EDUCATION support staff at Victoria's public schools have voted to join teachers and principals in a historic statewide strike next month.
They want to make Premier Ted Baillieu keep his pre-election promise to make them ''not the worst-paid [but] the best-paid teachers in Australia''.
On September 5, support staff will join teachers in the 24-hour strike, after more than 97 per cent of them voted to take protected industrial action.
Teachers' aides, IT staff and administrative workers will strike for the first time, joining teachers in walking off the job.
The strike by production staff will mean hundreds of the state's 1200 public schools will shut for the day.
Tens of thousands of teachers walked off the job in June in a statewide strike that shut down about 200 schools for the day.
Australian Education Union Victorian president Mary Bluett said the September 5 strike would see teachers and support staff gather at Rod Laver Arena this time - after a mass meeting of education workers was too big for a similar gathering held at the nearby Hisense Arena in June.
''Education support staff have never taken industrial action in Victoria's history, but are poised to do so because of the treatment by the Baillieu government,'' Ms Bluett said.
''The bulk of these people are very poorly paid,'' she said, with 43 per cent of support staff also with little job security because they were on short-term contracts rather than permanent employees.
Ms Bluett said she understood the strike would disadvantage some parents who would need to arrange for their children to be looked after for the day. But no teacher ever took industrial action lightly, she said, ''as evidenced by the fact that educational support staff have never done this before''.
Teachers are pushing for a 30 per cent pay increase over three years and a reduction of short-term contracts, while the government is offering a 2.5 per cent annual rise with further increases delivered through productivity gains.
A spokeswoman for the Baillieu government said the Coalition was disappointed the union had chosen to pursue another round of strike action.
The spokeswoman said the request by teachers for a 30 per cent pay increase over three years would be considered ''excessive'' by most Victorians, and if granted would cost taxpayers $14 billion.