Canberra Institute of Technology could have paid the salaries of 100 beginning teachers instead of spending $8.5 million over five years on one consultant, the teachers union says.
Teachers at CIT are taking steps towards a strike as enterprise negotiations drag on for more than a year.
Australian Education Union ACT branch secretary Patrick Judge said members were frustrated that the salaries of CIT teachers were now thousands of dollars behind schoolteachers' salaries and in some cases were less than what apprentices were earning.
"CIT teachers are very aware of the good outcomes that were achieved for school teachers in ACT earlier this year," Mr Judge said.
"We have members who tell us that they are paid less by CIT than some of the people that they are training because their wages are not competitive with the industries they're training people to go into. That's something that urgently needs to be addressed."
A CIT teacher on the lowest rate currently earns $80,673, whereas a beginning schoolteacher in ACT public schools will be earning $91,396 at the beginning of 2026.
A CIT spokesman said the institute valued its teaching staff.
"Less than a week ago, the AEU wrote to CIT noting 'significant progress' in negotiations and an intention to work together 'towards a satisfactory resolution of enterprise bargaining'," the spokesman said.
"The CIT is taking this bargaining process very seriously, we will continue to negotiate in good faith and try and find a suitable outcome."
The spokesman said the union's statement that CIT had rejected most of the union's claims and wouldn't approach the ACT government for more funding was not correct.
"CIT staff are entitled to core pay rises and conditions negotiated as part of the broader ACT Public Service."
Since the introduction of fee-free TAFE courses and the JobTrainer packages, Mr Judge said CIT teachers have seen an increase to their workload through extra administration tasks and education support for higher-needs students.
Mr Judge said the $8.5 million spent on "complexity and systems thinker" Patrick Hollingworth's consulting company Think Garden could have been spent on 100 beginning teachers or provide 450 CIT teachers a pay rise of more than $3000 per year.
He said the media coverage of this issue had led to a drop in the institution's standing in the community and it came up regularly in conversations.
"It shouldn't be surprising that they feel that they're not getting the respect that they deserve when CIT spent that kind of money on consultants... It's money that our members can say could have been used really productively and represents a missed opportunity."
The CIT spokesman said it would not comment on this matter and the claim that some teachers were paid less than the apprentices they taught "cannot be applied across staff and students."
Mr Judge said different executives had come and gone from the CIT bargaining team since negotiations began.
The Australian Education Union ACT branch TAFE council voted unanimously on Wednesday to seek permission from the Fair Work Commission to hold an industrial action ballot, which could include strike action.
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