New South Wales teachers will become the best paid in the country, under a proposed pay deal offered by the state government.
The deal would see an increase of almost $10,000 for first-year teachers and raise the maximum salary by almost $9,000 to around $122,100.
The in-principle agreement has been welcomed by the acting president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Henry Rajendra.
The deal will be taken to the federation’s council on Saturday for a vote.
Mr Rajendra said more attractive salaries could help lure more professionals to the industry and reverse the state’s teacher shortage.
“For the first time in a very long time, salaries in New South Wales for teachers will be competitive,” Mr Rajendra said.
If agreed to, New South Wales teachers would be the most well paid in the country until teachers in the ACT receive their next increase in June.
But, teachers in the classroom wouldn’t be the only ones to receive an increase.
The pay of the most experienced school counsellors will go from $113,000 up to $140,000 — equivalent to the salary of a head teacher.
The pay rise would take effect from October 9 but the remaining three years of the four-year deal are yet to be negotiated.
The government said subsequent rises would be in line with the state’s public service wages policy, which scraps the previous government’s 2.5 per cent wage cap.
Mr Rajendra said it was too early to negotiate 2024 onwards.
“There are very loose predictions about what the inflation will look like next year”, Mr Rajendra said.
This deal comes a month after the Minns government was accused of abandoning an almost identical deal for the state’s teachers, which followed months of wage negotiations dating back to April.
Biggest wage increase since 1990s
Education Minister Prue Car said the offer meant the “only way is up” for New South Wales teachers.
“What has been presented to the Teachers Federation membership is the biggest increase to teachers’ wages since the 1990s, and it’s long overdue,” she said.
“We need to value our teachers, our wonderful teachers in this profession if we are to recruit more of them to the classrooms, to improve the educational outcomes for our children”.
Mr Rajendra said the new offer was first and foremost “a win” for students.
“This is a once in a generation increase in teacher salaries that we know will be very attractive in terms of retaining the profession we’ve got now,” he said.
“I know that families, mums and dads would welcome the settlement of this particular matter because it will enrich the experiences of students in classrooms.”
While the union welcomed the offer, Mr Rajendra said work still needed to be done “on both sides” to reduce the pressure on teachers.
“Schools cannot sustain what they’ve got now with the vacancies that they’ve got. We cannot continue to accept that it’s okay to have students left under minimal supervision in playgrounds and in libraries,” he said.
“We will work with the department of education together, shoulder-to-shoulder to go in there and say, ‘hey, the best place to work as a teacher is our New South Wales public school system and you are welcome’.”
When asked where savings would be made to cover the cost of the proposed pay deal Ms Car said full costings would appear in the upcoming state budget.
(ABC)
