Subject: Sign a Statement of Support to secure fair bargaining rights 

SIGN A STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR FAIR BARGAINING RIGHTS: www.ieuvictas.org.au/sos   

Dear colleague, 

As the elected IEU Rep at our workplace, I ask you to make a statement of support for a Single Interest Authorisation (SIA) so that we can secure the bargaining rights we must have to win the big improvements to pay and conditions that we need. Unlike Catholic education employers in every other state, ours continue to refuse to negotiate as a ‘single interest’. This weakens our bargaining power and denies us important rights, such as the ability to seek Good Faith Bargaining Orders or to hold a vote on taking protected industrial action if necessary.  

You will be aware that employers have made a purported ‘offer’ to staff. While this might grab attention, it’s important to understand the context. This is an attempt to stop our campaign for the rights that we need to negotiate an Agreement that contains salaries competitive with our colleagues interstate and improvements to a huge range of entitlements, workload measures and welfare provisions. The purported ‘offer’ would see our salaries continue to lag behind those paid in other states, and it completely fails to address a range of other vitally important claims in the democratically endorsed IEU Log of Claims.  Member claims were developed through an extensive engagement and are reflective of the challenges that need to be addressed in this round of bargaining for the benefit of all staff working in Catholic schools.   

Employers have now asked for your feedback on their proposal. Here is the IEU’s advice: if you choose to respond, please: 

1. Give feedback to each item on why it falls short. 

2. Say that you would like a Single Interest Authorisation to allow for fair negotiations.  

READ MORE: The IEU’s SIA campaign takes effect: employers table inadequate offer as union momentum builds 

It’s an unprecedented and alarming move for the employers to make what they call a ‘first and final offer’ to staff before bargaining with the union has even begun. To do this while continuing to deny staff the basic rights that other workers use to negotiate improvements to their working lives is frankly unconscionable. It’s a move that seems designed to undermine the collective strength of our profession, who via the IEU Log of Claims endorsed significantly larger salary increases and a classification structure that better reflects, rewards and supports the important work of ES staff. This ‘first and final’ approach does not align in any way with longstanding principles around the rights of workers to work collectively to achieve improvements.  We think that’s something worth fighting for – and here’s what you can do to help. 

Right now we need to hold firm. If employers continue to refuse to do the right thing, we can seek a Single Interest Authorisation by demonstrating that a majority of staff support it at every employer. That’s why we need as many staff as possible to sign an official statement of support. These statements will be given to the Fair Work Commission as evidence if needed, and names of signatories will not be shown to employers.  

You can find out more about why getting a Single Interest Authorisation is so important here. 

What you can do: 

• Sign a Statement of Support. 

• Talk to colleagues about what’s at stake, and ask them to sign too. 

As educators, we don’t want to take disruptive action. But as workers, we know that the right to do so is a vital bargaining tool. Without this right we are left begging for much-needed improvements to salaries and conditions. That’s why I’m asking everyone in our workplace to make a statement of support. It’s our chance to create a level playing field for negotiations. 

Thank you in advance for backing this crucial campaign. Every single statement of support helps us to improve our workplaces and to improve Catholic education, both for us as workers and for our students. 

In unity 

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