On 17 October, we urge you to SAY NO to the employer “offer” in its survey. Demand fair bargaining, a real pay rise in line with national standards, and the retention of essential conditions and tell your employer that you want a single interest authorisation (SIA).

SAY NO to the employers’ “offer”
SIGN UP for the SIA statement of support
SHARE information with colleagues

Already signed the statement of support for the SIA? Spread the word and get your colleagues to sign. Every signature strengthens our push to win an SIA and bargain on terms fair to staff.

Employers have rushed their survey, bringing it forward from the 20th to the 17th of October. They are desperate to push their sugar-hit sign-on bonus bribe before staff have the chance to fully understand the consequences of the proposal.

If workers know the facts about how their employer wants to shortchange them and wind back their conditions, they’ll sign the statement of support and ensure a fair bargaining process with genuine benefits for staff.

The employer ploy is:

Cynical: It’s a short-term sugar hit designed to divide staff and avoid bargaining.
Poor on pay: Leaves us behind NSW colleagues and entrenches disparity
Backsliding: Ignores or winds back workload, entitlements, safety and wellbeing.

Staff should:

Stay strong: We need all staff in Catholic education who can to sign statements of support for a Single Interest Authorisation (SIA) now more than ever.
Staff have spoken: Huge numbers have signed the Statement of Support, with majority support already achieved at several employers, and we're on pace to shortly achieve this at many more.
More to come: All staff are invited to attend a briefing on the IEU’s claims, the employers’ so-called “offer” and the campaign for an SIA online Thursday 16 October.

In short, the VCEA wants to:

Lock in below-standard pay
Strip back conditions
Ignore wellbeing and safety
Deny fair bargaining rights.

IEU advice on the employer ‘survey’:

Employers are surveying staff on their proposal from the 17th of October, and are trying to coerce staff via an illegitimate process to circumvent bargaining. If you answer the survey and support the right of staff to fair bargaining, we urge you to say "NO" and send the message that:

Their cynical "offer" falls short in every way.
You want an SIA to ensure fair negotiations.

If the employers get their way, they will lock in a substandard non-union agreement, having evaded bargaining with the union. It will be a take it or leave it set of pay and conditions dictated by bosses.

What’s wrong with the employers’ so-called “offer”

Entrenches interstate pay disparity, leaving us thousands of dollars behind our NSW counterparts
Fails to guarantee parity with government school classification scale improvements
Cuts Education Support Staff leave arrangements
Enforces stricter attendance hours for teachers, and deducts personal leave even when teachers are not on scheduled duties
Does nothing to improve Time in Lieu arrangements
Fails to address career-limiting Education Support Staff salary classifications
Neglects key conditions needing urgent improvements: workload, safety and wellbeing
Is falsely presented as a ‘first and final offer’ instead of being negotiated with staff.

The details

PAY

The employer’s offer locks Catholic staff into four more years of lower pay than NSW colleagues.
Their so-called “matching” clause has loopholes and won’t ensure parity with Victorian government schools.
The IEU log calls for 37% over three years – in line with what public school unions are demanding.
AEU has claimed 35% plus structural adjustments, not just percentages. Catholic staff deserve no less.
A 7% increase won’t come close to fixing real wage losses since 2020 with cost-of-living still biting hard.
Leave, allowances, and conditions also matter – and employers are offering no detail on them.

EDUCATION SUPPORT STAFF

The employer proposal ignores Level 2 ES, disregarding a huge and growing staff cohort crucial to every school. There are also concerns about attendance for Category B ES and shut-down arrangements for Category A. End of “shutdown” periods would force ESS to use annual leave.

HIDDEN CUTS TO EXISTING CONDITIONS

The VCEA’s “information sheet” endangers the following hard-won work conditions, amongst others:

Teacher attendance: removal of the right to leave when not required, reintroducing rigid attendance.
Time in lieu: reduced certainty and access, with employers gaining more discretion.
Specialist and special assistance schools: removal of meeting caps and increased workloads.
Annual leave: loss of entitlements, forced use during shutdowns, and cuts to leave loading.
Personal leave: deductions based on total attendance hours instead of teaching time, reducing its value. No improvements to existing leave provisions.

WORKLOAD, SAFETY, WELLBEING

The VCEA is ignoring the most pressing issues facing staff, despite an escalating teacher shortage and widespread stress, safety, and mental health concerns. It contains nothing to reduce workload, address administrative burdens such as NCCD reporting, or protect staff dealing with complex and unsafe behaviours. There is no recognition of the mental health crisis in education, leaving staff without support on the issues burning them out, and causing a teacher shortage crisis.

AUTHORITARIANISM

The so-called “offer” sent to staff by the VCEA is not the result of bargaining. It’s a reactive move to the IEU’s growing campaign for an SIA – the fair process that would finally give Catholic school staff proper bargaining rights.

Employers are refusing to bargain under an SIA, meaning staff in Victoria still don’t have access to good-faith bargaining or protected industrial action, rights every other Catholic education employee in Australia already has.

The IEU Log of Claims

The union’s democratically endorsed Log of Claims represents what members said must change and directly addresses the issues the VCEA ignores.

Key claims include:

WAGES AND RECOGNITION

37% total pay rise over three years (#1)
$5,000 lump-sum payment (#2)
$3,000 wellbeing allowance (#15)
Fair ES classification structures (#18)

SUPPORT, SAFETY AND LEAVE

20 days personal leave, 10 without evidence (#53)
Six weeks annual leave for all (#54)
32 weeks paid parental leave (#65)
Safety processes for complex student behaviours (#46)

WORKLOAD AND WELLBEING

Class size reductions with loadings (ie. Students with additional needs count as 2 students) (#76)
Stronger overtime and TIL provisions (#82)
Fair conduct management (#33)

These democratically devised claims are what genuine reform looks like.

The VCEA’s so-called offer, pretending to benefit staff, is all about wage stagnation and clawbacks.

Sign your Statement of Support today and get colleagues to join you

Victorian Catholic school staff should say no to the VCEA’s so-called “offer”