DEAL DONE: What the government school outcome means for IEU members in Victorian Catholic education.
Australian Education Union members have voted to accept the Victorian Government’s latest pay and conditions offer, bringing to a close a determined campaign that included statewide stop-work action, bans and limitations, and sustained organising in schools and communities.
Australian Education Union members have voted to accept the Victorian Government’s latest pay and conditions offer, bringing to a close a determined campaign that included statewide stop-work action, bans and limitations, and sustained organising in schools and communities.
Their win should be congratulated. It is an important win for teachers, principals and Education Support employees in Victorian government schools - and AEU members deserve enormous credit for the pressure they maintained throughout the campaign.
It also establishes an important new benchmark for Catholic education employees as we continue our own bargaining and fight for fair bargaining rights.
Seventy-nine per cent of AEU members who voted supported the revised offer, averting a third statewide school strike planned for Wednesday 19 August. AEU Victoria’s Justin Mullaly congratulated members for “the pressure that you put on the government” through stop-work action, bans and limitations, and engagement with colleagues, parents and the wider community.
The proposed Agreement will now proceed to a formal vote of all employees.
The headline outcomes
Minimum salary increases totalling around 28.3% compounded over four years, with some classifications receiving additional structural salary improvements.
A $2,000 payment when the Agreement commences.
Annual additional payments for employees at the top of specified salary ranges.
After-school meeting hours capped at 40 hours a year, down from 80.
Existing maximum face-to-face teaching hours of 18.5 hours a week for secondary teachers and 21 hours for primary teachers secured in the Agreement itself, rather than through a separate deed.
A commitment to four Professional Practice Days for Education Support employees from 2027.
Improvements to the existing Education Support classification structure, including revised descriptors and clearer classification and qualification requirements for some specialist, professional and senior roles.
These outcomes did not simply emerge from negotiations around a table.
AEU members used their collective industrial rights to shift the government’s position. They stopped work, imposed bans and limitations, organised in their workplaces and took their case to the community.
IEU members in Victorian Catholic education have consistently backed them. Catholic school sub-branches have held solidarity events, worn black, passed motions, rallied outside workplaces, raised funds and backed their AEU colleagues in every lawful way available to them.
But Catholic education employees have not yet been able to exercise the same protected industrial action rights in our own multi-employer bargaining. That is exactly why our campaign for fair bargaining rights matters.
The AEU result shows what collective action can achieve
Catholic education employees are still fighting for access to the bargaining framework needed to take protected industrial action across participating employers.
Every Petition of Support strengthens the case for those rights.
SIGN THE PETITION OF SUPPORT - ieuvictas.org.au/sign-pos
Pay: a new benchmark for Catholic bargaining
The government pay outcome is substantial. The proposed salary increases compound to around 28.3%, with some employees also receiving structural salary improvements. Employees will also receive a $2,000 payment when the agreement commences.
For Catholic education staff, the importance of this goes beyond the headline number. Pay parity with government schools has been a key feature of Victorian Catholic Agreements for decades, and our Log of Claims again makes clear that Catholic employees should not fall behind comparable government-school employees.
For teachers and many other employees, the new government salary tables therefore provide an obvious and important benchmark.
For Education Support employees, however, parity requires a little more care. Our current Catholic ES and School Services salary structures are not identical to the government structure. That means simply applying the same percentage increase to every existing Catholic salary point would not necessarily leave comparable employees on equivalent salaries. As we negotiate the next Catholic Agreement, we therefore need to look at both the percentage increases and the salary and classification structures to which they apply.
Teachers: important workload gains
Workload has been at the heart of the AEU campaign, and there are some significant outcomes in the proposed Agreement.
After-school meeting hours will be capped at 40 hours a year, down from 80. Existing maximum face-to-face teaching hours of 18.5 hours for secondary teachers and 21 hours for primary teachers will also be secured directly in the Agreement rather than sitting in a separate deed.
That brings the government Agreement closer to an approach long familiar to Catholic education employees, whose Agreements have for many years contained clear, enforceable limits on scheduled class time.
The last round of government and Catholic school negotiations delivered major reductions in scheduled class time, including a one-hour reduction in 2023 and a further half-hour reduction in 2024, alongside enforceable Time in Lieu arrangements for directed work outside normal hours.
The proposed VGSA now adds useful further benchmarks. From 2027, after-school meetings will be limited to 40 hours and a further 40 hours will be determined by individual teachers for professional work such as planning, preparation, assessment, collaboration, curriculum development and relevant professional development.
