Education minister says teacher pay offer ‘up for negotiation’ in bid to ease hostilities

NSW Education Minister Prue Car has sought to head off an increasingly hostile pay fight with the state’s teachers, urging them to accept what she called a “huge” wage offer and indicating the government is open to negotiating higher increases in the later years of the proposed deal.

The Minns government has been rattled by an outbreak in hostilities with the NSW Teachers Federation, one of its closest pre-election allies, which began when the union’s president, Angelo Gavrielatos, accused Labor of an “act of betrayal” following a breakdown in pay negotiations.

NSW Education Minister Prue Car has urged teachers to accept a ‘huge’ pay deal offered by the state government. Credit: Rhett Wyman

Gavrielatos promised a campaign of “political action” against the government after it tabled a four-year pay offer that would see some NSW teachers receive pay increases of between 8 and 12 per cent in the first year, but be tied to 2.5 per cent increases in the subsequent years of the deal.

That campaign has seen Minns heckled by angry teachers and led to government ministers including Car being unwelcome at the state’s schools.

But Car, who is both the education minister and deputy premier, has sought to calm tensions between the two parties, saying the 2.5 per cent offer was only ever “indicative” and that the later years of the deal remained “up for negotiation”.

“This is a government that wants to give teachers in NSW nation-leading salaries, and the out years are up for negotiation with what they look like,” she said.

The government’s first-year pay offer — which had been agreed to — would see graduate and top-end teachers in NSW leapfrog Queensland and the ACT to become the highest-paid in the country. By the end of the deal in 2026, entry-level teachers would earn $90,645 a year, while top-tier teachers would receive wages of $130,209.

“This is actually quite a big moment and I’m actually quite proud of the first-year offer,” she said.

“I urge teachers, really have a look at the offer that we’ve given to the Federation, [because] we are seriously making up for 10 years of neglect.”

Negotiations between the government and the Teachers Federation erupted in hostilities after Gavrielatos said Labor reneged on what would have been only a one-year agreement. The deal, he said, had been agreed to with a “handshake and a hug”.

Car refused to criticise the Teachers Federation, but said the government had always wanted to have certainty about the “maintenance” of the agreement after one year – that is,how wages would stabilise following structural changes in the first year.

“I think the taxpayers of NSW would expect a responsible government to be saying, OK, maintenance in further years for teachers,” she said.

But she revealed the second, third and fourth year offer remained up for negotiation and depended on what the new government’s wages policy would be.

That figure is likely to become clearer once the budget is handed down next month, but Minns made scrapping the former government’s 2.5 per cent wages cap a key campaign promise and the figure is likely to be higher. Car said she knew that 2.5 per cent would not be accepted by the union.

“I totally accept that the offer that’s been given, that was given, at one point, as a number for years, two, three and four, is obviously not acceptable to the union,” she said.

Despite saying the outbreak in hostilities between the parties was “upsetting” and “disappointing”, Car said she hoped an agreement could be reached.

“I don’t want teachers thinking that we don’t want to do this,” she said.

“It’s actually the opposite. I want to be able to be the minister to give teachers a pay rise.”

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