New pay deal welcomed by 83 per cent of ACT public school teachers: government

The proposed deal will mean a teacher in their first year of service will be earning $91,396 before superannuation by the end of 2025. Teachers' salaries will reach $130,000 after eight years in the classroom.

There will also be additional pupil-free days on the first day of terms 2, 3 and 4 each year from 2024 to be used for professional learning and planning.

Minister for education and youth affairs Yvette Berry said a ballot revealed 83 per cent of ACT public school teachers voted in favour of the proposed pay deal.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"This Enterprise Agreement will deliver nation-leading pay for public school teachers and a better classification structure that supports school leaders, new educators and experienced teachers," she said in a statement.

"This agreement outlines a clear approach to managing teacher workloads, so that our public school teachers and school leaders can do what they do best - teach and lead."

This comes after initial pay deals from the ACT government had been rejected by public school staff in 2022.

ACT branch president of the Australian Education Union Angela Burroughs said the results are a "great outcome", and are representative of expectations.

"The overwhelming support is not just from our members. It's obviously from all eligible teaching staff that are in favour of this new agreement," she said.

"We tested it through our branch council, they are the people who represent members, and that it was overwhelmingly supported, but admittedly not unanimously supported them, that we should accept this offer."

The portion of the council members who said no did so feeling as though there wasn't enough being done to combat workload issues, she said.

As part of the deal, which was negotiated by the Australian Education Union, a Sustainable Workload Management Committee has been established to identify the cause of problems that exist with teacher workloads.

The plan is also backed by more than $201 million from the ACT budget to recruit more teachers, keep more in the profession, and limit the effects of the national teacher shortage, Ms Berry said.

Spending towards education in the ACT budget was the second most of all allocations in the 2023/24 ACT budget, with $1.7 billion going towards it.

Ms Burroughs said as well as the additional pupil-free days included within the plan, the next steps for the union would be to focus on dealing more with workload pressures.

"That's what our members have told us, that they are overwhelmed with workload. It's crushing them," she said.

"It's only leading to people that are close to retirement to consider whether whether they should retire early things like that, and when we know that we have to make improvements for the sake of my profession.

"There's no point getting this great pay, they will particularly for beginner teachers, just to burn them out."

The Enterprise Agreement will be presented to the Fair Work Commission, and will commence seven days after it is approved.

"I thank the Australian Education Union ACT Branch for their commitment to championing and advancing public education in the ACT," Ms Berry said.

The lasting and lingering effects of the COVID pandemic have left a strain on not just teachers, but student well-being as well.

Teachers not only provide high-quality learning but are also important beacons of emotional support and social development for those they teach.

The crisis in teacher supply goes further than just leaving classes without authority.

The deal had previously been welcomed by the independent teachers union, but they flagged the initial difficulty extra pupil-free days may have on parents while still recognising the importance of training.

Independent Education Union NSW/ACT branch secretary Mark Northam said in May the deal had set a new benchmark for teachers' pay and conditions that Catholic and independent schools would eventually follow.

Threats of strikes have been made due to previous potential pay cuts and working conditions.

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.