Allowances — Teaching Service

Overview

An employee may be entitled to receive an allowance in addition to their usual salary or remuneration. Unless otherwise specified on the Policy and Guidelines tab, part-time employees are entitled to allowances on a pro rata basis relative to a full-time employee.

The payment of allowances may be affected by periods of leave. This is dependent on the type of leave, the period of leave and the length of time for which the employee has been in receipt of the allowance prior to the commencement of the leave. Where no restriction is specified, the allowance is not affected by taking leave.

Where the payment of an allowance is affected by the taking of leave, appropriate action must be taken on the payroll to continue or cease the payment of an allowance, during the period of leave. If no action is taken, the allowance will not be paid correctly.

Some allowances may be taken into account in determining various leave and salary entitlements.

Information regarding the following allowances is set out in the Policy and Guidelines tab:

• salary loading allowance
• leave purchase allowance (education support class)
• first aid allowance (education support class)
• intensive care allowance (education support class)
• special schools allowance
• remote allowance

For information refer to Special Payments and Higher Duties — Teaching Service.

Related topics

• Annual Leave — Teaching Service
• Attendance and Working Hours — Teaching Service
• First Aid for Students and Staff
• Higher Duties Allowance — Teaching Service
• Meal Allowances
• Payment in lieu of entitlements (located in Cessation of Employment — Teaching Service)
• Special Payments

Relevant legislation

• Delegations
• Industrial Agreements
• Industrial Awards
• Legislation — Employment Topics
• Ministerial Orders — Employment

Contact information

• Contact HR

Salary loading allowance

Teaching service employees, other than casual employees, are entitled to payment of a salary loading allowance of 17.5% of weeks of the total salary to which they are normally entitled as at 1 December of the year in which the allowance is paid. Employees with time-fraction variations during the 12 month period up to 1 December will be paid a pro rata amount based on the aggregate of the employee’s paid service over the 12 month period.

An employee must be employed on 30 November to be eligible for the 17.5% allowance. The allowance is calculated on the amount of paid service (in aggregate) for the period 1 December to 30 November. Payment is automatically paid to eligible employees in December each year. The maximum amount payable is $1,402 in 2022, $1,430 in 2023, $1,459 in 2024 and $1,488 in 2025.

Where a teaching service employee ceases employment and is re-employed in the teaching service in the same year, current and prior service in that year may be included as service for salary loading purposes, provided the employee was not paid in lieu of salary loading allowance on separation.

Leave without pay for religious observance and vacation periods that do not attract pay but are otherwise counted as service are included as days of service for the purpose of calculating the salary loading allowance.

An employee may be entitled to payment in lieu of salary loading allowance on cessation of employment. For further information, refer to Payment in lieu of entitlements under Cessation of Employment — Teaching Service.

Leave purchase allowance (education support class)

An education support class employee who is required, or agrees, to attend for duty during some or all of the additional paid leave period will be paid a leave purchase allowance of 72.47% of the employee's normal hourly rate in addition to their normal rate of pay. The employee’s additional paid leave entitlement will be reduced by the amount of leave purchased. The maximum amount of leave that may be purchased in any year is 30 days (228 hours). Where an employee is in receipt of a leave purchase allowance on an ongoing basis, the allowance will be treated as salary.

The leave purchase allowance would normally be paid on a fortnightly basis when attendance requirements are regular and known in advance. The leave purchase allowance would normally be paid as a lump sum when attendance is expected to be 6 days or less in any 1 year or is likely to be intermittent. The leave purchase allowance can be paid as a lump sum in any other circumstances where agreed between the principal and the employee.

Where an employee is paid the leave purchase allowance on a fortnightly basis, the allowance will continue to be paid during the employee’s absence on paid leave provided the employee would have continued to receive the allowance but for their absence on paid leave.

