The Teachers Are Blowing Their Whistles!

The Queensland Government has offered Queensland state school teachers and principals :

A beginning teacher salary of $66,022 from 1 July 2018.

An Experienced Senior Teacher (EST) salary of $101,000 p.a. from 1 July 2018.

A review of the processes to access EST and senior teacher. 

Robina Cosser says : Classroom teachers need to know much, much more about this 'review'.

Will this 'review' lead to mediocrity promoting mediocrity?

But

The base or headline wage increase before changes to the classification structure remains at 2.5 per cent p.a. 

Queensland Labor Premier Anastasia Palaszezuk thanked the QTU for their work reaching the agreement.

"This is a full, comprehensive package that I believe all of the teachers will embrace," she said.

Labor Education Minister Kate Jones said that she believes this pay offer will help attract the best teachers to Queensland state schools.

Kate Jones seems to be missing in action.

She says the most ridiculous things.

One day ago QTU president Kevin Bates said that more than 20,000 QTU members - 87 per cent of those who voted - had voted overwhelmingly to reject the Labor Government's offer of 2.5 per cent p.a.

The teachers voted to strike on August 18 if an acceptable wage deal is not reached with the Palaszezuk Labor Government.

The QTU was seeking wage increases of 4.5 per cent a year for the next three years.

For details of the 'package' see the QTU News flash dated 3 August 2016. 

 Queensland teachers to get $66K a year, AAP and Lauren Martyn-Jones, The Courier-Mail, 3 August 2016

Hang on, I'd like to see the detail!

You don't threaten to strike for 4.5% over three years, and settle for 2.5%, which is what is on offer, merely by limiting class sizes.

Steve, Reader's Comment, Queensland teachers to get $66K a year, AAP and Lauren Martyn-Jones, The Courier-Mail, 3 August 2016

That is the QTU for you!

All talk, hype, threats, intimidation, threat to strike and blah, blah, blah!

Then they recommend to take the Government's offer.

They are pathetic!

President BWFC, Reader's Comment, Queensland teachers to get $66K a year, AAP and Lauren Martyn-Jones, The Courier-Mail, 3 August 2016

The Queensland Teachers Union want a 4.5 per cent pay increase each year for the next three years for Queensland teachers, with new teacher classifications to be introduced.

QTU president Kevin Bates said the pay increase would address the growing workload in teaching and attract more people to the profession.

"There have been low increases over the past three rounds of enterprise bargaining because of the GFC and a range of other impacts."

But in 2016 Queensland teachers want salary justice.

Negotiations will begin in May 2016.

Queensland teachers want pay rise, Brittany Vonow, The Courier-Mail, 18 March 2016

As a newly-graduated teacher, I am very grateful to have a full-time job in the city

 - but I spend nearly 20 per cent of my take-home pay (after taxes and HECS) on transport just to get to work.

That leaves me with a bit over $600 a week for myself and three children to live on after doing a four-year university degree.

Mary, Wynnum West, P. 23, The Courier-Mail, 10 August 2015

More than 6300 Queensland Catholic school teachers will strike on 16 and 17 September 2015 over pay that they say leaves them $9000 worse off each year than teachers in other states.

The Catholic teachers plan to stop work for 30 minutes on 16 September and for one hour on 17 September.

The Independent Education Union of Australia is demanding a 3.25 per cent pay rise, but Queensland Catholic teachers have only been offered 2.5 per cent.

Experienced Catholic teachers in Queensland are paid about $84,000 a year.

Catholic teachers in New South Wales earn about $93,000.

Catholic teachers mull strike, Brittany Vonow, p.18, The Courier-Mail, 20 August 2015

Qld Catholic teachers to stop work, AAP, 4 September 2015

A 2.08% pay increase for Queensland state school teachers has been announced by the Queensland Department of Education.

The pay rise will be paid on 16 September 2015.

The pay rise will take effect from 1 September, 2015.

The 2.08% is an "interim pay increase".

It will last for ten months.

The next pay rise will take effect from 1 July 2016.

(Why 2.08%? The current Queensland Labor Government have a 2.5% per year wage increase policy. The 2.08% pay rise is for ten months, not a year. For a more detailed explanation see the Queensland Teachers Union Newsflash No. 13-15. )

Subsequent increases of 2.7 % will occur on 1 September 2013 and 1 September 2014.

