Federation member teachers in public schools listened to a report on salary and negotiations between the Federation and NSW Department of Education, which reached an agreement for a 2.5 per cent salary increase rise over 2017-2019 and retention of all current working conditions. Federation members, who are routinely called upon to vote on the outcome of such negotiations, voted on the decision Thursday.

“The information I so far have from the stop work venues in my area, the New England North West is that the members unanimously accepted the recommendation put to them in regard to the salary negotiations,” NSW New England and North West Federation organiser Susan Armstead said, soon after the stop work action on Thursday.

Reaching the current state salary cap, and Ms Armstead said the achievement of that outcome for teachers who will not sacrifice conditions was a win. “This is absolutely a win. In the current climate of the public sector wages policy of the NSW government caps salary increases to a maximum of 2.5 per cent a year,” she said.

“If any public sector union seeks to negotiate more than that, they of course must trade off working conditions; you must pay for your own salary increases by trading off current working conditions, and of course unions have a very strong view about that.”

She linked retention of working conditions as protection of student achievement and future quality of education. “The critical thing about teachers’ working conditions - our working conditions are students’ learning conditions, so within our award, there is an agreement of class sizes as an example, so that benefits the students in our classroom,” she said.

“If you want the best teachers in, you want people to be attracted to the profession, then you pay them a professional salary, commensurate with their skills, and their ongoing training and development, and you give teachers the salary and status that will attract the best candidates into teacher training.”