Schools Bulletin - 11 July 2008

Action
11 July 2008

The ballot of all teachers and principals on the Victorian Government Schools Agreement (VGSA) 2008 was declared on Monday June 30.

The Agreement was approved by 84.7% of the 36,398 who voted. This compares with 82.3% support for the VGSA 2004 and 78.2% support for the VGSA 2001.

The Department sent the Agreement to the Workplace Authority on the same day the ballot was declared. The Workplace Authority has to be satisfied the Agreement meets the "no disadvantage test" under Workchoices before it can come into operation.

While we must wait for this to happen before the Agreement can come into effect (and the pay rises flow), the AEU and the Department have continued to meet and plan so that this can happen as soon as we get the go ahead.

Pay increases
When the Agreement is approved, the pay rises, backpay and one off payments will be paid - hopefully before the end of August.

The pay adjustments will occur over two pay periods -

• the first will include the pay increases and the backpay to May 11
• the second will include the one off payments ($1000, $1500 or $2000) where relevant as well as the compensation for the change to the May 1 common incremental date where applicable.

Agreement Implementation
The AEU is preparing an Agreement Implementation Guide to support sub branches.

We are also planning to conduct a series of Agreement Implementation sessions - you will be notified of the details of scheduled sessions in the near future.