By 2014, the last salary increase under the proposed agreement, annual salaries for key classifications will be as follows:

• Beginning teacher (band 2, step 1) $61, 636
• 5th year of teaching (band 2, step 5) $73, 037
• Senior teacher $88, 143
• Experienced senior teacher $90, 238
• Heads of program $96, 817 to $117,464
• Teaching principal (SL1-2) $102, 481 to $113, 076

Non-teaching principals/deputy principals (DSL1-3, SL3-7) $107, 407 to $147, 981

For more QTU information on pay scales see : Teacher classifications and pay scales

In March 2012, the West Australian Teacher's Union agreed to a 12 per cent rise over three years, which WA teachers have voted to endorse.

WA Education Minister Liz Constable said the deal would ensure WA's 27,000 teachers and administrators would remain the highest paid in Australia.

"The majority of WA teachers will be earning in excess of $99,000 per annum by December 2013," Dr Constable said.

The new pay deal includes wage increases of 3.75 per cent in the first year, four per cent in the second year, and 4.25 per cent in the third year.

Robina Cosser says : But before packing their bags and moving to West Australia, Queensland teachers should consider the working conditions in WA schools : http://www.badapplebullies.com/wateachersstories.htm

West Australian teachers the highest paid after new deal, AAP, The Courier-Mail, 29 March 2012 

On Saturday November 7 2009 the Queensland Teachers' Union ( QTU ) state council agreed to accept the Queensland Government's pay offer of 12.5 per cent over three years.

This is the offer that the QTU had previously refused.

The QTU had asked for an 18.5 per cent pay rise.

Teachers will get -

  * a 4.5 per cent wage increase backdated to July 12009

  * 4 per cent in July 2010

  * 4 per cent in July 2011

This wage increase - the same wage increase as the one awarded to other Queensland public servants - will cost the Queensland Government $900 million.

A further $100 million has been allocated for the "sweeteners" that persuaded the QTU to accept the offer -

  * principals and other administrators will receive an additional 2.5 per cent wage increase.

  * teachers with 13 years or more experience will be able to apply for an upgrade a new "senior teacher" classification. The upgrade will be awarded on "merit".

The QTU spent $75,000 of union members' money during the March state election campaign attacking Premier Anna Bligh in a media blitz.

Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail : 7 November, 2009.

The QTU have calculated that, if Queensland teachers accept the new pay scale -

in 2010 a teacher in their fifth year of service will be paid :

Northern Territory $74,009

Western Australia $72,776

ACT $66,091

New South Wales $66,031

Queensland $64,831

Tasmania $62,961 (March 2009)

Victoria $62,141

South Australia $62,089 (Jan 2009)

12.5 is the original offer ... whoop-dee-doo.

We've been sold out again for little gain.

Not happy with QTU.

I would have preferred it if we had fought for better working conditions (buildings that are not demountables and falling apart, airconditioned rooms so children are more amenable to learning in summer, etc.).

I am not voting ALP again ... I have a long memory, Anna.

Dee of Sunshine Coast, Reader's Comment 330 of 342, Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Courier-Mail: 7 November, 2009

What percentage of teachers will actually benefit from this decision?

Matt of Coomera, Readers' Comments 107 of 155, Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail: 7 November, 2009

The QTU have their hands well and truly in the ALP's pocket.

It disgusts me.

I smell a rat.

The QTU executive knew that this was the only possible outcome all along.

By stringing it out both parties look like victors, well maybe to the unwashed masses.

All smoke and mirrors.

OZ, Reader's Comment, Qld teachers win $1b deal, Tony Moore, Brisbane Times : 8 November, 2009.

Suggesting that Queensland teachers will be the highest paid is misleading.

In the three years that it will take before the full increase is provided all other states will have had further increases, leaving Queensland teachers one of the lowest paid yet again.

Time to have a National Curriculum and a national wage agreement for teachers.

Neil, Reader's Comment, Qld teachers win $1 deal, Tony Moore, Brisbane Times : 8 November, 2009

Sold out again.

So, in order to have "parity" with other states, Queensland teachers have to work another four years.

Also, it's interesting that the QTU didn't wait to see what happened with the QIEU action.

Hopefully members vote "NO".

