Catholic school teachers call for fairer deal

Teachers gathered outside Sacred Heart College in Geelong on Thursday morning to call for improved working conditions as part of a statewide campaign by Catholic school staff.

Catholic school teachers’ multi-employer agreement with the Victorian Catholic Education Authority expired in late 2025 and they have since been left without an agreement.

Independent Education Union (IEU) members are seeking improved conditions, a pay rise and the reinstatement of the right to take protected industrial action.

Currently, Catholic education staff can only negotiate under a ‘cooperative’ model, which the union says strips teachers of leverage and weakens their ability to advocate for members.

A request to move to bargaining under a single interest authorisation was denied last year, with the union now awaiting a Fair Work Commission hearing in mid-June in the hope of securing the change.

If approved, the IEU will be able to seek good faith bargaining orders and teachers would be protected to take industrial action.

 

 

Sacred Heart College union representative Deb Bohan said teachers hoped the before-school rallies taking place across the state would help raise awareness during bargaining negotiations.

“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.”

Teachers are also bargaining for a pay rise, improved camp allowances, additional professional practice days and measures to address workload pressures.

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

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

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

Teachers will partake in a day of action on Friday, the union’s mobile billboard will also be seen across the state in coming weeks.