The É«ÀÇÉçÇøhas been in dispute with the Department of Education over its failure to award School Psychologists their due pay rise of 2.28 per cent – the well-deserved pay rise awarded to their School Counsellor colleagues back in January 2021. Today, after months of É«ÀÇÉçÇønegotiations and pressure, the Department of Education has finally agreed to award School Psychologists a pay rise of 2.28 per cent. This will be back-dated to the first pay period after 1 January 2021.
Today’s announcement is the result of relentless É«ÀÇÉçÇøadvocacy to ensure School Psychologists do not miss out. If the department had not agreed to the pay rise by 4 August 2021 we were prepared to seek the assistance of the Industrial Relations Commission.
Read about it
You can read more about the work we did HERE.
The É«ÀÇÉçÇøwants to thank your School Psychologist É«ÀÇÉçÇødelegates, Alicia Rowan, Ben Bramston and Erin Kremer who spent countless hours together with É«ÀÇÉçÇøstaff to strategise and consult directly with DOE to help us achieve this win.
This is an example of the collective strength of workers uniting through the union to stand up for your pay and conditions!
We need your help
The next issue we want to tackle is negotiating a stand-alone Award for School Psychologists to improve your standing, conditions and entitlements.
For instance, this problem with your pay occurred because there is currently no industrial instrument that determines when or how your salary is set.
The solution is an Award. Without it, School Psychologists may face this same situation next year, and the year after that.
In the lead up to Award negotiations, it is vitally important that as many School Psychologists as possible are É«ÀÇÉçÇømembers. The more members we have, the greater our negotiating power. Talk to your colleagues about how the union won this pay rise (you can forward them this bulletin) and encourage them to join the É«ÀÇÉçÇøonline at www.psa.asn.au/join.