Aenigma, Reader's Comment, Qld teachers win $1b deal, Tony Moore, Brisbane Times : 8 November, 2009

What about the teachers who fall between being a graduate and being a senior teacher - what do they get out of this decision?

It seems that the classroom teachers have been forgotten here.

Unsure of Brisbane, Readers' Comment 128 of 155, Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail : November 7, 2009

I am one union member somewhat underwhelmed by the new pay offer.

For most teachers, this offer delivers no real improvement over what has already been offered and rejected.

I will be voting against the offer.

The increased workload I have had over the past three or so years has not been fairly compensated.

Steve, Readers' Comments 184 of 258, Premier Bligh finds $1 Billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, the Sunday Mail, November 7, 2009.

Queensland teachers have been sold out again by a union leadership that acts like a sub-branch of the ALP.

This is more about getting Anna Bligh re-elected than wage justice for Queensland teachers.

The majority of classroom teachers will simply get what the Queensland government offered last year, while those in promotion positions

- those whose salaries the QTU leadership tie their own salaries to -

get an extra pay rise, just as they did in the last couple of EBs.

Chris Timms of Brisbane, Readers' Comments 240 of 258, Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail : 7 November, 2009

I have seen the details on the union website.

WHAT A JOKE !!!!!!

It is pathetic.

It will ensure that Queensland teachers will end up being the lowest paid in the country, yet again.

The pay deal only benefits Principals and Deputy Principals.

I am furious with the union and I will not be renewing my membership next year.

I love teaching.

I just hate working for the education department.

I will end up just another teacher who leaves this horrible system.

Josie Elvechio of Greenslopes, Reader's comment 56, Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail, 7 November 2009

I love the way that both the government and the unions have put a positive spin on this result when aside from a couple of divide and conquer sweeteners for a few, for most teachers it is the same offer that the QTU rejected all year.

My union fees at work!

Pedro of Logan, Reader's comment 72, Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail, 7 November 2009

This is a pay deal for first-year teachers, senior teachers and principals.

All other teachers are just getting the pay rise that was originally rejected by the union.

I'm confused.

Confused of Queensland, Reader's comment 73, Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 Billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail, 7 November 2009

Les McCudden was sad to be leaving Gympie State High School yesterday.

Mr McCudden has been teaching at Gympie State High School for the past 17 years.

But when he moved to Queensland from New South Wales twenty years ago, he had to take a huge pay cut.

And this has affected his superannuation payout.

As a trainer in the mines Mr McCudden will start on about $70,000.

And he has the potential to earn much more than he can as a classroom teacher.

Better pay crucial to retaining teachers, Renee Pilcher, The Gympie Times.

And

down in the dirt and dust, amid the rumble of heavy machinery, they are recasting what used to be the man's world of mining.

Preference is being given to women drivers.

Ex-teachers and public servants are recruits of choice.

"A shift in a mine is now as likely to be made up of as much as a third with women operators, former teachers, police, nurses, sales clerks or farmers," Mackay-based mines recruiter David "Crockie" Saunders said.

Mr Saunders said a beginner truck driver would earn between $85,000 and $110,000 a year.

Mines recruit women drivers on big money, Tony Koch, Jamie Walker, P.10, The Nation, The Weekend Australian, 13-14 February 2010.

On Tuesday May 19, 2009, teachers all over Queensland went on strike for 24 hours to protest at the recent Queensland government pay offer to Queensland teachers.

The government offer was 12.5 per cent over three years.

But Queensland teachers say that this is not good enough.

They want equal pay with teachers in other states.

• Teachers united in pay fight, Thomas Chamberlin, Wednesday, May 20, 2009, The Cairns Post

In 1984, the salaries of first-year Queensland teachers were 101.4 per cent of average Australian weekly earnings.

In 2009 the salaries of first-year Queensland teachers are 81.7 per cent of average Australian weekly earnings.

A first-year graduate teacher in Queensland - after four years at university - earns $4,500 less than a graduate police constable and $1,500 less than a graduate nurse.

West Australian teachers were recently awarded a 23 per cent pay rise.

And already this year the Queensland Teachers' union has heard of more than 100 Queensland teacher graduates who have moved to Western Australia to work in WA schools.

Queensland Teachers' Journal Special EB6 Edition, authorised by John Battams, General Secretary, QTU - May 2009