An education support class employee who was employed at 52/52, 51/52, 50/52 or 49/52 on the date the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2013 commenced to operate (10 July 2013) and who continues to occupy that position, will maintain the attendance requirements that applied to them immediately prior to that date. The employee will be paid the leave purchase allowance to reflect their attendance requirements which can only be changed by written agreement between the principal and the employee.

Information about additional paid leave is available on the annual leave page and information about the attendance provisions for education support class employees is available on the attendance and working hours page (refer to Related topics in Overview).

First aid allowance (education support class)

An education support class employee who holds an appropriate first aid qualification, is required to be available to provide first aid and who agrees to perform first aid in addition to their normal duties will be paid a first aid allowance. A first aid allowance is payable where first aid duties comprise less than 60% of an employee's normal duties.

The first aid allowance for a full-time education support class employee (pro rata for part-time employee) is as follows:

The payment of the first aid allowance to an education support class employee should continue during a period of paid leave, provided that the duties and responsibilities associated with the allowance would have continued had the leave not been approved.

For information regarding first aid in schools, refer to First Aid for Students and Staff under Related topics in Overview.

Intensive care allowance (education support class)

The Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022 (the Agreement) provides an intensive care allowance in limited circumstances where an education support class employee was in receipt of the allowance immediately prior to the commencement of the Agreement as outlined below.

An education support class employee, employed in a special school, who was in receipt of the intensive care allowance immediately prior to the commencement of the Agreement, may be eligible for the intensive care allowance where they are required to provide intensive attendant care, administers medical support or assists in the development of independent living skills for individual students or groups of students will be paid an intensive care allowance.

Where an employee in receipt of an intensive care allowance immediately prior to the commencement of the Agreement is remunerated at or above education support classification level 1, range 2, salary subdivision 4 following the commencement of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022, they will continue to receive the intensive care allowance where they continue to be required to perform the above duties.

Where an employee in receipt of an intensive care allowance immediately prior to the commencement of the Agreement is remunerated below education support classification level 1, range 2, salary subdivision 4 following the commencement of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022, the payment of the intensive care allowance will cease from the date the employee is in receipt of remuneration at education support classification level 1, range 2, salary subdivision 4 or higher.

The intensive care allowance for a full-time education support class (pro rata for part-time employee) is as follows:

The payment of the intensive care allowance to an education support class employee should continue during a period of paid leave, provided that the duties and responsibilities associated with the allowance would have continued had the leave not been approved.

Special schools allowance

Assistant principals, teachers, paraprofessional, or education support class employees in a special school (including a special developmental school) and visiting teachers are eligible to be paid a special schools allowance of $727 per annum. Eligible employees employed part-time will be paid the allowance on a pro rata basis.

An employee in receipt of a special schools allowance will continue to receive the allowance for the first calendar month while on paid leave.

Nurse equipment allowance (education support class)

An education support class employee employed as a nurse in the Victorian School Nursing Program who is required to travel in excess of 3,000 km per financial year as part of their duties will be paid an equipment allowance of $500 as a one off lump sum payment. This allowance applies on a pro-rata basis in respect of part-time service.

Remote allowance

Teaching service employees employed at a designated remote school will be paid a remote allowance. Designated remote schools are classified as either remote category A or remote category B depending on the school's location. The list of schools designated as remote is available below.

The remote allowance rates for remote category A and remote category B schools are as follows:

Remote category A

Remote category B

Where more than one employee is eligible to be reimbursed in respect of the same dependant(s), one employee will receive the 'employee with dependants' rate and the other the 'employee without dependants' rate. For remote allowance purposes 'dependant' is defined as a person maintained by and permanently domiciled with an employee, including a spouse, a child under 16 years of age, a full-time student child and a parent.

Resources

Procedures and forms

• Allowance Administration Procedure (Word) — last updated 31 December 2018
• List of Remote Schools (Word) — last updated 9 September 2019
• List of Remote Schools (PDF) — last updated 9 September 2019
• Payment of Allowances — Teaching Service Form (Word)