STRIKING teachers made their voices heard outside state MP Paul Toole's Howick Street office on Tuesday morning.
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At a funding announcement on the other side of town, however, Mr Toole told the media that the teachers' union had not let him know that the strike would be at his office and he hadn't received an invite to speak to the unhappy teachers.
Bathurst Teachers Association president Robert Bartulovich said the protest, part of statewide strike action, was about pay and conditions.
"We've got shortages of teachers already in the state and the government and the Department [of Education] are just not acknowledging that we're going to have a teacher shortage," he said.
"Their own research said the way to address the teacher shortage is to pay teachers more and to provide them with some relief from the excessive workload."
He said there are a number of schools around the Central West "which are unable to staff classes properly because they have no casual teachers and they don't have enough permanent staff".
Mr Toole said the strike was poorly timed.
"We've had kids that have had their learning interrupted throughout the year and this is another tough day for mums and dads that have to find babysitters or actually have to not go to work because they have to look after the kids," he said.
"We know that our teachers have done an amazing job throughout the year, but what we're seeing today is a disruption that couldn't have come at a worse time."
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Mr Bartulovich, however, said the bigger disruption for parents will come from a shortage in the profession.
"Isn't it going to be more terrible when there are no teachers to teach their children?" he asked.
Mr Toole pointed to the 2.5 per cent annual pay increase for NSW public servants, which includes teachers.
"The private sector is not guaranteed that," he said. "They [those in the private sector] could actually work for many years and not see any increase in their pay."
To go to a five or seven per cent pay increase for teachers, Mr Toole said, would mean "we're looking at billions of dollars of additional funding that would have to be found".
