Bargaining for a new Tasmanian Catholic Agreement begins this week

Bargaining for a new single interest Agreement protecting and improving the pay and conditions of staff across Tasmanian Catholic education starts this week!

At our first formal bargaining meeting on Thursday, the IEU team will commence negotiations with Catholic Education Tasmania (CET) on behalf of members. Following this, extended meetings will be held on a fortnightly basis.

This follows important pre-bargaining work between the IEU and CET to clarify coverage issues, including the inclusion of new Blend Ed and CET Office roles.

IEU members enter bargaining with a clear and democratically endorsed Log of Claims, which was served on CET on 17 April. These claims were shaped by extensive member input and in-person review and endorsement by Reps, and reflect the issues members have identified as priorities: salaries, workload and safety.

The recent outcomes achieved by the AEU in Government school sector negotiations also set an important benchmark for Catholic sector bargaining.

For support staff in government schools, recent improvements include pay increases averaging 11% over the life of the Agreement, additional paid workdays, new career pathways for Teacher Assistants, improved allowances, stronger leave rights, and better access to personal, carers, parental, bereavement, reproductive and family violence leave. Read more about the government sector outcome for support staff here.

For teachers, psychologists, education support specialists, and school leaders, outcomes include pay rises averaging 8.75%–9.01%, reproductive leave, additional family and domestic violence leave, personal impact days, caps on after-school meeting hours, and stronger workload protections. Read more here.

These outcomes matter because they help set the industry standard in Tasmania - but in Catholic education we have our own fight to win. Staff deserve fair pay, manageable workloads, safe workplaces and conditions that properly recognise the work they do every day and they need to have these improved conditions and better pay arrangements in place in the shortest possible time frame.

The strength of our bargaining position depends on members staying informed, involved and united. Please keep the conversation going in your workplace, encourage your colleagues to join you in the IEU, and keep an eye out for further bargaining updates as negotiations progress.