2024 – 2027 NTPS Educators EA (under negotiation)
Log of Claims with Outcome Reports
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24-27 NTPS Education EA AEU NT Log of Claims – Outcome Report
| Claim | Outcome | Details | |
| Claim 01: Title | Simplify the title of the agreement. | Success | Simplified title to “Northern Territory Public Sector Educators’ 2024–2027 Enterprise Agreement”. |
| Claim 02: Coverage | Coverage to include Teachers, Assistant Teachers, and Principals.
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Success | Coverage includes Teachers, Aboriginal Team Teachers (formerly Assistant Teachers), and Principals (excluding those on Executive Contracts). |
| Claim 03: Period of Operation | Seek a minimum two-year agreement, negotiable for longer depending on the wages offer and workload reduction. | Success | Agreement duration is three years and three months, expiring 31 December 2027. |
| Claim 04: Probation | Waive probation if an employee transitioning from a fixed-term contract has already completed a process. | Partial Success | Clearer language for waiving probation if an employee has completed a similar process on a fixed-term contract. |
| Claim 05: Union Rights | Guaranteed access to orientation events, communication channels, payroll deductions, and notifications for new employees. | Partial Success | Formal access to orientation events, guaranteed payroll deductions, and enhanced communication rights were secured, improving union visibility and helping members stay informed and maintain their membership. Full access to Department communication channels and new member notifications will be pursued in future agreements. |
| Claim 06: Types of Employment | Clarify categories of employment (full-time, part-time, casual, and fixed-term). | SUCCESS | Clear employment categories (full-time, part-time, casual, fixed-term), bringing clarity and preventing misclassification. |
| Claim 07: Full-Time Employment | A breakdown of hours for face-to-face teaching, non-contact duties, and professional duties. | SUCCESS | Detailed workload breakdown for full-time teachers, covering face-to-face teaching, non-contact time, and professional duties.This allows more transparency and less room for interpretation on the breakdown of hours. |
| Claim 08: Fixed Period Employment | Ensure the employer provides a specific reason for fixed-term employment. | SUCCESS | Employer must specify the reason for any fixed-term employment. This brings more transparency and ensures that fixed-term contracts are used appropriately, aligning with the “Secure Jobs, Better Pay” amendments. |
| Claim 09: Stand Down | Specify that new employees who haven’t accrued sufficient leave are still paid during stand-down periods. | SUCCESS | The agreement includes for the first time a full set of the long standing arrangements about pay over the Term break holidays. Also includes provisions ensuring that where new employees have not accrued sufficient recreation leave they will be fully paid during the end of year school holidays |
| Claim 10: Casual Employment | Align casual employment provisions with the National Employment Standards (NES) and include dispute resolution procedures. | SUCCESS | Alignment with National Employment Standards (NES), with casual employees now able to use dispute resolution procedures. |
| Claim 11: Relief Teacher Provisions-Pay | Ensure payment for relief teachers includes full-day and half-day payments. | Partial success | Full and half-day payments for relief teachers; casual rates still based on CT1-CT3 tiers. |
| Claim 12: Relief Teacher Provisions- Casual Year | Reduce the number of days required for relief teachers to complete one year of service from 195 to 180 days. | SUCCESS | The threshold for one year of service was successfully reduced from 195 days to 180 days, allowing relief teachers and part-time staff to progress more quickly in their classification and benefits. |
| Claim 13: Classifications, Salaries and Allowances | Ensure salaries exceed CPI increases, better reflect experience level and are the highest in the country. | Partial Success | The 4.3% wage increase exceeds the current Darwin CPI of 3.2% (September 2024), ensuring real wage growth for members. Further increases of 4.3% in January 2025 and 2026 are expected to remain above inflation. Classroom teachers and Aboriginal Team Teachers received substantial pay increases through classification restructures, providing some of the best rates in Australia. There is also a commitment to review Principal salaries, with ongoing efforts to secure the same for Senior Teachers. |
| Claim 14: Salary-Based Allowances | Confirm the application of the existing formula for salary-based allowances. | SUCCESS | The formula for salary-based allowances was confirmed. |
| Claim 15: Recovery of Overpayments | Prevent the recovery of involuntary overpayments where the cost of recovery exceeds the overpayment amount. | Not Successful | The OCPE indicated that it would be outside the scope of their legislation to agree to this.
