Your industrial update provides information and news related to your rights and conditions at work, brought to you by the team of experts in the AEU office. This edition covers:
- Upcoming increases to your pay and super
- Health and Wellbeing Allowance
- Career development discussions and teacher transfer
- Face-to-face calculator
- Break times
Upcoming increases to your pay and super
All AEU members received a 1% pay increase effective from 5 June 2025. This increase will appear in your next pay.
A further 1% pay increase will apply to all AEU members from the first full pay period in December 2025, together with a $1,000 flat rate increase to your annual pay rate. These are the final pay increases provided for under your current Enterprise Agreement. Your pay increases for 2026 and beyond will be determined through the upcoming enterprise bargaining process.
Certain allowances (for example Corporate Citizen’s Allowance and Special Education Allowance) will also be increased by 1% effective from 5 June 2025 and by 1.93% from the commencement of the first full pay period after 1 December 2025.
In addition to pay increases, there are a series of increases to superannuation for our members in non-Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme funds. This includes:
- Employer superannuation contributions will be increased by 0.5% to 12% from 1 July 2025; and
- A further 0.5% to 12.5% from 1 January 2026. (i.e., ultimately bringing employer contributions to 0.5% above the legislated minimum).
AEU members who are part of a Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme fund such as the CSS, PSS and PSSaP will continue to receive the contributions they currently do.
Health and wellbeing allowance
While you are busy juggling work/life responsibilities, don’t forget that if you are a permanent or temporary employee with the ACTPS (with six or more months of service), you are able to seek reimbursement of up to $100 every year towards the cost of an approved health and wellbeing activity. The reimbursement is tied to the fringe benefit tax year which runs from 1 April to 31 March. So, if you haven’t made a claim since 1 April 2025, you will be entitled to make a claim for reimbursement until March 2026.
More information, including on what you can claim to receive the reimbursement, the AEU has produced guidance which is available here.
Career development discussions and teacher transfer
The Career Development Discussion (CDD) is an opportunity to talk to your principal or manager about your career and opportunities in our system. CDDs must happen during term 1 or 2. In your CDD you can bring up what you’re feeling good about, what you want to get better at, and what areas of your professional practice you’d like to expand or enrich.
This conversation is crucial to teacher transfer because it informs decisions that are made around enacting placement end dates. Teachers and principals work together to identify the best ways to grow professionally, which might involve entering the transfer round this year to begin at a new school next year.
If your principal has made a decision regarding the confirmation of your end date, this will be communicated in writing by the end of term 2.
If you disagree with your principal’s decision to end your placement at your current school and require you to participate in the upcoming transfer round, you can seek a reconsideration within 14 days of receiving this written notice. You should do this in writing, to your principal or EEL. You should include the reasons why you are seeking a reconsideration, as well as any evidence.
The reconsideration will be undertaken by a panel comprising an EEL, a principal from another school, and an AEU nominee. The panel will consider whether correct procedures were followed, as well as the reasonableness of the decision given your personal circumstances and career plans and the school’s workforce planning needs.
Face-to-face calculator
Many members contact the AEU Office asking about their face-to-face teaching hour limits, so we’ve created a simple calculator to help you work out what yours should be. Face-to-face hour limits are designed to protect teachers from excessive workload and ensure reasonable working conditions.
The calculator determines your maximum face-to-face teaching hours based on the current enterprise agreement. The calculator is available here.
How to use the calculator:
First you might need to click ‘enable editing’ up the top of the screen.
Then select your information from the drop-down boxes provided:
- Your setting type (Preschool/Primary or High School/College)
- Your classification level (Classroom Teacher, SLC, SLB, New Educator 1st Year, New Educator 2nd or 3rd Year, Restricted Permit to Teach, or Unrestricted Permit to Teach)
- Whether you work part-time or full-time
If you’re part-time, you’ll need to enter your weekly hours as shown on your payslip. The calculator will then work out your part-time fraction and show your maximum weekly face-to-face hours, converted into hours and minutes for easy reference.
If you need help reading your payslip to find your weekly hours as a part time worker, there’s also a payslip explainer included with the calculator.
If you have questions about your face-to-face teaching hours or need assistance with workplace issues, please contact the Branch office.
Break times
Did you know you’re entitled to a meal break during your working day?
Whether you are a teacher or school leader, a school assistant or school psychologist, CIT educator, HoD or college director, you are entitled to a meal break away from your duties. This applies to you regardless of whether you are a permanent, temporary, or casual employee.
Your meal break should be scheduled if you are working for five hours or more in a single day. A meal break is an unpaid break that does not count as time worked and during which you cannot be directed to work.
The term ‘meal break’ does not require an employee to partake of a meal during their break period. It’s your time and it should be uninterrupted. Take a moment and a well-deserved rest. If you want to leave site during your break, for instance to grab lunch or to run an errand, be sure to let your manager/supervisor know in case there’s an emergency while you’re gone.
You are also entitled to reasonable breaks throughout your working day, which might include the freedom to use the bathroom or have a drink of water when you need to.
Scheduled meal breaks should only be interrupted if there are exceptional and unforeseen circumstances such as an emergency on site.
Schools
If you are a school assistant, your minimum meal break time is 45 minutes in the first five hours of work. For school assistants employed at level SA1, SA2, SA2/3 and SA3, your 45-minute break is additional to your ordinary daily working hours of 6 hours and 15 minutes. Similarly, for SA4s, your 45-minute break is additional to your ordinary daily working hours of 6 hours and 45 minutes.
If you are a teacher, school leader, or school psychologist, your minimum meal break time is 30 minutes if you are working for five hours or more in a single working day. You are also entitled to such a break if you are a relief teacher.
Your meal break should be an uninterrupted block, unless you and your manager/supervisor have negotiated a variation to this.
If you or your manager/supervisor want to vary the default meal break, you should follow a few general principles. A variation can be made to suit your preferences or operational requirements, but it needs to be a genuine negotiation and everyone involved should try to be reasonable. For example,
- You could negotiate to split your breaks up into smaller blocks, if you prefer that.
- Your workplace might ask you to split your break up into smaller blocks to satisfy an operational requirement. Your workplace might offer to give you a longer overall break time or some other support to make sure you get enough time to have a rest.
- You might prefer to work through the day without a break and leave earlier/arrive later to make up for it. This can happen if you work up to six hours a day.
CIT
For CIT educators, HoDs, and college directors, your minimum meal break time is 30 minutes if you are working for five hours or more in a single working day.
Factoring in differing operational requirements among teaching colleges and divisions within CIT, break time arrangements may vary by negotiation, due to operational requirements or the need to accommodate the employees’ personal circumstances and work-life balance. The rules outlined above around reasonable negotiations apply to you too.
For clarity, the duration of a break is not included in the required hours of attendance set by your enterprise agreement. It’s unpaid and your time to do with what you wish.
If you or your colleagues are concerned that you aren’t getting reasonable breaks, contact our team for advice at aeuact@aeuact.org.au.