Log of claims #
View log of claims
Progress update #
The AEU provided your log of claims to the EDU on 24 July 2025 and has undertaken a detail presentation of all claims in the following months. To date, the AEU has received no indication from the EDU of their views on what has been presented. The negotiating teams are continuing to meet to answer questions and attempt to progress bargaining. Our enterprise agreements all expire on 31 March.
Claim outcomes tracker #
Recognise our experience
| Claim description | Outcome | Details | |
| 1. Recognise and reward experience | Introduce remuneration and improved conditions for experienced staff that incentivise staying in the job. Experience at-level is hugely valuable to our schools and should be recognised. | We expect an offer to be provided on Thursday 10 September 2026 | |
| 2. Nation leading pay | ACT teachers, school psychologists and school leaders must be the highest paid in Australia. | We expect an offer to be provided on Thursday 10 September 2026 | |
| 3. Real wages increase | Salary increases must ensure AEU members see real-terms wage growth in every year of the agreement. | We expect an offer to be provided on Thursday 10 September 2026 | |
| 4. Annual leave loading equity | Extend annual leave loading to all school leaders under the same provisions that apply to classroom teachers and school psychologists. | The EDU have identified the annual leave loading was rolled into the base salary in the 2007 enterprise agreement. The AEU negotiation team continues to pursue this claim. | |
| 5. Employer-funded registration | The employer should pay annual professional registration fees, recognising this as an essential cost of maintaining a qualified workforce. | This claim has been identified as a significant cost to the employer. The AEU negotiation team continues to pursue this claim. | |
| 6. Better recognise inclusion work | Increase the existing special education allowance, ensure that the criteria for receiving the allowance are clear and the allowance aligns with current inclusion education practices. Clarify eligibility to ensure all educators working in specialist settings (including flexible education) receive the allowance. | The AEU and EDU have agreed-in-principle to update wording for eligibility of the allowance. The AEU negotiation team continues to pursue an increase to the amount of the allowance. |
Respect our Leaders
| Claim description | Outcome | Details | |
| 7. Principal classification reform | Fix the principal pay structure, which currently creates a disincentive for mobility and provides no recognition or reward for experience. | Significant progress has been made to identify structural improvements to the salary structure of Principal salaries. In addition, transparent processes of determining Principal salary levels remain an active negotiation topic. | |
| 8. School leader role clarity | School Leaders B and C are crucial, but their work is often overlooked and misunderstood. Commit to a joint AEU-Education Directorate review of these positions that genuinely listens to the needs of SLB and SLC AEU members, covering role clarity, job demands, career development, face to face teaching hours, release time and support. | Agreed-in-principle. Strong progress has been made regarding the need for a review into the role of School Leader B’s and C’s. The AEU and EDU are exchanging drafting for members to consider. | |
| 9. Higher duties from day one | Eliminate the qualifying period for higher duties allowance. On every occasion someone is required to perform higher duties, regardless of duration, they must receive appropriate remuneration | Agreed-in-principle. | |
| 10. Improve school leader recruitment | Reform school leader recruitment processes to provide consistency, meaningfully recognise school leader expertise and experience, and enhance career development opportunities. | Agreed-in-principle. The AEU and EDU are exchanging drafting for members to consider. | |
| 11. School leader recovery leave | Make recovery leave available to all principals and SLBs. Recovery leave acknowledges that our system demands periods of excessive hours from principals and SLBs and provides a mechanism to ensure they can take periods of genuine rest. | The EDU do not agree on the basis for this claim. The AEU negotiation team continues to pursue this claim. |
Fix our System
| Claim description | Outcome | Details | |
| 12. Guaranteed minimum staffing structure | Establish and fund minimum school staffing structure. This must address the needs of schools to have a diverse range of professionals to support our students. A guaranteed minimum staffing structure must address the need for every school to have sufficient school leaders, classroom teachers, as well as classroom support with LSAs, effective access to school psychologists, specialist program teachers, dedicated qualified teacher librarians, qualified career development practitioners, and sufficient administrative support for teaching staff and school leaders. The system must take responsibility for ensuring every school gets the resourcing it needs, including clear system-wide workforce planning to ensure consistency while still allowing schools to make decisions informed by their local context. | Significant progress has been made on this claim. This is subject to ongoing discussions. | |
| 13. Effective management of teacher absence | Reform the way that schools manage teacher absences, to minimise splitting or collapsing of classes and protect the integrity of specialist programs (such as EAL/D, library and MTSS). Schools must have access to funds to engage relief teachers every time they are needed, and sufficient administrative support to deal with staffing fluctuations. | The discussion of this claim has been incorporated to claims 12 and 16. | |
