AEU strikes a deal with the Victorian Government
4 February 2022
Today, the AEU announced an in-principle deal with the Victorian Government for the next Agreement covering staff in Victorian government education. This has been the result of many months of intensive negotiations as well as a series of industrial actions and bans late in 2021.
There is a lot to unpack in this deal, but amongst the headline wins are:
1% base salary increase for all staff every six months from 1 January 2022 to 1 July 2025, plus an additional annual allowance, equivalent to 1% of salary for most employees.
Adjustments to salary structures delivering further salary increases to most employees.
Significant improvements to classification structures and salary progressions for Education Support Staff as well as the provision of laptops.
A new salary structure for principals and assistant principals
A one-hour reduction in face-to-face teaching time next year, with a further 30 minute reduction in 2024.
Time-in-lieu arrangements for out of hours work.
Greater autonomy around the use of non-teaching time
A further increase to the graduate teacher salary rates
Parental leave increases – 16 weeks paid primary carer leave (up from 14 weeks, or 8 for adoption leave), and an increase in paid partner leave from 1 week to 4.
We congratulate AEU members for their successful campaign, and in particular for their successful efforts to tackle the schools workload crisis through these negotiations.
This result will give significant momentum to our negotiations with Victorian Catholic Education employers, which have been underway for over six months. For 25 years our collective strength has allowed us to successfully maintain pay parity and competitive conditions with government school employees - our motto over this time has been ‘Not a dollar less, not a day later!’ We cannot however take this for granted – improvements to wages and conditions are not handed down, they are won by union members standing together.
We will shortly be calling a meeting of all reps to look at the detail of this deal and discuss our next steps, and will be calling on all members to support our campaign for a better deal for staff in Victorian Catholic Education.
Right now it is crucial that every worker in our sector understands the importance of the negotiations the IEU is undertaking - and understands that our strength at the bargaining table depends on our collective strength in every IEU sub-branch. Please keep the conversation going in your workplace and invite your colleagues to join you in your union today.
Click here for more details from the AEU