Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement (STCA)
Appendix A: Salary on Appointment (STCA)
Salary on appointment depends on qualifications and credit for previous service.
3. Reappointment after a break in service
4. Improved qualifications for teachers in an ongoing appointment
5. Teaching service in a state or state integrated school
7. Relevant work experience other than teaching
9. Māori Language Trainees and Te Atākura Graduates
10. Vocational or Trade Qualifications
Note: These provisions shall be applied in accordance with any administrative conditions that were in effect at the commencement of this Agreement. Nothing in these provisions shall be read as extending any entitlement beyond that which existed at the commencement of this Agreement except as may be expressly agreed to by the Secretary for Education after consultation with the Association.
1. General
1.1 Salary on appointment depends on qualifications and credit for previous service as set out in 5 to 9 below.
Note: The Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga verifies the level(s) of qualification(s) for salary purposes using information from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand.
1.2 Service credits for salary purposes may be made up of teaching service in a New Zealand state or state integrated school (as outlined in 5.1 below), other teaching service (as outlined in 6.1-6.4 below), relevant work experience other than teaching (as outlined in 7.1 below) and/or childcare (as outlined in 8.1 below).
1.3 Except where clause 4.2.2(e) of Part 4 of this agreement applies for recent teacher education graduates, credit for each period of other teaching service, relevant work experience other than teaching, and childcare shall be calculated and credited only once, on appointment or reappointment to a teaching position in a New Zealand secondary school.
1.4 For salary credit purposes the following definitions will apply:
- Full credit means that each year of equivalent service (or part thereof) will count as one year (or part thereof) of teaching service.
- Half credit means that each year of equivalent service (or part thereof) will count as six months (or part thereof) of teaching service.
- One third credit means that each year of equivalent service (or part thereof) will count as four months (or part thereof) of teaching service.
back to top2. First appointment
2.1 When a teacher is appointed to their first teaching position in a state or state integrated school the qualification group determines the entry point on the base salary scale. Service credits are added to that entry point to determine a teacher’s salary on appointment.
3. Reappointment after a break in service
3.1 When a teacher returns to a teaching position in a New Zealand secondary school after a break their re-entry point on the base salary scale shall be the equivalent of the step held on the date of cessation.
3.2 Where the qualification group of a returning teacher is higher than the one previously held and the entry step for the new qualification group is higher than the step the teacher had progressed to at the date of cessation, the higher step shall be the teacher’s entry point on the base salary scale.
3.3 Service credit, for service that has not already been credited, shall be added to that entry point to determine a teacher’s salary on appointment.
4. Improved qualifications for teachers in an ongoing appointment
4.1 Teachers in current positions may request assessment of improved or additional qualification(s) as set out in 4.2.1(c) of Part 4 of this agreement.
5. Teaching service in a state or state integrated school
5.1 Unless otherwise stated, teaching service shall be the aggregate of service paid as a teacher in any New Zealand state or state integrated school, or as a qualified teacher employed within the Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga, the New Zealand Qualification Authority or the Education Review Office in a role to which their teaching service is relevant as follows:
(a) the aggregate of teaching service that is:
(i) full-time service – where permanent and/or non-permanent full-time and/or non-permanent part-time for 20 hours or more per week shall be counted as full time
(ii) non-permanent part-time teaching service of less than 20 hours per week, where 80 hours equals one month of full-time service or 1000 hours equals one year of full time service
(iii) all paid holidays, paid leave, periods of sick leave (with or without pay) and any period without pay during a holiday arising from periods of sick leave without pay
(iv) special leave without pay, not exceeding an aggregate of three months in any school year. Where a teacher completes verified recognised employment during special leave without pay, the teacher can receive salary credit for either the employment or the aggregate of leave without pay, but not both.
Note: Where special leave without pay of more than three months is taken, and the teacher is not employed during that time in a position on which salary credit is allowable, any period of the leave in excess of three months will not count as service towards the teacher’s next incremental date.
6. Other teaching service
6.1 Other teaching service for salary purposes shall include an aggregate of all teaching service in the employment of:
(a) a university
(b) a registered initial teacher education provider
(c) a polytechnic
(d) a New Zealand registered private school
(e) a free kindergarten association and/or registered teacher-led early childhood centre; and/or
(f) an overseas school provided it was a state school or a school subject to state inspection subject to 6.3 below.
6.2 Full credit shall be granted where the service in 6.1(a) to (f) above was as a registered teacher or was a teacher who held the equivalent of a recognised New Zealand teaching qualification, otherwise where the service in 6.1(a) to (f) above was not as a registered teacher or evidence of registration cannot be provided, half credit shall apply.
6.3 Overseas teachers who gain registration through either the Teaching Council’s comparable qualifications or core components pathways will be deemed to have met the requirements for registration from the date they completed that/those qualification(s). For the purposes of Appendix A clause 1, overseas teaching service will count from the date the NZQA deems those qualification(s) to have been completed. Relevant work experience (including overseas teaching service completed prior to that date) will be determined under Appendix A clause 7.1.
6.4 Overseas teachers who gain registration through the Teaching Council’s discretionary pathway will be deemed to have met the registration requirements from the date registration is granted in New Zealand. Overseas teaching service completed after the date registration is granted in New Zealand will be determined under Appendix A clause 1 and relevant work experience (including overseas teaching experience completed prior to the date registration is granted in New Zealand) will be determined under Appendix A clause 7.1.
7. Relevant work experience other than teaching
7.1 Work experience other than teaching, attested by the employer as being directly relevant to a teacher’s curriculum and/or pastoral duties, shall receive the following service credit for salary purposes:
(a) half credit for relevant work experience completed after the completion of a recognised and appropriate vocational qualification that is at least Level 5 on the National Qualifications Framework.
(b) one third credit for relevant work experience completed after the completion of a recognised and appropriate vocational qualification that is at least Level 4 on the National Qualifications Framework.
(c) one third credit to a maximum of two salary steps for relevant work experience where no vocational qualification at Level 4 or higher on the National Qualifications Framework was completed prior to that work.
7.2 From 9 August 2023 where the highest trade or vocational qualification is below Level 7 on the NQF, a trade or vocations qualification listed in clause 10 of Appendix A (or its equivalent at 5 or 6 on the National Qualifications Framework) shall be recognised for G3+ if the teacher has at least 6000 hours of applicable trade or vocational work experience.
8. Childcare
8.1 One third credit shall be given where a teacher resigns or takes leave from the New Zealand teaching service in order to care for their own children provided that the teacher was a registered teacher (or equivalent) at the time of resigning or taking leave, otherwise no credit will be given.
Note: The one third credit shall apply to the total time away from teaching, excluding any periods for which salary credit is given under 5, 6 or 7 above.
9. Māori Language Trainees and Te Atākura Graduates
9.1 Special service credit – recognition will be given on the basis of one year of salary service for each four years from the date the teacher completed compulsory schooling until entry to an initial teacher education course. Credit is to be given in completed years only. If the teacher has service which can be credited under another category or other categories of service, the total period concerned is to be deducted from the years to be divided by four. All periods of service, including portions of a year under other categories are to be credited for calculating the incremental date on appointment.
Note: At the time of settlement no initial teacher education courses exist whose graduates will qualify for this entitlement.
10. Vocational or Trade Qualifications
The following vocational or trade qualifications can be used to establish a teacher's salary qualification group under clause 4.1.2 (bullet 4):
- NZ Certificate in Building, Engineering, Quantity Surveying or Draughting
- Advanced Technical Trade Certificate
- Advanced Trade Certificate