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- support@aeutas.org.au
Strong AEU membership and significant action in union has secured an Offer for a new Teachers Agreement that covers Teachers, ESS, ASTs, APs, Principals and School Psychologists in DECYP, schools and colleges.
The Teachers Agreement determines your wages and conditions, so it is very important that you have your say and vote on this Offer.
Your elected AEU Executive recommends that you vote YES to accept the Offer.
The Offer detailed below is not the solution to all the challenges we face in our schools and colleges, but it represents an excellent result of AEU member action that delivers significant benefits to all members and meets many of the Lifting Learning objectives developed by AEU members.
Rejecting this Offer is a recommendation to your AEU Executive to return to the escalated, sustained Stop Work Action required to achieve further improvements.
Read through the materials provided below to find out what is included in the Offer, check your details and submit your vote.
Central Funding: “all of the following matters are fully funded centrally in DECYP”.
This Offer includes the highest one-year base salary increase for teachers in any Australian state or territory in recent years.
Member action, in union, moved proposed one-off payments to base salary increases, so future increases will be in addition to first year increases.
The salary increases shown in the summary below achieve the Lifting Learning objective of making Tasmanian teacher salaries competitive with other states, lifting us from the lowest paid in Australia.
* See “Updated Teaching Salaries 2023-2025 (Excel.xlxs)” attachment for full proposed salary scale.
Cumulative base salary increases across the proposed 3-year Agreement range from 10.4% (Principal Level 6 and higher) to 12.3% (Teachers Level 2).
Primary carer: 18 weeks paid (increased by 2 weeks)
Secondary carer: total 16 weeks paid (increased by 13 weeks from current 3 week partner leave)
Paid and Unpaid Grandparent Leave (as part of Parental Leave):
Foster Leave:
Surrogacy Leave:
Bereavement and Compassionate Leave:
Aboriginal Cultural Leave:
Aboriginal Kinship Relationships:
Disability Leave:
Gender Transition Leave:
Family Violence Leave:
The extension of salary sacrifice arrangements for all staff in remote/regional locations for remote area housing rental, housing loan interest or the costs of purchasing or building a property in line with
ATO guidelines.
Any benefit will be on the basis of no FBT liability accruing to the employer.
Contemporary definition of Instructional Load:
‘Timetabled face-to-face (or online) teaching time with students such as: whole or part-class
teaching, intervention groups, home groups, assemblies and fitness and/or wellbeing
programs, or the equivalent activities.’
Protect College teacher Instructional Load and deliver equity for Senior Secondary (11-12) teachers:
‘Senior secondary (11-12) staff shall not exceed more than 700 hours per annum (equivalent of 35 weeks @ 20 hours per week).’
Mentor Teacher Time Release
A reduction in instructional load by one hour per week/two hours per fortnight for teachers who agree to support early career teachers as mentors.
Professional Activity Days reduced from 5 to 4 per year (28 hours maxmimum)
Two days afforded for communication with families/reporting and a maximum of two days for after school meetings, activities and events.
A minimum of fifty percent of a Band 1 teachers non-teaching time (DOTT time within normal school hours, excluding recess and lunch break times) shall be timetabled as self-directed time (SDT). This will be quarantined time when educators undertake work related activities at their own direction.
Self-Directed Time (SDT) will NOT include reporting work or any direction to participate in collaborative meetings, professional learning communities, staff meetings, professional learning or the equivalent activities.
In addition to the above: all Band 1 teachers are entitled to a further two hours per fortnight (or pro rata) that is quarantined for SDT following the completion of the school day for education instruction where it fits inside an educator’s on-site hours requirements.
The supervision of students during on-site hours before the start of the school day commences and at the end of the school day, including bus duty, shall be shared by teaching and senior staff fairly, taking into consideration staff consultation and the roles and responsibilities of staff.
Base-grade teachers who operate across three or more schools in a given week shall be entitled to additional quarantined time equivalent to one hour per week, pro rata. All workplaces have equal responsibility for providing their portion of the additional quarantined time.
Band 1 (base grade) Teachers will be limited to a maximum of 100 hours per year (equivalent to
2.5 hours per week) of staff meetings.
It is recognised that Band 2 - 3 employees may be required to attend additional staff meetings, as per their Statement of Duties (SoD).
Part of an employee’s Professional Activity Days requirement may be allocated to providing additional staff meeting time after school, up until 5pm. This will not be at the expense of Self-Directed Time.
Development of specific VET related competencies as an alternative to allow VET specialist teachers to progress through the VET teacher salary scale.
VET specialist teachers who are studying for a teaching degree to have one line off teaching to allow time to study.
Education Support Specialist Career Pathway
Teachers Award provisions to apply to Education Support Specialist positions with the exception of Teacher Registration and Higher Duties Allowance.
