Taking time off could become a reluctant mea culpa for many experienced public school teachers, under new salary conditions the NSW Department of Education has outlined.
In a move that the NSW Teachers Federation has decried as an attack on women’s pay and conditions, teachers at the top of the pay scale who take time off to have children potentially face having their salary downgraded to that of a beginner teacher’s when they return to work.
A clause in the department’s Interim Salary Review Policy, which was made retrospective from January 2016, removes recognition of child rearing and contains salary penalties for teachers with broken career patterns, the federation stated in a media release on its website. Further, it said, teachers knocked back to beginner’s salary would be ineligible to apply for a salary review.
Anna Uren, the Teachers Federation’s women’s co-ordinator, said although the policy applied to all teachers, female teachers taking maternity leave were affected the most.
“Paying very experienced [women] teachers a beginning teacher’s salary … will drive them from the profession, completely undermining the priority to attract and retain skilled teachers into NSW public schools,” Uren said.
In a statement released on Monday, July 11, the department said the federation’s allegations were unfounded. It asserted that the changes outlined in the policy were about bringing the NSW teaching profession in line with the national standards, and were part of the Great Teaching, Inspired Learning reforms. The reforms require all teachers to demonstrate continuous competency in pedagogy and professional practice to maintain accreditation.
“The department has generous maternity leave entitlements, while encouraging a teacher to maintain connectivity with their profession through right of return and part-time work,” the statement read.
A spokesperson from the department said whilst the policy change represented a transition from the erstwhile time-served approach, it was about improving the quality of teaching and rewarding those who achieved “higher levels” of professional accreditation.
“All teachers who apply for a leave of absence from the profession for any reason for more than five years will need to demonstrate their competency by regaining their accreditation,” the spokesperson said. “This ensures the highest standard of teachers in NSW classrooms.”