Queensland teacher aides, cleaners and support staff are set to receive cost-of-living relief following a new pay agreement.
The new agreements will see staff receive pay rises of four per cent in year one, four per cent in year two and three per cent in three.
The pay rises will impact more than 40,000 workers, including 22,000 teacher aids, 7,600 cleaners and 14,000 support staff, staff in corporate officers and the Office of Industrial Relations.
According to a Queensland government statement, teacher aides were promised “greater job security through the simplification and standardisation of working hours”.
They will also be entitled to three dedicated professional development days per year, and increased payments for interpretation services in languages other than English.
Experienced school cleaners will be getting $25 fortnightly allowances and improved accrued day off arrangements.
There will also be a cost-of-living adjustment payment each year of the agreement (capped at 3%) if CPI in the relevant year is higher than the base wage increase.
The Office of Industrial Relations staff will be receiving enhanced on-call arrangements, more developed rostering guidelines and improvements to workload management, and health and safety.
Minister for education, Grace Grace, said these changes were coming at “a time many are feeling the pinch”.
“Teacher aides, cleaners, and school support staff, along with our corporate office staff play an absolutely vital role in our schools and the department more broadly, and they deserve to get some of the best pay and conditions in the country,” Ms Grace said.
“Certification of these agreements means that now all five of the Department of Education’s certified agreements have been finalised in this round of enterprise bargaining.
“I’d like to acknowledge the hard work of the United Workers’ Union and Together Queensland throughout the negotiations which resulted in making these excellent bargaining agreements possible.”