Joint working group to develop an updated ESS Statement of Duties, clarifying roles and
responsibilities and also including addressing planning and preparation time.
Career Pathway to ensure permanent ESS vacancies are only initially available to Teacher Assistants who have gained the required ESS qualification.
Teacher progression
Teachers can progress to Band 1, Level 12 without full teacher registration. Progression to Band 1, Level 13 can only occur after 12 months at Band 1 Level 12 and requires full teacher registration.
Instructional Load Reduction (Improving BeTTR)
An early career teacher shall not be timetabled for more than the following limits:
First year teachers will have access to 4 paid days prior to Term 1 to attend a specialised
professional development induction program.
20 FTE Social Workers (10 FTE in 2023 and 10 FTE in 2024)*
These positions are in addition to a 12 FTE Permanent Relief Pool of professional support staff.
* By agreement DECYP will consider redistributing a component of the 20 FTE Social Workers to enable funding for additional School Psychologists.
Every Band 1 Teacher will be entitled to 40 hours of in-class support per year (pro rata), equivalent to 1 hour per week minimum.
This translates to an additional 100 FTE Teacher Assistants across schools and colleges.
25 FTE Education Support Specialists (in 2023)
Every combined (Primary-Secondary) school to receive 1 FTE Education Support Specialist.
25 FTE additional Senior Leadership in targeted areas of need
Increased senior leadership positions in targeted areas and other senior leadership elements as described in Attachment – 'Senior staffing allocations – revised need measure'.
Clarification around the duties of senior leadership members will form part of a joint AST-AP position review following the principal’s agreement being finalised.
Higher Duties Allowance
Period required to receive Higher Duties Allowance reduced from 10 days to 5 days.
DECYP-AEU to jointly develop guidelines that supports fair and transparent decision making for permanency requests, including a provision for the maximum period of any temporary increases in hours for part-time staff before those hours become permanent.
New Support School and Tier Four Allowance
Teachers in Support Schools and Tier Four programs will receive an allowance of 1.35% of base salary.
Relief Co-ordinator Allowance
Relief co-ordinators will be paid an allowance of $1200, $900 or $600 per term, depending on the size of the task, with the criteria to be developed by the end of term one 2023.
A package of incentives to assist isolated schools to attract and retain teachers including :
Principals:
Housing/Accommodation
Refer to the summary of DECYP accommodation works program (attachment).
Transfers
Teacher Benefits
Term 1 Student-free day moved for extra preparation day at start of year
From 2024 three days (currently two) to be provided for planning and school year preparation at the beginning of the school year before students commence. Under this arrangement teachers would commence as normal on Monday of week one, students would commence on Thursday and there would be no student free day at the end of Term one.
Unpaid 30 minute lunch break
All staff will be entitled to an unpaid meal break of 30 minutes continuous, or longer if mutually agreed, between the time of 10:45am and 2:00pm.
Teacher Workload Reference Group - the peak DECYP-AEU forum to continue to examine teacher workload issues and to develop agreed strategies to address matters impacting on teacher workload.
Student Mental Health Roundtable - DECYP will work with the AEU to develop a proposal for a Roundtable focussed on improving the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.
Professional Activity Days review - DECYP commit to a joint review of Professional Activity Days including a review of professional learning, student free days and alignment of term dates.
New Teacher Transfer Agreement - DECYP/AEU to prioritise negotiations for a new Teacher Transfer Agreement to be in place for the 2024 transfer process.
Relief Teacher Pool Pilot - DECYP commit to continuing consultation with the AEU regarding the central relief teacher pool pilot.
VET specialist teacher workload review - DECYP commit to the continuation of this joint review.
VET industry currency requirements - DECYP commit to clarify the agreement reached with the AEU regarding industry currency requirements for VET specialist teachers which will reduce workload.
In-Class Support - a joint review of the operation of the In-Class Support clause in the current Agreement.
Educational Adjustments Workload - DECYP commit to regular updates to the AEU on fast-track work on educational adjustments documentation requirements and system supports.
Kindergarten Teacher Instructional Load Review - requirements for 0.7 FTE for Kinder teachers to be clarified and reviewed by the end of Term 2, 2023. On completion of the review, any implications for the industrial instruments will be considered and amended if required.
Recognition for early childhood programs - agreement for the parties to discuss.
Recognition for Extension School Teachers - agreement to discuss recognition for extension school teachers (11-12) including working across multiple sub areas, covering 7 to 10, access to the PL
provided to college teachers and support regarding TASC requirements.
System solution to Relief Co-ordination - DECYP commit to brief the AEU on the tender for a system solution to relief co- ordination.
Voting closes 12:00pm Wednesday 5th April 2023.
We are the voice of public education in Tasmania. We represent and advocate for all teachers, principals and support staff working in government schools, colleges and TAFE.
