IEU members in Catholic education to stage statewide Victorian solidarity actions

The union says its members in Victoria’s Catholic schools back the Australian Education Union’s strike scheduled for this Thursday, but are denied the right to take similar action themselves.

The members will undertake solidarity activities while continuing to muster support for a fair Agreement with fair pay and conditions for “hard-working staff” in Catholic schools.

“Both government and Catholic education staff face the same pressures: excessive workloads, workforce shortages and the urgent need for salaries and conditions that properly value their work,” IEU General Secretary David Brear said.

“But on Thursday, one group of education workers can lawfully stop work to make its voice heard, while the other remains required to bargain with one hand tied behind their back.”

Brear said Catholic education staff are not asking for special treatment.

“They are asking for the same ability to bargain on a level playing field as their public school colleagues and Catholic education workers interstate.”

Victorian Catholic education staff cannot stop work to stand with their government school colleagues because they do not currently have the same bargaining rights, including the right to seek Good Faith Bargaining Orders and the right to take protected industrial action.

IEU members will instead do what they can within the law to support AEU colleagues, while urging their colleagues to sign the new Petition of Support for a Single Interest Authorisation (SIA), enabling members to pursue fair pay and conditions in the Catholic sector with fair bargaining rights.

IEU members say all they are asking for is the same ability to bargain on a level playing field as their public school colleagues and Catholic education workers interstate. PHOTO: IEU

The IEU is not calling on its members to stop work, but for Catholic staff to support their AEU colleagues through lawful workplace solidarity activities, just as they did during the previous AEU strike in March.

The IEU Victoria Tasmania branch is encouraging sub-branches across the state to organise these activities, share visible messages of support and hold major petition signing drives.

More than 7000 employees have already signed the new petition in just two weeks.

The IEU’s current SIA application before the Fair Work Commission covers 24 Catholic education employers. Disputed workforce data led to some other employers not being included.

The union said it is now establishing clear support from a majority of staff at each of the remaining employers and will seek to bring every remaining employer, where there is majority support, into the SIA process.

A Single Interest Authorisation enables multi-employer bargaining with access to Fair Work Commission assistance to help reach agreement and a pathway to protected industrial action if needed.

Those bargaining rights are not available to Victorian Catholic education staff under the employers’ preferred bargaining framework.

Swinburne education expert Melinda Davis, meanwhile, says this week’s strike is a warning the state’s public school education system is struggling to deliver the learning environment students deserve. 

Davis says the strike highlights worsening teacher shortages, growing workloads and a lack of support in the classroom for students with increasingly complex learning needs. 

“Our teachers are not only striking over conditions, they are striking over the quality of Victorian public school education itself,” she said. 

“Working conditions determine the learning environment of every student in Victoria. Our teachers’ inadequate working conditions have become our children’s inadequate learning conditions.” 

Davis said these challenges have left many schools struggling to provide the essential support students need every day. 

“More pay has never solely motivated this action. Teachers are striking because classes are too large to teach effectively, and children with complex needs are going without the support and expertise they need,” she says. 

“The profession is at breaking point because the system is no longer fit for purpose. That is the message Victoria’s teachers are taking up to the Premier. 

“Large classes, teachers on stress leave, schools without trained learning support staff: If we are truly ‘the education state’, how can the government suggest this is the environment in which our children learn best?”

AEU members have been locked in a pay dispute with the Government for nearly a year, with graduate teachers – the worst paid in the country – earning $13,000 less than those in the Northern Territory, who are the best paid.

Members had been pushing for a 35 per cent pay rise over four years after rejecting an initial offer of an 18.5 per cent increase over three years.

Thursday’s strike is set to be reminiscent of scenes in March, where more than 35,000 teachers, principals and education support workers walked off the job for the first time in 13 years.

Back in March, 120 IEU sub-branches took part in solidarity activities, with members holding workplace gatherings, wearing black, passing sub-branch motions, displaying public messages, producing photos and videos, and even purchasing 'solidarity coffees' for striking colleagues.

Brear said he hoped to see an even bigger show of solidarity tomorrow, with members encouraging colleagues to sign the Petition of Support.

“Different sectors should not mean different rights,” Brear said.

“Whether someone works in a government or Catholic school, they deserve fair pay, manageable workloads, and safe workplaces achieved by having a genuine voice at the bargaining table.”

The IEU said it is determined to achieve “badly-needed improvements to pay and conditions in the sector in the shortest timeframe possible”, and has called on Catholic employers to stop denying their own staff the basic tools required for fair negotiations.