| 14. Clear provision of safety at work | The EA should reflect clear expectations and processes to protect educator safety, including in relation to psychosocial safety. This should include system-wide procedures for preventing and managing occupational violence. | The EDU expressed initial concerns about the establishment of further clauses in the EA. Discussions are ongoing and the AEU negotiation team continues to pursue this claim. | |
| 15. Review the Student Resource Allocation | The expectation of schools has changed markedly over the last decade, but this has not been reflected in the way that schools are resourced. Conduct an independent review of the SRA to consider: a. How much money schools receive b. What they are expected to achieve with it c. Whether that money is sufficient to achieve what is expected d. When schools should receive information about budgets (timeliness) e. Whether there are specific funding considerations that should be a central cost and managed by ESO | Agreed-in-principle. | |
| 16. Class sizes that support fair workloads, safe classrooms and inclusive practice | Establish fair and reasonable class sizes that take student complexity into account and ensure necessary extra support is always delivered. Introduce hard caps that can never be exceeded, specify reductions where there is increased complexity, set target class sizes below the caps and identify the support that will be provided where class sizes are above target levels. Address the disparity between lower and upper primary. | Productive discussions have occurred particularly regarding composition of classes rather than just considering the number of students in a class. The AEU and EDU are exchanging drafting to progress this further. |
Value our Time
| Claim description | Outcome | Details | |
| 17. Purpose-driven professional learning and collaboration | Replace the current overlapping professional learning frameworks in the enterprise agreement (N7 – Annual Professional Learning Program & N8 – Professional Learning Community Program) with a single, streamlined approach. The current dual framework creates unnecessary complexity and places an excessive time burden on staff. This claim seeks to refocus professional learning on meaningful professional growth rather than prescriptive compliance. | Agreed-in-principle. Significant movement has been achieved regarding this claim. The AEU and EDU are exchanging drafting to progress this further. | |
| 18. Mentor recognition | Experienced teachers and school psychologists who mentor early career teachers and school psychologists must be compensated for the crucial work they do in growing the next generation of teachers and school psychologists. | The EDU has not expressed agreement to this claim. The AEU negotiation team continues to pursue this claim. | |
| 19. Early career support | Review New Educator Support Program to ensure it is underpinned by evidence of best practice. At a school level, ensure that early career teachers and school psychologists and their mentors can identify and pursue the development each new educator and school psychologist needs. | Agreed-in-principle. The AEU and EDU are exchanging drafting to progress this claim where shared interests have been identified. | |
| 20. Remuneration for overnight work | Teachers should not have to volunteer out-of-hours to provide educational experiences for students. Where any staff member must work overnight (such as on a camp or other excursion), they should receive appropriate remuneration. | The consideration of this claim is subject to government approval. |
Support our People
| Claim description | Outcome | Details | |
| 21. School psychologist review | Conduct a comprehensive review into school psychologist conditions focused on improving recruitment and retention. The review must more clearly define the psychologist role, set reasonable expectations on workloads, and provide structured support to new psychologists. Psychologists must have competitive employment conditions that recognise the specialised expertise of school psychologists and their essential support to schools, staff and students. | Agreed-in-principle. The AEU and EDU are exchanging drafting to progress this claim where shared interests have been identified. | |
| 22. First Nations mentor program | Establish a First Nations teacher mentor program, with compensation to facilitate mentoring of early career First Nations teachers by experienced First Nations teachers. This initiative recognises the critical role that culturally responsive mentorship plays in recruitment and retention of First Nations teachers. | Agreed-in-principle. The AEU and EDU are exchanging drafting to progress this claim where shared interests have been identified. | |
| 23. VET teacher recognition | Provide compensation to VET teachers that recognises their additional qualifications, their need to maintain dual qualifications and industry currency, and their additional marking load. | Agreed-in-principle. The AEU and EDU are exchanging drafting to progress this claim where shared interests have been identified. | |
| 24. Relief teacher support | Ensure that relief teachers can access information essential for student learning and workplace safety. This includes adequate provision of ICT hardware and access to EDU digital systems. | Common ground has been identified. The AEU negotiation team continues to pursue this claim. | |
| 25. Teacher librarian role clarity | Teacher librarians support student literacy, research skills, and digital citizenship, all crucial for academic success. The work involved in maintaining a school library is complex and requires dedicated time and resources. Teacher librarians need an articulated role description and workload protections. | Common ground has been identified. The AEU negotiation team continues to pursue this claim. |