IEU General Secretary on the Victorian Catholic Agreement: Pay, workload, wellbeing

While pay rises and workload alleviation remain major priorities for Victorian Catholic school staff – whose salaries now trail those in other states – a recent IEU survey reveals that staff wellbeing is just as urgent an issue.

Over 83% of respondents said their health had been affected by work in the past year, with 22% reporting serious psychological injury and 63% taking personal leave to cope. These figures are alarming, but come as no surprise to the union, which has long pushed for staff safety and wellbeing to be taken seriously across all schools. Aggressive behaviour from students and parents and excessive administrative demands are placing an unsustainable burden on educators. Member feedback on these issues will play a key role in shaping our Log of Claims in the Catholic sector and will inform negotiations across all IEU schools.

Pay is a simple topic. We know that wages have taken off across Australia over the past couple of years and we need to catch up. Just to match the outcomes won by education union members in NSW, we need to secure an initial pay rise of over 10%.

We also know that Education Support staff are performing increasingly complex roles, but the current classification structure makes it hard for them to access pay levels that fairly reflect their work.

Principals and deputy principals are also dealing with unprecedented workloads, but it’s less well understood that they’re also on limited tenure contracts and can face limited career opportunities at the end of these contracts.

All these staff groups need further refinement of workload measures to improve their working conditions. The last Agreement made important gains – abolishing extras in secondary schools, reducing face-to-face teaching by 1.5 hours per week, and introducing time in lieu and the 30 + 8 models

Survey results and follow-up focus groups indicate that reduced face-to-face teaching and properly implemented TIL and 30+8 models have positive effects. However, this is far from the case in every Victorian Catholic school.

The survey pointed out that the ‘big three’ topics – pay, workloads and staff wellbeing – are inter-related, and all of them must be addressed in the new deal. The message was clear: members need significant wage increases AND stronger, clearer workload protections AND meaningful action on worker safety. None of those topics can be addressed in isolation from the others.

Survey data from the Term 2 edition of The Point

Agreement process starts on a sour note

Earlier this year we wrote to the CEO of the Victorian Catholic Education Authority requesting they make an application for a Single Interest Authorisation (SIA) under the provisions of the Fair Work Act. They declined, saying they preferred to bargain through what’s known as the ‘cooperative’ stream. By refusing to apply for a SIA, employers in the Victorian Catholic sector signalled that they wish to continue the delaying tactics which needlessly marred previous negotiations.

Without a SIA we are barred from taking lawful protected industrial action and so would be going into negotiations with one hand tied behind our backs.

That’s not to say we will take industrial action – but it’s important that we can. IEU members at Strathcona recently reminded us just how powerful industrial action can be in securing a fair deal, and we’re committed to ensuring that members in Catholic schools have that same right.

The good news is that, with the re-election of the Albanese government, our right under the Fair Work Act to apply for a Single Interest Authorisation ourselves remains intact – so if the employers stick to their position, that’s exactly what we’ll do.

As it stands, over 80% of members who responded to our survey said they’re prepared to take industrial action in support of negotiations.

Survey data from the Term 2 edition of The Point

What happens next

We aim to have the draft Log of Claims in schools during the first week of Term 3, giving members the opportunity to provide further feedback. A special meeting of IEU Reps from Catholic schools will then be held around mid-Term 3 to endorse the final claim.

As always during major campaigns, we’ll need to ‘walk and chew gum at the same time’ – building the strength needed to win in Catholic negotiations while continuing our vital work elsewhere.

This year, we’re seeing great results in the independent sector, with more schools at the bargaining table and members increasingly rejecting subpar deals – a trend you can read more about in this edition.

Believe it or not, the Tasmanian Catholic Agreement expires in mid-2026! So while we’re still working to embed the gains from the last Agreement, we’ll be kicking off preparations for the next round of negotiations with Reps and members.

It feels like it was yesterday when industrial action by members in Tasmania forced an outcome on the employer there – an important lesson for everyone on the power of the IEU and what it takes to win.

Any major campaign the IEU runs offers precious lessons that can be applied more broadly. That’s what makes the Victorian Catholic survey so significant – with over 3,000 responses and 70,000 words of comments, it’s an incredibly rich resource. This edition of The Point dives into those insights to help every IEU member, in every sector, achieve the best possible outcome in their workplace.

Poster first appeared in the Term 2 edition of The Point