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Australian Education Union members have voted to accept the state government’s latest pay and conditions offer, calling off a third statewide school strike at the eleventh hour.
Teachers, principals and support staff have endorsed a minimum pay increase of 28.3 per cent over four years, after union members voted in favour of the offer on Monday.
Members voted to cancel planned industrial action on Wednesday, which would have meant public school teachers stopped work for 24 hours for a third time this year.
Victorian union boss Justin Mullaly said 79 per cent of members had endorsed the government’s offer.
“Congratulations, well done on your campaign,” he said in an address to members on social media.
Mullaly said the outcome was thanks to the powerful campaign of tens of thousands of public school staff.
“This outcome has been won through the direct efforts of AEU members, who demanded pay and conditions that reflect the value and importance of their work in Victorian public schools,” he said.
The agreement will now proceed to a vote of all employees as required under the Fair Work Act.
If endorsed, educators will receive a $2000 bonus when the agreement starts, and those at the top of their salary band will receive an annual payment of 1 to 2 per cent of their salary.
After-school meeting hours will be capped at 40 per year – down from 80 hours.
Existing face-to-face teaching hour maximums of 18.5 hours for secondary teachers and 21 hours for primary teachers would also be secured in the agreement, not in a deed, under the new offer.
Graduate teachers will start on $96,589 from November next year under the new agreement, up from the current $79,589.
An experienced teacher’s pay will increase from the current $118,063 to $151,419 by 2029, including a $15,393 boost this year – taking them ahead of NSW teachers.
The union had originally sought a 35 per cent pay increase over three years, which would have meant graduate teachers started on more than $107,400 by 2028 and experienced teachers would earn more than $159,300 by 2028.
The members’ vote to accept the latest pay offer, the first from Education Minister Gabrielle Williams, will likely end the tense negotiations between Labor and the powerful teachers’ union that began in July last year.
Williams said the agreement would likely be endorsed by October, if it received wider support from educators following a vote in the next few weeks.
“What we want to do most importantly now, though, is thank the wonderful, hardworking teachers and education support staff across our education system who have advocated hard, rightly so,” she said.
Williams said she welcomed the union’s decision to call off this week’s planned industrial action.
“We know that will be a huge relief to families who can now plan their weeks and know that their kids will be in the classrooms,” she said.
“We also know it’s a huge relief for our teachers and education support staff who want to be in classrooms too, doing what they love, which is teaching young people.”
The Labor government will face ongoing pressure from the union to sign an agreement with the Commonwealth to fully fund public schools, as set out in the Gonski model.
Premier Ben Carroll has publicly stated that signing an agreement is a priority, but he has stopped short of committing to do so before the November 28 election.
The public school educators’ pay negotiations have broader implications for the sector and about 40,000 Catholic school staff, who are negotiating their own enterprise agreement. Catholic teachers have had pay parity with Victorian public school teachers since the 1990s.
With Kieran Rooney
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