ACTU backs IEU’s SIA campaign

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus has thrown her support behind the IEU Victoria Tasmania’s push for a Single Interest Authorisation (SIA), urging staff in Victorian Catholic schools to “make history” to win essential rights for bargaining.

McManus addresses the IEU’s campaign for an SIA in a just-released videos, telling staff in Victorian Catholic education, “The Australian Union movement stands with you. This is your moment to demand justice, to demand a right, just like every other worker has to take industrial action should you choose.”

She urges staff to make their statement of support in Term 4 “because education salaries are falling behind and you have so much to win but you need to have these basic industrial rights”.

She says that without an SIA, “employers have too much power” and the bargaining position of workers is weakened. “Here's the truth, employers want what is called cooperative bargaining, but it just puts all the power in their hands. It means no options for you to take protected industrial action, no support from the Fair Work Commission [FWC] and no real leverage for workers. But I know you won't put up with second best. There should be fair negotiations on a level playing field. This is what every other Catholic educator around the country has and so should you.”

The IEU must gain support from a majority of all staff members under each Catholic employer - union members or not - for the FWC to grant the SIA. As McManus says, that “is no easy feat”.

This is significant for workers nationwide: thanks to union-backed reforms to industrial law, employees in multi-employer sectors can now seek an SIA. The IEU Victoria -Tasmania campaign is among the first to apply under these new provisions.

McManus says the fight for the right to take protected industrial action is “not a luxury, it's a necessity”.

“Without it, bargaining is unfair. Every other worker in this country has this right. It's time you did too.”