Under the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, public school teachers and leaders will receive a 12 per cent pay rise over three years.

In a ballot rolled out in May this year by public school union SSTUWA, 70 per cent of its members voted in favour of accepting the government’s offer.

The union originally asked for 7 per cent followed by 5 per cent, totalling 12 per cent over two years.

The deal came after months of rangling between the union and the Government, culminating in industrial action in April when thousands of teachers from 80 schools across the state walked off the job.

It was the first time in 10 years that WA educators had stopped work over pay and conditions.

At the time, SSTUWA president Matt Jarman said that teachers and school leaders were overworked and underpaid and were leaving the public education system in droves.

“If we want to attract and retain the best teachers in WA, they need to be paid adequately and have manageable workloads,” he said in April.

Specifically, teachers and school leaders will receive a 5 per cent increase effective on and from December 6 last year, 4 per cent effective on and from December 6, 2024, and 3 per cent effective on and from December 6, 2025.

Education Minister Dr Tony Buti said the WA Government values the work of public school teachers.

“We are committed to enhancing the quality of education to ensure that all students have the best learning opportunities to succeed,” Buti said in a statement.

“We continue to address workload issues and implement a range of strategies to attract and retain quality teachers who are so instrumental in preparing our young people for the future.” 

The agreement will see a graduate teacher’s starting salary increase by $9,781 to $88,178, and a senior teacher’s salary increase by $14,704 to $132,557.

Experienced Level 3 teachers will earn up to $147,077 and a senior school principal up to $206,662.

Industrial Relations Minister Simone McGurk said the prompt turnaround sends a clear message to public school teachers that their important work is valued.

“In addition to a 12 per cent salary increase over three years, this agreement will also see other benefits including measures to address workload and support teachers in the classroom,” McGurk said.

The agreement includes a number of other initiatives to address workload issues, enhance career pathways, and attract more quality teachers to regional and remote areas.

Addressing attraction and retention of staff, there will be:

  • an increase in the graduate allowance to give new teachers more financial support;
  • paid time for new starters to complete professional learning;
  • a reclassification of several principal positions;
  • improvements to long service leave, personal leave, and compassionate leave entitlements;
  • the introduction of a district allowance for eligible employees;
  • additional travel concessions for staff in the Pilbara, Kimberley and Goldfields; and
  • a continuation of the extended air conditioning subsidy for eligible employees.

In relation to school leader and teacher supports, there will be:

  • a new workload taskforce to support staff with workload management;
  • resources to support students who need it most, including more staff to help with complex behaviour and to run small group tuition focusing on literacy and numeracy; and
  • help for classroom teachers to meet the individual needs of students with disabilities and learning challenges.

The Government is also looking to improve career pathways, by:

  • creating a new Senior Teacher Level 2 classification;
  • trialling the deployment of experienced teachers and school leaders to regional schools; and
  • trialling the temporary deployment of exemplary teachers to newly created Level 3.3 positions in schools of most need.

The Department of Education said it is working with the SSTUWA and Principals’ Federation of Western Australia (PFWA)  to implement the initiatives.

Jarman said SSTUWA’s focus had now shifted to class sizes, with WA’s public schools among some of the highest in the country.

“The Facing the Facts report led by Dr Carmen Lawrence found that maximum class sizes are higher in WA than in other states, and had not changed in 40 years, despite the increasing complexity of student needs,” he said in a statement on Monday.

“We know that there are more than 10,000 teachers who are currently registered to teach in WA, but aren’t.

“We need to be asking what we can do to get those people, many of them very experienced, highly capable teachers, back into our public education system."

He said while the workload concessions and increase in pay recently secured in EBA negotiations will help attract and retain teachers, the SSTUWA believed the next step is to develop a long-term plan to reduce class sizes in the state.

While the Government’s immediate response is it will cost too much, Jarman said not every class is overcrowded.

“This is about addressing the ones that are – which we estimate to be about a fifth of all classes, with the issue being especially relevant in regional, rural and poorer metropolitan suburbs,” he said.