The Queensland LNP government has teachers’ wages and conditions in its crosshairs. Not satisfied with the meagre 2.2 percent pay deal struck last year, Newman and education minister John-Paul Lanbroek have engineered a suite of new attacks as part of their “Great Teachers = Great Results” plan.

The frontline of the attack is the introduction of performance reviews. Teachers will now have to justify their position and satisfy their school administration that their jobs should be maintained into the next year.

The GT = GR scheme is claimed to be about “elevating teaching standards”. Yet the plan will have the opposite effect. The workload of teachers will dramatically increase. The new scheme will require teachers to submit detailed lesson plans and be subject to a rigorous review process.

If the government were serious about “elevating teaching standards”, it would lower workloads by reducing class sizes and giving teachers more time to prepare lessons.

In practice, the scheme will essentially reduce all teachers to the level of first year teacher graduates. Yet entry level teachers are dropping out of the profession at the highest rates precisely because of the stress associated with significant unpaid overtime and constant performance appraisal. The LNP plan is simply a facade for stripping workers’ rights and conditions.

Along with performance review, the GT = GR scheme will introduce performance pay. Under the plan, teachers will have to meet performance “benchmarks” in order to receive even the measly 2.2 percent annual pay rise agreed to as part of EBA 7 last year.

Failure to reach “benchmarks” will mean not only a pay freeze (a pay cut in real terms) but that teachers will be locked in a performance management system in which they will be subject to demanding three monthly reviews. These reviews can lead to termination and will have the effect of pitting teachers against one another.

The Queensland Teachers’ Union will also be locked out of particular selection panels. Public schools will be converted into “independent” public schools, giving greater hiring and firing power to principals. Principals and deputies will be put on two year contracts.

In the face of such an onslaught, teachers have responded with plans for action. Seventy percent of public school teachers recently voted in a union ballot against the GT = GR, with a huge 92 percent in favour of a snap 24-hour strike if the LNP moves to implement any of the plan.

This is a significant step because any industrial action will not be “protected” under the Fair Work Act. It is exactly this sort of strike action that is needed if teachers are to have any chance.