The New South Wales (NSW) premier Chris Minns has stopped short of ordering teachers to accept a four-year pay deal to lock in an initial wage increase that would see them become the country’s best-paid classroom leaders.
Under the state government’s latest offer to end pay dispute, salaries for entry-level teachers would increase by about 12 percent from October, which is above the pay deal currently covering teachers in Victoria, Queensland and ACT.
Teachers who were in the top earning tier would get an immediate boost of eight percent, lifting their salaries to $122,100 (US$78,363) in 2024.
However, the teachers union has taken issue with the other part of the package—locking in the next three annual pay rises at 2.5 percent per year.
Premier Chris Minns said the 2.5 percent annual increase is about keeping the new “nation-leading” salaries on track with inflation.
“I’m not saying that we came to an agreement in relation to that, but it was always known from the government’s perspective,” he said.
Contentious Wage Negotiations
Negotiations broke down in July after the union said an in-principle one-year agreement was changed to an offer covering four years, including a three-year maintenance phase.NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos said the change was an “act of betrayal” that had “gutted” teachers reported AAP.
Mr. Minns said he was mindful about advising the union that they should accept the government wage deal.
He said it was a reasonable offer that could keep NSW teachers in the system longer and decrease rising resignations.
“We’re in a situation at the moment where a graduate teacher does three years of university, one year of practice, goes into the classroom for 24 months and then 20 percent are resigning,” Mr. Minns said.
“We think we can turn that around with his wages deal.”
The teaching profession is one of the few sectors that has been offered a multi-year deal since the Minns Labor government was elected in March.
Most public sector workers have been offered a four percent pay rise for this financial year.
While the government has torn up the long-standing 2.5 percent cap on wage increases, it is holding off on announcing a replacement regime until the state budget on September 19.
The offer for teachers includes more annual grade increases.
A person who entered the workforce in 2023 would have their salary rise to $105,809 by 2026.
And that’s $8,325 higher than the amount the previous government’s wages deal would have garnered.
Top-of-the-scale teacher salaries would rise 15.1 percent over the four-year agreement to $130,209, nearly $10,000 a year better.
Education Minister Prue Car has rejected any claims that she is not on the side of the teachers stating that the original 2.5 percent offer for years two, three and four was only an “indicative” offer.
She said she was “ disappointed” in the union’s decision, given that both sides were so much in agreement on most of the issues and the ongoing negotiations.
“We want to do this for teachers. I can’t get clearer than that,” she said.
