The full bench of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (NSW IRC) has handed down its decision on a pay rise for School Administrative and Support Staff.

As we have previously reported to members, the PSA took action to protect your back-pay and lock in an increase for the next year.

Read our previous bulletins HERE and HERE.

Three per cent pay increase, inclusive of superannuation to apply from 15 July 2022

The NSW IRC published the following decision:

A new one year School Administrative and Support Staff Award to apply from 15 July 2022.

Note: the union position was to have the award apply from 1 July 2022, the Department’s position was to have the award apply from the date of the decision (15 September) excluding at least five (5) full pay periods from the increase.

A three per cent increase to salaries (2.53 per cent applied to salaries and 0.5 per cent superannuation guarantee).

Note: the Industrial Relations Commission is constrained by the NSW Government’s unfair and unjust wages policy which caps salary increases for public sector workers.

A new specific clause dealing with the Student Health Support (SHS) Allowance which provides guidance on how and when this allowance can be paid.

Note: further advice on the SHS allowance will be sent to members in a separate bulletin, you can arrange a meeting at your school with a PSA representative to be briefed on this in term 4

PSA Calls on Department of Education Secretary to do the right thing: pay from 1 July 2022

The Department of Education is the only NSW Government Department that did not file an award on 1 July 2022. In all other departments, even if award negotiations were underway, the Department or agency filed an award on 1 July 2022, allowing the Commission to make this as the operative date.

The Secretary of Education’s salary is more than a half a million dollars a year and yet, the decision was made not to ensure that some of the lowest-paid workers in the public sector, SAS Staff, had their 2022 pay increase locked in.

The PSA calls on the NSW Secretary of Education to pay all School Administrative and Support Staff the pay increase from 1 July 2022 as an act of good faith to the workers who have kept the state’s schools running through bushfires, successive floods, and the pandemic.

 The PSA will also be writing to the Minister for Education, Sarah Mitchell, asking her to intervene in this important matter so that SAS Staff can be paid from 1 July 2022.

PSA membership pays – union action secured your pay increase

This case shows that it is only with the PSA behind you that your pay and conditions can be negotiated and improved. Join up your colleagues and make sure everyone at your school has the union behind them in the years to come.