This will be included as a claim for the negotiations for a new NTPS General Agreement in 2025. |
| Claim 16: Classification of Employees, Classroom-Based Support Staff | Introduce a classification structure for classroom-based support staff. | A commitment to review the classification of classroom-based support staff during the term of the agreement was achieved.This review is intended to assess the current roles and consider how they might be better structured and compensated. | |
| Claim 17: Classification of Employees – Principal Determinations | Incorporate permanent Principal provisions, including regular classification upgrades and clarifications around Emergency Shelter Management. | Principal classifications will undergo regular reviews, but responsibilities for Emergency Shelter Management remain unchanged. This issue will be addressed outside of Enterprise Bargaining with NTPFES and DoE. | |
| Claim 18: Remote Incentive Allowance | Increase remote allowance structures. | Not successful | Incorporating minor annual retention payments into the fortnightly Remote Incentive Allowance simplifies entitlements. |
| Claim 19: Remote Retention Payments | Secure significant incentives for teachers to remain in remote areas. | Not successful | While large retention payments were not secured, modest increases were achieved for teachers in Alice Springs and Katherine. Our strategy focused on significant salary increases across the NT, with CT1s gaining over $8k/year and CT9s over $11k/year, which will compound and improve recruitment. This emphasis on long-term salary growth enhances NT’s competitiveness in attracting and retaining teachers. Additionally, work is ongoing with the Department on a “Hard to Fill” scheme and other recruitment strategies outside the Enterprise Agreement. |
| Claim 20: Remote Locality – additional provisions | Provide free electricity and additional FOILS for employees in remote localities. | Paritially successful | While the Agreement does not mandate free electricity for remote staff, the Department will continue providing electricity in Category 2 and 3 areas and has withdrawn its claim for an electricity subsidy. A long-term solution to reduce electricity costs without financial impact on teachers is being pursued. Additionally, although no extra FOILs were secured, the Department agreed to offer additional compensation for travel through the under-utilised “End of Half Semester Travel” clause. |
| Claim 21: Parental Leave | Increase partner leave and ensure paid special maternity leave. | Not Successful | The OCPE was unwilling to consider any adjustments to clauses that are common across all of the NTPS. This will be included as a claim for the negotiations for a new NTPS General Agreement in 2025. |
| Claim 22: Infectious Disease Leave | Create a separate bank of leave for infectious diseases such as COVID-19. | Not successful | The OCPE was unwilling to consider any adjustments to clauses that are common across all of the NTPS. This will be included as a claim for the negotiations for a new NTPS General Agreement in 2025. |
| Claim 23: Emergency Leave | Increase Emergency Leave from two to three days.. | SUCCESSFUL | Emergency Leave was increased from two days to three days, ensuring that employees have adequate time to manage unexpected emergencies without using other forms of leave. |
| Claim 24: Cultural and Ceremonial Leave | Provide five days of paid cultural leave for Indigenous staff. | Not Successful | The OCPE was unwilling to consider any adjustments to clauses that are common across all of the NTPS. This will be included as a claim for the negotiations for a new NTPS General Agreement in 2025. |
| Claim 25: Non-Contact, Collaborative Planning | Increase non-contact time and introduce days for collaborative planning. | Partial success | The Department scaled back their initial offer for NCT parity in order to fund the significant wage increases. This compromise was accepted based on feedback from members indicating that the teacher shortage needed to be addressed before further NCT increases could be implemented.
