Following a resounding ‘yes’ vote by systemic schools staff, the NSW and ACT Catholic Systemic Schools Enterprise Agreement 2020 was considered and ratified by the Fair Work Commission on 14 January 2021 and came into effect on 21 January 2021.
In addition to the 2.5% pay rise that was paid to teachers in NSW and support staff in all dioceses, with back pay to January 2020, there will be a pay rise of 2.28% from January 2021. For teachers in the ACT, a 3% pay increase was paid from July 2020, with further increases of 3% in July 2021 and 1.5% in July 2022.
The agreement also contains two new types of leave – natural disaster leave (five days per annum) and domestic violence leave (10 days per annum, in addition to personal/carer’s leave).
The most significant improvement in the rules applying to teacher classification is that up to 12 months of a period of parental leave will now count as service in terms of salary progression. This change will apply to leave commencing on or after 1 January 2020.
A small number of teachers employed prior to 2014 may not yet have transferred to the standards pay scale – this will now occur from the start of 2021 under the new agreement.
You can download the official Fair Work Commission version of the new agreement by using this link: https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/agreements/fwa/ae510098.pdf