Catholic school teachers call for better pay, conditions

CATHOLIC school teachers are pushing for better pay, improved working conditions and the right to take protected industrial action as negotiations for a new workplace agreement continue.

Teachers gathered outside schools across Geelong and the Bellarine last week as part of a statewide day of action, led by the Independent Education Union (IEU).

Catholic school teachers have been negotiating a new agreement since their previous deal with the Victorian Catholic Education Authority expired late last year.

 

In addition to pay increases, teachers are seeking improved camp allowances, additional professional practice days and measures to address workload pressures.

The union is also fighting for the right to bargain under a single interest authorisation, arguing the current cooperative bargaining model leaves Catholic school staff without the industrial leverage available to public school teachers.

A request to move to the new bargaining model was denied last year and the union is now awaiting a Fair Work Commission hearing later this month.

 

The push follows successful strike action by Australian Education Union (AEU) members earlier this year.

St Ignatius College representative Jaymi O’Connor said it was important to recognise the different bargaining powers available to Catholic and public school teachers.

“It’s important for us to acknowledge the work of our colleagues in the AEU that have taken action when we haven’t been able to,” she said.

 

“We are also appreciative of parents and our wider school community in their support of teachers and education support staff to be able to achieve better working conditions so we can provide the best learning experiences for our students.”

Sacred Heart College union representative Deb Bohan said teachers had gathered before school to raise awareness of the dispute.

“We’re getting a lot more expectations put on us, but we are not getting recognition for the extra work we’re doing,” Bohan said.

“We’re not allowed to do any action during the school day – we’re blocked from doing that.

 

“After we watched the state school teachers [strike] all of the kids were like ‘How come you’re not doing it?’ and we had to say we’re not allowed to. We have to do it before work so that we can raise awareness without getting in trouble ourselves.”

Geelong IEU organiser Jacqui Cameron said the union had put forward 113 claims during bargaining so far, with 100 rejected by employers.

“The government schools agreement expired at the end of last year, as did the catholic schools agreement,” Cameron said.

“It was about 15 years ago that Catholic school employees rallied and actually took unprotected industrial action to gain parity with the public sector and that fight continues.

 

“The government sector has reached an in-principle agreement because they’ve got that leverage, they’ve got that power to put pressure on the employers to come to the table with improvements to their offers. We don’t have that right now.

Cameron is hopeful the groundswell of support from the community given to public school teachers will continue for their catholic counterparts.

“It’s really important that we have the backing of the community and other workers,” Cameron said.

A week after the day of action, there has been no movement in negotiations.