Members have contacted the PSA to report that some schools are delaying the start of Long-Term Temporary (LTT) School Learning Support Officer (SLSO) contracts for 2026 until after School Development Days, preferring cost-savings over supporting and developing their staff. While this concern has been primarily been raised by SLSO members, other School Administrative and Support Staff (SASS) classifications may also be affected.

Why this matters

Excluding LTT employees from the first four days of term can impact:

• Vacation pay
• Continuity of service
• Access to professional learning for classifications that already face challenges in finding time for development and are experiencing increasing responsibilities.

Without clear guidance, schools will continue to weigh the short-term savings against providing professional learning and time to prepare for the year ahead.

The PSA is extremely concerned about these impacts and will be supporting members both collectively and individually. You can only be represented if you are a union member, if you haven’t yet joined the PSA you can sign up HERE.

What we want

PSA has written to the department urging them to make it clear that School Development Days are working days for all staff and therefore contracts for LTTs should commence from the first day of Term 1 2026, Tuesday 27 January 2026.

If this is happening at your school

Any member experiencing this is strongly encouraged to contact the PSA by calling the Member Support Centre on 1800 772 679 or emailing and quoting the case number C10012261 so we have clear visibility of where this is occurring.