In December 2024, staff in Catholic systemic schools in the Broken Bay diocese voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new four-year enterprise agreement (EA): 92.5 per cent of staff voted for the agreement, with 85 per cent of full-time staff participating in the ballot.
Pay rises and back pay
Members in the other 10 Catholic diocesan schools in NSW will now have received their 3% pay rise backdated to the first pay period on or after 9 October 2024. Teachers in ACT systemic schools received pay rises in August 2024.
Late last year, general employees in NSW and the ACT were awarded a 4% pay rise backdated to July in line with a provision in the EA guaranteeing these staff the same pay rise offered to support staff in NSW government schools in 2024.
Talks for new EA under way
Negotiations for a new three-year Catholic systemic enterprise agreement have been progressing. Bargaining meetings were held in late December and mid-January, with further meetings scheduled during February.
As outlined in the December 2024 edition of Newsmonth, the union is seeking improvements to parental leave and, for general employees, an improvement in long service leave. We are seeking to expand coverage of the enterprise agreement to include employees who are not presently covered by the EA.
Work Practices Agreements
Preliminary discussions to improve the work practices agreements (WPAs) have commenced in several of the nine dioceses. (The Wilcannia-Forbes diocese is the only diocese yet to agree to negotiate a WPA with the IEU.)
Issues the union will address during the WPA negotiations include: out-of-hours work (scheduled events and professional duties related to teaching); diverse learning needs; data collection and compliance; meetings and professional development; extras; and class sizes.
The federal government’s legislated right to disconnect (as part of the Closing Loopholes legislation passed over the last two years) has gone a considerable way in addressing work-life balance issues for all working people in Australia.
Disappointingly, unlike the Broken Bay diocese, other diocesan employers have not agreed to include a “right to disconnect” clause in the EA. As a result, the union is seeking standard wording in the current WPAs that strengthens the current email usage clauses to include all forms of out-of-hours communications.
The Closing Loopholes legislation also enhanced the rights of delegates (reps) and inserting a new Delegates’ Rights clause into EAs is required by the Fair Work Act.
Discussions of this clause have been productive and, in response to the union’s claim, the employers have said they are open to strengthening delegates’ rights beyond the requirements of the Act.
Pupil-free days
Catholic diocesan employers have committed to matching the number of pupil-free teacher development days offered in government schools. The days are provided to address teacher workload intensification. It is critical that teachers have a say in how the days are best used to address their workload concerns.
In government schools, four of the eight days (or equivalent) are to be targeted for teacher-determined activities; 25% of the development days are to be set aside for system-determined activities; and the other 25% for school-determined activities.
In December, the union wrote to each of the 10 dioceses requesting the same provision for teacher-determined activities during these school development days; that is, four days or the equivalent time. We are yet to hear back from all dioceses and have not yet received a commitment from them that they will agree to this request.
We encourage chapter reps and committees to speak with their principals to seek their support in advocating that these pupil-free days will be used properly to address teacher workload issues. Teachers are best placed to determine how this time should be used. Where changes cannot be made in 2025, we will press for 50% of this extra release time to be teacher directed in 2026 and 2027.
Next steps
The union will keep members informed as negotiations for a new EA and WPAs continue. Please keep an eye on your email, and don’t hesitate to contact your IEU organiser to arrange a chapter visit.
We also encourage reps and members to invite potential members to join their union so that collectively we can press for better conditions that will attract and retain the staff we need in our schools.