IEUA Speaks on end of year wins for IEU members
27 November 2024
Parliament’s Final Week Delivers for Quality Education & IEU Members
The final week of parliament has secured important reforms benefiting thousands of IEU members. These new laws will help safeguard a more sustainable teacher workforce and support quality education in our schools and early childhood education.
The federal government’s move to slash student debt is important to the long-term plan to boost teacher attraction and retention. Combined with groundbreaking government funding of a 15% pay rise for early childhood education workers, the parliament has delivered long-overdue reforms that will ultimately benefit students, teachers and quality education.
New supports for our next generation of teachers
The IEU has long campaigned for greater support of our student and graduate teachers. This is a critical part of a broader strategy to increase the recruitment and retention of new teachers.
Early career teachers stand to benefit by around $4800 when the full HECS cuts become operational in 2025. These latest reforms follow other federal supports announced for new teachers this year:
- Financial support payments to student teachers undertaking their practicum
- A reduction in the 1% indexation spike in HECS payments in 2023 that far exceeded wage increases for early career teachers during the same period.
- Guidelines to help deliver more comprehensive induction programs for new
- High-quality professional experience for students undertaking their school-based
Wage justice for early childhood education professionals
New legislation to fund a 15% wage increase for long-day care workers is the culmination of an 18- month campaign by unions to deliver a historic wage outcome for these essential workers.
Union members made this happen using the nation’s first Supported Bargaining Agreement.
Fairer bargaining laws now empower unions to extend our collective bargaining success to areas of the workforce left behind under the old system. Supported bargaining is underway in other early childhood areas to address the huge pay gaps that plague the sector.
The government is to be commended for backing the union campaign in long-day care. The wage funding will bring much needed respect and recognition of our amazing early childhood workers.
