Schools members will receive their pay increase backdated to 15 July after the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) ruled out a plan from the State Government to deny members any back pay.

The one-year agreement will give a three per cent increase (2.53 per cent applied to salaries and 0.5 per cent superannuation guarantee). This is the maximum allowable under the current wages cap, which will become an election issue in 2023.

The PSA welcomed the IRC’s decision on back pay, but it requested the Government give the pay rise from 1 July, as has been done with much of the NSW Public Sector.

“The Secretary of Education’s salary is more than a half a million dollars a year and yet the decision was made not to ensure that some of the lowest-paid workers in the public sector, SAS Staff, had their 2022 pay increase locked in,” said General Secretary, Stewart Little.