The development comes after the union secured majority support this week in the three remaining major employers: Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Limited, Catholic Education Sandhurst and St Kevin’s College.
As a result, it said, there is now a clear staff majority in favour of fair single-interest bargaining across employers of every mainstream Victorian Catholic school.
More than 18,500 staff across 400 schools – a clear majority of the workforce – have now signed Statements of Support (SOS) for the union’s SIA application to the Fair Work Commission (FWC).
The campaign has required union members to secure signatures from non-members as well as fellow unionists.
IEU Victoria Tasmania General Secretary David Brear said majority support in the remaining three Catholic teacher employers is “a massive achievement by IEU members”.
“In the face of a highly resourced, uncooperative employer group that tried to undermine single-interest bargaining – and bypass the union and proper bargaining altogether – members stood firm and delivered a remarkable campaign outcome,” Brear said.
“Every member who signed a statement of support or spoke with a colleague about the SIA should be proud of their role. Their work has given tens of thousands of employees a chance to bargain with essential rights that would otherwise have been denied.”
IEU Victoria Tasmania had previously sought an SIA to ensure Catholic school staff have the same bargaining rights as colleagues across most of the nation, including access to protected industrial action and Good Faith Bargaining Orders from the FWC.
It said the Victorian Catholic Educators Authority (VCEA) has attempted to block the campaign at every turn – including issuing an unprecedented pre-bargaining “offer” in October, designed to bypass the union and proper bargaining on safety, workloads and education staff entitlements, as well as pay rises in line with other states.
Catholic school teachers rejected the offer of a 7 per cent pay increase in 2026, plus guaranteed pay parity with the government sector and improved conditions from the start of the 2026 school year.
The offer also included a $1500 sign-on bonus that would have been provided before Christmas.
Fewer than one-third of staff supported it, while well over half have supported fair bargaining by signing an SOS.
“These extraordinary numbers are a magnificent vindication of the power of grassroots organising and our collective capacity,” Brear said.
“They also send yet another loud, clear signal to Catholic school employers that bargaining should proceed under the single-interest stream, so their employees have access to basic rights such as Good Faith Bargaining Orders from the FWC and the right to take protected industrial action.
“The people have spoken. For employers to continue to ignore staff’s officially stated preference to bargain under an SIA shows they either don’t care about the rights of their employees, or they are scared of them.”
The union’s campaign is a major test of Australia’s new multi-employer bargaining laws.
The IEU will amend its application to the FWC to add the last major employers (Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Limited, Catholic Education Sandhurst and St Kevin’s College), ahead of the next hearing on this matter, scheduled for next Thursday (December 11).
Under current industrial laws, the FWC cannot grant an SIA application made by the IEU until after the current Agreement expires on December 31.
IEU Victoria Tasmania said strong statewide backing from staff provides the evidence needed for the application, however, it is prepared for employer attempts to undermine the application “in order to delay proper bargaining”.
“We call on the Victorian Catholic Education Authority to stop wasting time and commence bargaining under an SIA so we can get to what’s most important – making much-needed improvements to the pay and conditions of educators in their sector,” Brear said.
