The proposed enterprise agreement for teachers has received overwhelming endorsement by members, with 96% approval at AEU reportback meetings last week.
A total of 683 members from 94 sub-branches took part in regional and sub-branch meetings to vote on endorsing the offer from the Commissioner for Public Employment.
Union officers were very pleased with the strong turnout across the Territory and the overwhelming sentiment in favour of endorsing this deal, which will see NT public school classroom teachers become the best-paid in the country.
In total, 96% of members (653 in total) voted in support, compared to 4% who were opposed. A further three members recorded an abstention.
The offer was unanimously endorsed by members at the Palmerston, Katherine and Tennant Creek meetings, and by numerous sub-branches.
The union office has communicated the outcome to the Commissioner and our bargaining team will now carefully inspect the final version of the agreement and agree on a timeline for the employee ballot to formally approve the offer.
The ballot will take place before the end of this term and be conducted electronically. The AEU will be recommending members vote Yes in the ballot.
From there, the agreement will be lodged with the Fair Work Commission for approval. This can take many weeks due to the backlog of matters the FWC is dealing with, however we are hopeful that the agreement will come into force some time early in Term 3.
Once the agreement is operational, back pay to October 2017 will be provided to eligible employees (only those people who are still employed at the time the agreement becomes operational are eligible to receive back pay).
Thank you to all members for your support and involvement in this process. We can be proud of the improvements we have achieved in this bargaining round.