Two thousand extra teachers will join the Victorian state school system, cutting face-to-face teaching hours and giving teachers more time to prepare lessons within their paid hours.
Teachers will also receive a 2 per cent annual pay rise over the next four years, but no reduction in class sizes, after the Australian Education Union and the Andrews government struck a new four-year agreement on Friday, ending an 18-month union campaign.
Australian Education Union Victorian president Meredith Peace says the new deal addresses unreasonable teacher workloads.
The union’s Victorian branch president, Meredith Peace, said the union was pleased with the outcome of the in-principle agreement, with its emphasis on reducing excessive teacher workloads, and praised the Andrews government’s investment in the public school workforce.
“This has been a long time coming, but this historic agreement will deliver a range of commitments to address those excessive and unreasonable workloads,” Ms Peace said.
The 2 per cent pay rise teachers will receive as part of the agreement is well below the 7 per cent-a-year increase the union sought but in line with the government’s public sector wages policy.
While acknowledging the government would not agree to the 7 per cent increase, Ms Peace said there would be additional salary increases for Australian Education Union members through structural adjustments. Teachers and other school staff will also receive a new allowance of up to 1 per cent a year, depending on their role.
“It will see our lowest-paid education support staff better valued and respected for the important work that they do at their schools, by achieving a significant pay increase for them,” Ms Peace said. “We believe that combination is a fair and reasonable outcome and properly values and respects the work of our staff in schools.”
The proposed agreement will lift pay classifications for entry-level teaching graduates and introduce new pay structures for principals. It includes $12 million a year to reduce the administrative burden on principals.
Ms Peace said it was disappointing that the agreement did not include a reduction in class sizes.
“With any agreement it is a negotiation. We don’t always achieve all we want to achieve, so it is disappointing that we haven’t been able to achieve a reduction in class sizes as well,” she said.
The agreement includes a reduction in face-to-face teaching hours for the first time in more than 30 years. It is intended that the extra 2000 teachers to be hired will spread the workload and achieve a reduction of 1½ hours of face-to-face teaching per week, to be phased in over 2023 and 2024.
The deal will not lead to a reduction in class sizes. Credit:iStock
For the first time, teachers will also get time in lieu for school activities including camps, excursions and information nights. They will also get an extra pupil-free day for curriculum planning.
“We want more teachers in our schools who can respond to the needs of our kids, but who also importantly have time to do the work they are asked to,” Ms Peace said.
“We can’t continue to accept the excessive and unreasonable workloads that are simply unsustainable because it’s having an impact on the education of kids and on the health and wellbeing of staff in our schools.”
The new four-year agreement also includes superannuation paid to employees on parental leave for 12 months, with paid maternity leave increased from 14 to 16 weeks.
Education Minister James Merlino said the deal would cement Victoria’s status as the best state in Australia to be a teacher.
“Victorian school staff have given so much to school communities over the past two challenging years – and we’re proud to be supporting them with better pay, improved conditions and more generous parental leave,” he said.
The union had voted late last year to go on strike for one day in term 1 of this year if no deal was reached.
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