The start
Our union sought a pay rise of 30% over three years, plus other improvements in conditions.
The Vic government offered 3.25% per annum., and wanted increased productivity.
We took part in a long campaign, which included two full day and one half day stopworks.
Our last pay increase was over 19 months ago, on October 1, 2006.
During the campaign the union officers indicated that if not 30%, then at least pay parity with NSW would be our aim.
On May 6, the Premier and Minister announced that agreement had been reached with the AEU (Vic Branch) which would make Victorian teachers at the top of the scale the highest paid in Australia. They would receive $75,500. However, the Minister said teachers would get 4.9%, plus three lots of 2.7%.
The AEU (Vic Branch) President said it was the best agreement she had been associated with in her time in union office – about 25 years. She kissed the Premier.
So, what have we got?
In summary, except for first year graduates (4YT) and Expert Teachers at E3a (currently $66,467) and E3 ($65,414), everyone gets 4.9% from May 11 (subject to ratification of the Agreement), and then gets 2.7% on Jan 1 of 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Those who would have been eligible for salary increments on the current scale will still get increments on the new scale and this gives the impression that they will receive increases greater than the 4.9% and three lots of 2.7%.
There is also a ‘bonus’ of $1000 for some teachers, $1500 for some Leading Teachers and $2000 for Principals – to compensate for the delay in reaching agreement.
Leaving aside the one-off ‘bonus’, we get almost exactly the same dollar value of the government offer (3.25% p.a.) re-packaged as 4.9% as the first instalment, and three lots of 2.7% to follow. For many teachers this means we could have accepted the government offer a year ago, and been no worse off.
For example, let’s look at Anna’s salary. Anna is Leading Teacher 2 at the top of the scale, currently on $78,675. This is $12,208 above the top Expert Teacher salary. She will get the 4.9% and 3 x 2.7%, and end up on $89,423. If she had received the government offer (4 x 3.25%) she would have ended up on $89, 412. The difference is $11. Did Anna stop work for 2.5 days, losing $619, only to gain $11 over the government offer? (This doesn’t include the bonus payment, but that would probably have happened under the government offer anyway, as the same reasons for the bonus exist under either scenario). Note also, that Anna’s pay in 2011 will now be only $7,617 above the top of the Expert Teacher range, whereas it is $12,208 above now.
The winners appear to be the top of the scale Expert Teachers. They get a substantial increase from $66,467 to $75,500 as at May 11 – a 13.6% increase. This is well deserved. So, from May 11 until Dec 31 they are paid $148 pa more than their counterparts in NSW. Teachers in NSW got the last instalment of their last round of pay increases on Jan 1 this year, so they will be negotiating for their new salary deal, with the likelihood of new rates from Jan 1, 2009.
On Jan 1, 2009, top of the scale Expert Teachers in Vic will get a 2.7% increase and go to $77,546. If the union in NSW achieves a pay rise of anything above 2.9% for its top-of-the-scale teachers in the first year of their new deal they will move back ahead of Vic teachers. Given the history of pay rises for teachers in NSW, plus other factors such as the rate of inflation, the NSW govt needing to shore up support prior to the next state election, etc, it is more than reasonable to suggest that they will do better than 2.9%. Our status of being the highest paid will likely last for less than eight months, while our agreement will run for three years and eight months.
So while top-of-the-scale teachers in Vic get eight months of sunshine by having salaries above their NSW equivalent, everyone else on the salary scale, except first year graduates, will continue to be in the gloom, well behind their NSW counterparts. This table illustrates the point:
Vic (4YT) 11/5/08 | NSW (4YT) 1/1/08 | Difference | |
1st year (G2) | 51,584 | 50,522 | + 1,062 |
2nd year (G3) | 51,584 | 53,121 | - 1,537 |
3rd year (G4) | 52,643 | 55,726 | - 2,083 |
4th year (A1) | 55,686 | 58,331 | - 2,645 |
5th year (A2) | 57,273 | 60,933 | - 3,660 |
6th year (A3) | 58,906 | 63,536 | - 4,630 |
7th year (A4) | 60,585 | 66,137 | - 5,532 |
8th year (A5) | 62,312 | 68,744 | - 6,432 |
9th year (E1) | 64,554 | 75,352 | - 10,798 |
10th year (E2) | 66,556 | 75,352 | - 8,796 |
11th year (E3<12 m) | 68,619 | 75,352 | - 6,733 |
12th year (E3 & E3a) | 75,500 | 75,352 | + 148 |
Have we been misled?
