Canberra public schools will have more psychologists and assistants to free-up teachers' time, after the education union voted to accept the ACT government's third wage offer and end more than a year of "challenging" negotiations.
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About 80 members of the Australian Education Union ACT council endorsed in principle the enterprise bargaining agreement on Thursday night, unlocking $7 million to employ about 60 extra school assistants and $900,000 for four extra psychologists.
The deal, agreed to on behalf of the union's 3000 members, gives teachers a 12.6 per cent pay rise over four years, which is worth $159 million.
By the end of the four-year agreement classroom teachers will earn more than $100,000 each year, meaning ACT teachers will have the third highest salaries in the country behind only Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
But the union's secretary Glenn Fowler said the salary offer was never a major hurdle and the deal came after a sustained community campaign in 2011, at which point ACT teachers were the worst paid in the country.
Mr Fowler said excessive teacher workloads had become a chronic problem in recent years.
"The government has finally recognised the problem of teacher workloads crowding out the core work we need to do as teachers," he said.
"It's been a long journey through the negotiations, but we now have as a result of our perseverance almost 60 new administrative positions across the system to free teachers up from non-teaching work."
The deal comes after the union passed a motion of no confidence in Education Minister Joy Burch in May and rejected the government's March offer, which included a 12 per cent pay rise over four years and a minimum of 20 hours' workload reduction for each teacher.
The push for more school psychologists, administrative staff, a boost to professional development and the removal of back pay had been sticking points.
Ms Burch said she was pleased the union had accepted the "good deal" after the "challenging" negotiations.
"I have always valued our public schools and the teachers in them," she said.
"EBA negotiations can be tough; they can be hard-fought on both sides."
While Mr Fowler said teachers welcomed the additional four psychologists he said the battle to get more in schools was not over.
"School psychologists are critical to meet the needs of students and there are still too few," he said.
Currently, there is a ratio of about one school psychologist per 750 students in Canberra's public schools, according to the government.
The extra $900,000 will fund four full-time equivalent psychologists over two years, but there is no guarantee for the rest of the four-year agreement.
Instead the positions' effectiveness would be reviewed and it would be up to the territory's next government to make a decision.
The $7 million for school assistants also only covers two years, subject to a review, and was sourced by delaying teacher back pay by a month.
Mr Fowler said teachers were concerned the "critical" resources would remain subject to the whims of the incoming government, but he was confident the extra positions would prove their worth.
"We believe it will be very easy to demonstrate their value and woe betide any government that seeks to strip resources out of schools that been provided for very good reason," he said.
"The government knows we will continue to stand up for the conditions we need to continue to deliver world-class outcomes and we appreciated the community's strong support."
Ms Burch said ACT teachers were among the best in the country and deserved the deal's pay rises and conditions.
As well as back pay Mr Fowler said the new offer provided greater certainty for principals' remuneration and wellbeing.
He expects back pay to come through to teachers in six weeks.
