If EB was all about the money
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 130 No 2, 11 April 2025, page no 5.
I’ve been reading a fair bit of rhetoric lately about the need to set a percentage claim for salaries if we are to address the allegedly too small increases from the current and previous agreements.
Why would we set a ceiling to the potential increases that we receive? I don’t know of an employer who has ever offered more than a percentage increase claim. I have, however, witnessed employers consistently offer less and I have been part of negotiations (and arbitration processes) where the employer/Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) awarded increases above that offered in two ways: 1. headline percentage increases applicable to all classifications, or 2. the introduction of new structures or allowances for members in different streams and different locations.
In these circumstances, to say members only got a salary increase equivalent to the headline percentage is simplistic and misleading. Take the current agreement for example. No one disagrees that the headline percentage increases for all members of the QTU was equal to 4 per cent in 2022, 4 per cent in 2023 and 3 per cent in 2024. However, there were other elements of the package achieved through negotiations, which included improved conditions and additional remuneration in the form of allowances and other incentives.
In May 2022, State Council established the must-haves from the negotiations:
- salaries among the highest in the country
- measures to address the teacher shortage, particularly in rural, remote and regional Queensland
- measures to address the cost of living
- resourcing to address the needs of 21st Century schooling.
It is clear from this that salaries are not the only factor in EB negotiations. There are differentiated outcomes that apply to members in different classifications and in different parts of the state. These include the cost of living adjustment (COLA) payment, the review of school resourcing, and attraction and retention incentives.
The COLA payment was designed to provide additional payments to members where the CPI in the March quarter at the end of the financial year was greater than the headline salary increase. This payment was received by members in 2023. However, as the 4 per cent increase in 2023 was greater than the CPI in the March quarter of 2024, an additional payment was not received. Whether a COLA will be paid in 2025 will depend on whether CPI in the March quarter of 2025 outstrips the 3 per cent increase paid on 1 July 2024.
Other adjustments to salaries arising from the agreement include the removal of the requirement for members to contribute 5 per cent to their super to ensure the government’s 12.75 per cent contribution; a review of thresholds for primary school principals; principals to be the highest paid officer in a school; restructure of community and assistant teacher classification salary scale; introduction of senior community teacher; the extension of specified sites allowance to include detention centres; and improvements to leave for supply and temporary teachers and First Nations members.
The agreement also includes financial incentives to attract and retain teachers and encourage them to work in rural, remote and regional Queensland. For example, under the current agreement a beginning teacher working in a transfer rating 4 (TR4) school received an additional $2,200 dollars per year in 2023. If they remained in the TR4 location for their second year, they received an additional $1,800 a year in 2024 and an additional $2,400 a year for their third year in the centre in 2025. This reflects incentives/allowances for this beginning teacher equal to 2.8 per cent of salary in their first year, 2.1 per cent of salary in their second year, and 2.5 per cent of salary in their third year of teaching in this location.
Likewise, members working in 43 identified schools in TR2 and TR3 locations received an additional $900 in 2023 and 2024. For beginning teachers in these locations, this was an allowance equal to 1.1 per cent of their salary, for an EST an allowance equal to 0.7 per cent, and for a P5 principal an allowance equal to 0.5 per cent.
Recognition of service payments in TR4 to TR7 locations at the start of employment in these centres contributed an additional $1,200 a year to $3,000, an additional $1,800 pa to $4,500 in their second year, and between an additional $2,400 to $6,000 in their third year.
These payments are additional to the recognition of travel payments that are also available in these locations under the Recognition of Rural and Remote Service (RoRRS) scheme.
These differentiated outcomes are not new and are cornerstones of our negotiations. They include the achievement of salaries that at the time were nation-leading, as well as changes to working conditions aimed at addressing workload, including a workload management clause to include recognition of safe work environment practices in relation to all duties of a role and additional duties of a role. These included the clarification of travel time associated with work requirements including reasonable expectation for travel to occur during rostered duty time; the establishment of an encouragement to disconnect clause as part of wellbeing structures in schools; the use of three student free day hours at the teacher’s discretion; and additional administration release time for teaching principals.