ACT independent school teachers: pay

Short video update on the state of pay for teachers in ACT independent schools.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Carol Matthews, Branch Secretary of the IEU.

Over the past week, you’ve probably seen several updates about our bargaining with the AIS for the teachers MEA in independent schools.

I want to give you the facts—clear and simple.

The union’s goal is always to act in the best interest of our members. This is not about technical arguments about the type of MEA, it’s about getting the best deal for you, our members. That’s why we couldn’t accept the current proposed CMEA from the AIS.

Let’s break this down:

The AIS claims their offer for ACT teachers is 3% above the ACT government school rates in June 2025. Whilst this is true as at June 2025, this IEU table shows that the difference shrinks as the year goes on. By Dec 2025, AIS rates are only 1% higher than the ACT government school pay. That’s a small margin.

We don’t know yet what pay increases ACT government teachers will get in 2026 or 2027. Without that information, it’s unclear if AIS teachers’ pay will stay competitive—or if it could even fall behind government school rates.

The truth is:

We don’t want to delay pay increases, but we will not agree to a substandard deal for our members.

Schools can offer pay increases now OR backpay them later once the MEA is finalised. In fact, some schools are already saying that they will do this.

Even if we had gone with the AIS proposal, this CMEA may not have been ready for a vote this year. We are not holding this up.

This campaign is about fairness for teachers in independent schools.

We need your support for a fair deal by signing our petition.

For more information, please visit our website and other videos.

Thank you for watching.

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