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Pay deal for Vic teachers

Norrian Rundle, Melbourne

10 May 2008

On May 5, Victorian Premier John Brumby and education minister Bronwyn Pike announced that they had struck a deal with the Victorian Australian Education Union (AEU) over teachers’ pay. While there are several aspects of the agreement to be finalised, the government decided to go public and claimed that Victorian teachers are now the highest-paid teachers in Australia.

The deal has delivered a wage increase of 24% over four years for teachers at the top of the incremental scale and a jump in pay for teachers entering the profession. This makes teachers in these two groups the highest paid in the country. However, teachers in the middle of the incremental scale have only achieved a 13% increase over four years — exactly what the Brumby government offered in the first place.

The government also made a big deal about increasing the time per day that students spend at school, as well as moving three out of four pupil-free professional development days to the beginning of the school year. This means that schools no longer have the flexibility to plan according to their own needs.

Victorian AEU president Mary Bluett said it was the best deal that she had brokered in her 25 years as a union leader. Many teachers do not agree with her assessment, with the Melbourne Age publishing a number of letters to the editor that condemned aspects of the deal.

The new agreement will most probably maintain teaching hours and class sizes, despite teachers pushing for significant improvements.