Top End public school teachers will be taking strike action today at 9am at schools in the Greater Darwin region and a rally will be held at the Parap Village Market to protest the government’s proposed pay freeze, the union representing teachers said.

The Australian Education Union NT said their members were taking the strike action due to “significant challenges in staffing, workload, and resourcing since the start of 2022”.

“The AEUNT will not support an agreement which will make these issues worse,” said branch secretary Adam Lampe.

Notice was previously given that AEUNT members in Darwin and Palmerston schools would take a half-day strike today. Schools will, however, remain open to receive students and they have said there is no safety risk to students.

The action comes following the AEU membership rejecting the Commissioner for Public Employment’s final position for a new Enterprise Agreement in March in a member ballot.

The government’s proposed offer included the pay freeze in effect until the end of 2024. Under the offer, the teachers would be given the $4,000 “bonus” after the agreement is approved, and annual lump sum payments of $2,000 in October for four years, all of which are subject to taxes.

Mr Lampe said the union would not settle on an agreement which he said threatens the ability to recruit and retain teachers in the Territory, and that seriously challenges the functioning of a public education system.

The March employee ballot found 87.5 per cent of those voting rejected the pay freeze.

Since the vote, talks with the new Territory Labor Government ministers have not gone anywhere.

A conference held in May by the AEUNT ended in an unanimous vote to endorse industrial action.

Early this month, AEUNT members agreed by ballot to take a range of industrial actions, plus half-day strikes over the coming months.

“Hopefully, the strike will help bring the NT Government to its senses and that it will start taking significant action to address the teacher shortage, unsustainable workloads and uncompetitive wages under which current NT public school teachers are struggling,” Mr Lampe said.