NCT for preschool, primary, and special education teachers will increase by 1 hour in 2026 and an additional 1 hour 20 minutes in 2027. Aboriginal Team Teachers will receive 2 hours of NCT per week. Although additional collaborative planning days were not achieved due to the gazetted school calendar until 2027, consultation on changes for 2028 and beyond will include member representation. Parity remains a goal for future agreements. |
| Claim 26: Teacher Responsibilities | Include elements of the Teacher Responsibility Guide (TRG) in the agreement. | Partial success | Many of the elements of the TRG have now been included in the Agreement, however limits on meetings and duties still sit inside the TRG. |
| Claim 27: Class Sizes | Reduce maximum class sizes, especially in special settings, and apply a workload weighting system for students with additional needs. | Partial Success | A firm maximum of 27 students per class has been set for NT government schools, with smaller class sizes for certain groups: 22 for preschool, an average of 25 for Transition and Years 11-12, and 16 for Intensive English classes. Although a student need-based weighting system was not secured, class sizes must still reflect students’ needs for workplace safety. If limits are exceeded, principals must consult with teachers in writing to manage the additional workload. Advocacy for minimum support staff provisions will continue outside the agreement process. |
| Claim 28: Disciplinary Proceedings | Include a clause outlining processes for unsatisfactory performance and disciplinary actions. | SUCCESS | A new clause was introduced, ensuring a clear process for handling unsatisfactory work. |
| Claim 29: Agreement Reviews | Incorporate recommendations from Workloads and Homeland Learning Centre reviews into the agreement. | Partially Successful | Some Workloads recommendations were adopted, with further improvements expected through the Workload Reduction Action Plan. The Assistant Teacher in Charge allowance for Homeland Learning Centres was amended to include Teachers in Charge, providing compensation for additional duties. |
| Claim 30: Authority to Teach | Introduce a classification for employees teaching with a certificate from the TRB. | SUCCESSFUL | The agreement introduces the “Authorised Persons” classification for employees teaching with a certificate from the TRB, with transition arrangements for qualified existing staff. This ensures consistent conditions for “Authorised Persons” and recognizes the work of experienced teachers who mentor them. |
| Claim 31: Leave Entitlements/Accident Allowance Worker’s Compensation | Ensure superannuation contributions and leave entitlements accrue during workers’ compensation. | Not Successful | The OCPE was unwilling to consider any adjustments to clauses that are common across all of the NTPS. This will be included as a claim for the negotiations for a new NTPS General Agreement in 2025. |
| Claim 32: Language Allowance | Provide a language allowance for employees using non-English languages in their roles. | Not successful | The OCPE was unwilling to consider any adjustments to clauses that are common across all of the NTPS. This will be included as a claim for the negotiations for a new NTPS General Agreement in 2025.
(A Joint Unions/OCPE Review off this is presently on-going.) |
| Claim 33: Break Times | Include specified break times in the agreement. | SUCCESSFUL | Break times are now included, providing accountability for their provision. |
| Claim 34: Senior Teacher Release | Create a framework for Senior Teacher release from teaching duties. | Not Successful | We did not achieve any improvements to ST release, nor did we achieve a framework. We will continue to pursue this outside of the enterprise agreement process. |
| Claim 35: Review of Homelands: Locality Provisions | Ensure all staff at Homelands Learning Centres receive Category 3 remote provisions, regardless of personal residence. | SUCCESSFUL | Staff working a minimum of three days per week at specific Homelands Centres are now eligible for corresponding remote provisions. |
| Claim 36: Inclusion of Determinations | Incorporate relevant Commissioner’s Determinations into the agreement. | SUCCESSFUL | All relevant Determinations have now been incorporated into the agreement, making it much simpler for employees to find and understand their entitlements without having to look across multiple documents. |
| Claim 37: Reproduction Leave | Introduce reproductive leave for menstruation, menopause, and related issues. | Not Successful | The OCPE was unwilling to consider any adjustments to clauses that are common across all of the NTPS. This will be included as a claim for the negotiations for a new NTPS General Agreement in 2025. |
| Claim 38: Technical Amendments | Make technical amendments required due to legislative changes. | SUCCESSFUL | This has occurred across the agreement as required. |
| Claim 39: Long Service Leave Weekends | Allow long service leave to be taken without needing to include weekends. | Not Successful | The OCPE were unwilling to consider this as Teachers already have some of the best Long Service Leave entitlements in the NTPS. You can find out more about this in our Guide to Long Service Leave. |
| Claim 40: Compensation for Additional Duties | Provide compensation for additional duties, such as supervising students beyond normal school hours. | Not Successful | This is something that we will continue to pursue in further agreements. |
| Claim 41: HALT | Review and improve HALT provisions. | Although there are no improvements to HALT provisions in the agreement, this is an element of the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement with the Federal Government for funding increases. As such, discussions will continue outside of the Enterprise Agreement process. | |
| Claim 42: School-Based Corporate Deployment | Ensure office-based employees earn TOIL when deployed to schools. | SUCCESSFUL | The agreement allows office-based staff to earn 1 day of TOIL for every 12 days worked in schools. TOIL can accumulate over multiple deployments without any time limit between them, but once earned, it must be used within 3 months. |