The Victorian government has also committed to clearer guidance about work that should not be required of teachers simply because somebody needs to do it. Examples include packing and stocktaking, moving furniture, cleaning and maintenance, and procurement of resources.
Our own Log of Claims reflects priorities identified through our consultation process, including further reductions in scheduled class time, a 32+6 workload model with greater autonomous Class Focus Time, stronger protections when Class Focus Time is lost, and one Professional Practice Day per term.
Those claims will now be negotiated in the context of the important workload gains AEU members have secured.
Education Support: classification and salary relativities matter too.
For Education Support employees, the government outcome contains some important improvements beyond the headline pay rises.
The existing government ES classification framework has been updated and improved. It retains its broad six-range structure, while revising descriptors and providing clearer minimum classification points for some specialist, professional and senior work.
For example, the revised arrangements provide clearer minimum classifications for business-manager and OHS-manager functions, registered nurses, and positions requiring degree-level qualifications.
Catholic education currently has an Education Support structure running through Levels 1-5 alongside a separate School Services Officer structure. Our Log of Claims already calls for those structures to be improved and merged, for advanced skills and higher levels of responsibility to be properly recognised, and for a more effective and consistent reclassification process.
The AEU outcome gives us a useful updated benchmark for that work.
There are practical workload improvements for government ES employees as well. From 2027 there is a commitment to four Professional Practice Days, and the proposed arrangements give greater recognition to the time needed for ES employees to undertake planning, preparation and collaboration . Government ES employees attending overnight camps will also receive a specific overnight allowance.
These developments overlap with issues Catholic ES members have identified in our own bargaining consultation. Our Log of Claims includes 30 minutes of paid preparation time each day for Learning Support Officers, paid meal and recess breaks for ES employees, improvements to overtime and TIL arrangements, stronger classification review processes, and better recognition of qualifications and higher-level work.
The details are not identical - because the two Agreements and workforces are not identical - but the AEU outcome gives us important new reference points as those claims are negotiated.
Right to disconnect
The proposed government Agreement also contains an express right to disconnect. Unless it would be unreasonable, employees will be able to refuse to monitor, read or respond to work-related contact outside their working hours, including contact from employers, parents and students.
This is an increasingly important protection in schools, where email, messaging platforms and online systems can make the working day feel endless. Catholic members have identified the same problem, and a right to disconnect is already included in our Log of Claims.
The AEU outcome gives further weight to the principle that being contactable should not mean being permanently at work.
Reproductive health leave
Another significant development is a new entitlement to up to five days of paid reproductive health and wellbeing leave each year for specified circumstances including endometriosis, menstruation or menopause symptoms, pregnancy complications and fertility treatment.
Reproductive health leave is also part of our Catholic Log of Claims, which seeks a 12-day paid entitlement. The government outcome establishes an important new sector benchmark and gives us a concrete model to consider as our own claim is negotiated.
Consultation and union rights
The proposed government Agreement also contains important provisions around employee consultation, union representation and workplace delegates. These include formal employee representation in school consultation arrangements, union involvement and time release for union nominees, alongside dedicated workplace-delegate rights.
Again, there is significant overlap with issues Catholic members have raised. Our Log of Claims seeks stronger rights for workplace representatives, improved access to union training, better consultation before major decisions are made, and a stronger role for employees and their representatives when changes affecting their work are being considered.
These rights can sometimes sound procedural, but they matter enormously in practice – as we can see right now as Victorian Catholic education undergoes challenging discussions about budgetary measures for 2027. Good consultation provisions give employees a voice before decisions about staffing, workload, restructures and workplace change are locked in.
Protecting what Catholic members have already won
Comparing Agreements works in both directions. Catholic education has developed its own employment arrangements over many rounds of bargaining, and there are existing provisions that need to be protected as we respond to the new government benchmark, such as the right of teachers to absent themselves from the workplace when they are not required to participate in scheduled duties.
Their win strengthens all of us
AEU members should be congratulated. Their campaign was long, difficult and highly visible. Members took industrial action, stood together through bans and limitations, organised their workplaces and communities, and ultimately forced movement from the Victorian Government.
Their result lifts standards across Victorian education and gives us much greater clarity about the environment in which our own negotiations are taking place.
IEU members have proudly stood in solidarity with their AEU colleagues throughout that campaign. We now need the industrial rights to bargain on a level playing field.
Catholic education employees are still required to navigate a much more difficult path before we can access protected industrial action in multi-employer bargaining. Our Petition of Support campaign is about demonstrating the employee support needed to secure fair bargaining rights and a genuine collective voice over our pay and conditions.
If you have already signed, thank you - and ask a colleague whether they have too. If you have not yet signed, now is the time.
