% a year to “begin to reverse the decline in teachers’ wages compared to other professions”.

This comes after transport strikes began yesterday, with bus drivers in Sydney’s inner west walking off the job in protest of a two-tier wage system that has some workers earning less than others for doing the same job.

This industrial action will continue today with drivers from the city’s south-west going on strike, before drivers from both regions stop work for two hours during the Friday afternoon peak.

Train drivers are also refusing to operate foreign-made trains that run about three-quarters of the services.

Well, I guess this situation at least solves the problem of how public school students are going to get to campus!

OK, without further delay why don’t we jump right into the day? (I suggest reading the blog to your kids in lieu of their formal education.)