Queensland's public sector teachers have settled a bitter dispute with the Bligh government, accepting a deal that will make some the highest paid in the country.
The Queensland Teachers' Union (QTU) council on Saturday accepted across-the-board wage increases of 12.5 per cent over three years and will urge members to accept the offer.
The compromise follows a protracted campaign that included strike action and advertising critical of the Labor government.
The deal targets prospective teachers across Australia, offering graduates the highest base salary in Australia and an enhanced induction program.
A new senior teacher classification will take salaries to $83,308 a year by 2011, and principals and other classified officers will receive a further 2.5 per cent pay rise from July 2011.
"Our teachers are at the front line of better education for our kids and this deal recognises their value," said Premier Anna Bligh, who led the last series of negotiations.
"I hope teachers will give it the tick."
She said the new deal was pitched at students starting university, encouraging them to enrol in teaching and pursue a career in Queensland schools.
"This is a wages package that will keep our teachers from going interstate," Ms Bligh said.
QTU president Steve Ryan said the deal did not give teachers everything they wanted, but it would pay teachers at levels commensurate with other states.
"This package delivers on that, particularly (for) beginning teachers who will be the highest paid in Australia," Mr Ryan said.
He also welcomed a new deal for temporary teachers, which will give them access to professional development and pro rata vacation pay.
Education Minister Geoff Wilson said under changes to pay levels, teachers with 13 or more years experience would be able to apply for a promotion in a competitive process that rewards teachers who deliver.
The deal, to cost $1 billion over three years, will add to the state's budget problems.
Ms Bligh said $900 million has been budgeted for pay increases and the remainder will have to be found.
"It will potentially go onto the bottom line of the deficit but ultimately this was an investment we thought we had to make," she said.
Teachers will vote on the deal over the next two weeks, and the union in the meantime will seek an adjournment of an arbitration hearing currently before the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.
Opposition education spokesman Bruce Flegg said a lot of heartache could have been avoided if the government had been more accommodating in the early stages of the negotiations.
"Teachers would not have had to resort to industrial action which had such a detrimental effect on their profession and Queensland families with children at school," he said.
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