Australian Education Union alleges country teachers underpaid hundreds of thousands of dollars in allowances

Claims of “wage theft” from South Australian teachers and other school workers have sparked a fresh stoush between a union and the Education Department.

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Teachers were underpaid hundreds of thousands of dollars in incentives for working in country schools when they were relocated to other regional campuses.

The Australian Education Union says it is an example of “wage theft” that it claims is “prevalent in the Education Department”.

It says “underclassification” – staff being paid at inappropriately low levels for the roles they are in – is “a major cause of wage theft” affecting early childhood workers, Aboriginal and other classroom support staff, and even principals.

But the department “rejects outright” all claims of wage theft as “offensive and wrong”.

As a result of action in the Employment Tribunal, the union says nearly $330,000 in the country incentives has so far been reclaimed for 20 teachers, with more to come. One teacher was entitled to $40,000, it says.

The case centred on an enterprise agreement clause that said the five-year incentive payment period should recommence if a teacher is required to relocate from one country school to another.

The department then applied its own restrictions, such as a requirement of a 45km distance between a teacher’s new and old schools for the incentive period to restart.

The union claims “underclassification” is a major cause of wage theft, but the department rejects all claims of theft as wrong.

The tribunal ruled the allowance period should restart “irrespective of distance between schools or duration of appointment”.

The department told The Advertiser that “until recently” the union had agreed with how incentives were being paid, and the union’s change of position had triggered the tribunal case.

“We respect the (tribunal) outcome and have been working with the AEU to enact the ruling, which will include back pay for some employees,” a spokesman said.

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“The AEU is well aware that we will ensure people are paid what they are entitled.

“In relation to (classroom support staff), the department has instigated a revised process so that schools can locally lead the review of classifications to ensure levels of pay match any changes to duties over time.

“There was a handful of (Aboriginal education workers) where an administrative error led to a misclassification which the department immediately rectified.

“The department classifies principals as per the current enterprise agreement.”