Public school teachers across NSW have voted to accept the Minns Labor Government’s three-year award agreement, formally completing last year’s four-year pay deal.
This agreement will mean the state’s 95,000 public school teacher workforce will continue to have highly competitive salaries, receiving a three per cent pay increase annually for the next three years.
Further, this agreement offers improved workplace flexibility to improve attraction and retention in the profession.
This will include opportunities for job-sharing, part-time employment as well as full-time and part-time leave without pay where requested.
To maximise teaching time, regular after-school meetings will be capped at one hour a week and after-school events will need to be planned in consultation with teachers, with reasonable notice given.
Teachers will also be provided with additional school development days for the duration of the three-year agreement to assist with rolling out the new curriculum with a focus on explicit teaching, while the department continues to address ongoing staffing challenges.
The agreement follows the once-in-a-generation pay rise given to teachers last year, which saw starting salaries lift from $75,791 to $85,000 and top of the scale teacher salaries increase from $113.042 to $122,100.
Deniliquin Teachers Association president Adam Bodey said Deniliquin members unanimously voted to accept the agreement.
“The wage increase is slightly higher than inflations, so we were happy with that,” he said.
“The extra staff development days are also welcome, as they allow us to get the job done within teaching hours rather than teachers having to do it at home in their own time.
“It gives us an additional two days at the start of the year to prepare, with four staff development days in a row at the start of term one. It does mean that school will not begin until February 13 next year.
“We’ll then have four other staff development days throughout the year.
“There are still a few more things the federation is continuing to work on, but the recommendation from them was to accept this deal.”