Some of the claims made have been quite misleading:
- Highest paid at the top-of-the-scale will last for less than eights months, which is less than one-fifth of the duration of the agreement.
- The one-off bonus payment has been factored into the union’s calculations of the overall percentage increases. That would only be valid if the bonus was incorporated into the subsequent 2.7% increases and showed in the final increase. As it doesn’t, it can’t be legitimately counted.
- Increments have been factored into the union’s calculations of the overall percentage increases which makes the increases look much greater than they are. Teachers who get increments during the new agreement would have got increments anyway – albeit at a very slightly different rate.
- In the Agreement Bulletin of May 15 the union claims “no principal or teacher receives less than an average of 5.19% per year over the life of the agreement”. This is the key claim by the union to make non-top of the Expert Teacher scale teachers feel they have done better than the government offer. It’s not true. The agreement runs from the time it is ratified by members and approved by the Workplace Authority (probably in June/July, 2008) until December 31, 2011. However, the pay increases date from May 11, 2008. From May 11, 2008 to December 31, 2011 is 3.6 years. Excluding the two classifications who got extra increases, and excluding the bonus payment (for the reasons outlined above), the real ongoing increase for nearly everyone else averages just 3.8% per annum – not 5.19% as claimed.
It is important to see how the figure of 3.8% is calculated. Again, take Anna’s salary as an example. She is on $78, 675 now and will be on $89, 423 at the end of 31 December 2011.
This is an increase of 13.66%. Divide by the 3.6 years duration of the salary increases (May 11, 2008 to December 31, 2011) and the average is 3.8% p.a. This is almost identical to the outcome of the government’s original offer when calculated over the same period – $78,675 x four lots of 3.25% over 3.6 years equals 3.79% p.a.
Conditions
Going to other issues, our claim was also for improvements in our conditions. Virtually none have been achieved. The “crackdown on contract abuse” would be great if it actually was. All that has been agreed is that a reason must be given for a fixed term employment, the Department will “monitor fixed term vacancy trends” and will “consult the AEU”. The claim that there will be “guaranteed summer pay for contract teachers who work full year…” is not included in the Proposed Memorandum of Understanding published on the union’s website.
The one useful gain is that from July 1, 2008 the cost of leasing a laptop will be reduced to $4.00 per fortnight.
However, we have lost the current flexibility to determine at a school level when three of the four pupil-free days can be scheduled. Three of the four days will now occur before students commence the school year, unless the Department wants to move one day “in the context of the Blueprint” whatever that might mean. Schools will now only control the scheduling of one pupil-free day.
Summary
Apart from the substantial increase for top of the scale Expert Teachers, and a better graduate starting salary, the salary outcome is highly disappointing. For most classifications we get what the government offered on day one, give or take a few dollars, but front-loaded to sweeten it up.
The combination of our industrial campaign and the negotiation efforts of our elected union officers have delivered little, except a short-lived period when our top of the scale salary exceeds NSW.
Our key conditions of work, such as face-to-face teaching time, have not improved in the time that the current government and our elected union officers have been in office – more than eight and more than 10 years respectively.
The funding model used to resource schools (and which our union never opposed or never sought to change) continues to be the major obstacle to other improvements for teachers, such as a real career structure and real security of employment. I’m happy to give a detailed analysis of this point at a Staff Meeting.
I’m also disappointed that your loyalty to the union and its campaign, your collective actions with thousands of your colleagues, and the substantial loss of pay that resulted, have led to so little.
Principal May 17, 2008 (Attribution withheld until I can contact the author - or he/she contacts me)
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