Union win: NextSense staff stand strong for great gains
2025 August Newsmonth
IEU members at NextSense celebrate their win with IEU organisers.
The broader NextSense organisation, formerly known as the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, includes a preschool and primary school at Macquarie Park, as well as specialist teachers across mainstream independent schools.
Bargaining committee member Rebekah Power,rep Tahlee Simpson, lead teacher Lou de Beuzeville.
NextSense also employs research staff and allied health practitioners. Since 2021, these employees have been covered by the NextSense enterprise agreement, while teachers and support staff in the organisation’s schools and preschools were covered by the Association of Independent Schools (AIS) NSW Multi-Enterprise agreements.
In 2024, the NextSense employer sought to integrate all education staff, including teachers and support staff, into the main enterprise agreement.
If all education employees were incorporated into this agreement, IEU members would have lost the guarantee of pay and conditions commensurate with their colleagues in NSW government schools or the broader NSW non-government education sector.
The members met, formed a log of claims and elected a chapter committee. They focused on carrying across conditions from their previous AIS agreements, codifying workplace practices, and ensuring pay and other conditions kept pace with teachers and support staff in other sectors.
They also made a claim to have their expertise recognised in working with children who are deaf, hard of hearing, who are blind or have low vision.
Bargaining began in September 2024 and, after some 10 months and at least as many bargaining meetings, the new agreement has been finalised with important wins for members, including:
One of the biggest breakthroughs was the employer agreeing to negotiate a Work Practices Agreement.
While such agreements, which provide clarity around day-to-day matters such as face-to-face teaching hours and meetings, are common in Catholic systemic schools, they are still rare in independent schools.
Reps from the school took seats at the bargaining table alongside IEU officials, school leadership and the employer to represent members at the school.
Rep Tahlee Simpson said: “We couldn’t have done it without the wonderful team we work with, everybody coming together, our amazing leadership, and obviously our union members.”
“We’ve had a great win in our new enterprise agreement through the bargaining process, and we’ve really appreciated the support of the union and how hard they’ve worked to support us to get a really fantastic result,” said teacher and committee member Rebekah Power.
“We’ve had incredible pay rises and improvement to our working conditions, and we’ve doubled our union membership since November.”
Lead teacher Lou de Beuzeville said: “We’ve really had great collaborative relationships developing between the members, union officials and our leadership.”
The three extended a warm shout-out to committee member Aji Kathir who was working offsite when the IEU visited.
“The elected reps were fierce advocates for the interests of all the education employees at NextSense,” said IEUA NSW/ACT Branch Secretary Carol Matthews.
“We congratulate all our NextSense members for staying the course and achieving these gains, and we warmly welcome all the new members who joined during the course of the bargaining.”