Victorian public school staff move toward industrial action IEU members are denied

The Victorian Branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU) has applied to the Fair Work Commission to conduct a ballot of members to endorse protected industrial action, including stopping work. 

This means teachers, education support staff and principals in Victorian state schools may soon be able to take industrial action to pursue pay increases, while their IEU colleagues in Victorian Catholic schools are denied access to the same tools in negotiations with their employers. 

In 2025, a majority of staff in Victorian Catholic schools signed official Statements of Support for a Single Interest Authorisation, which would grant IEU members the same fundamental rights AEU members could be exercising within weeks. 

Without a Single Interest Authorisation, the IEU cannot take protected industrial action. This means we negotiate without the single most important bargaining chip — the right for workers to withdraw labour without fear of punishment. 

The IEU’s application for a Single Interest Authorisation is now before the Fair Work Commission, and its lists of Statements of Support will shortly be confidentially verified by an accredited independent balloting agent. 

Victorian Catholic employers now face a choice: they can continue to drag out this process and undermine goodwill across the sector, or they can make a fresh start, accept the clear will of staff, and commence good-faith negotiations for a Single Interest Agreement immediately. 

The IEU will continue to urge employers to support the SIA, the common-sense way to expedite negotiations. But we have also prepared for a drawn-out process if that is the path employers choose. To that end, the union is working with Reps across the state to build the size and strength of sub-branches in every workplace.  

IEU General Secretary David Brear welcomed members back to school, setting the stage for the next step in the campaign for a fair deal for staff in Victorian Catholic schools. 

“We finished 2025 with an extraordinary achievement: together, we secured majority support for fair bargaining across Victorian Catholic education, despite sustained efforts by employers to undermine our campaign and deny staff basic bargaining rights. Thank you again for your enormous work last year — this was a defining moment in an unprecedented campaign. 

“The start of the school year is a crucial opportunity to grow the size and strength of our sub-branches in every workplace — and it has never mattered more. Everyone at the IEU Office looks forward to working with members this year to deliver the outcomes you deserve through our historic campaign.” 

In 2013, the IEU and AEU took joint protected industrial action to achieve historic improvements to wages and conditions.

Wage disparities 

Like IEU members in Victorian Catholic schools, AEU members face serious wage disparities with other states. 

The AEU says: “By October 2026 teachers will be earning as much as $15,359 a year ($295 per week) less than their NSW counterparts, a classroom-based education support employee starting out would be 10.5% behind, and a Victorian school principal new to the role would start $27,841, or 18%, behind.” 

The situation is familiar to IEU members in Victorian Catholic schools, whose salaries now lag well behind those in other states. 

Australian Education Union Victorian Branch President Justin Mullaly said Victorian public school teachers, principals and education support staff were being “disrespected and undervalued”.  

“Public school staff should go into the 2026 school year feeling supported and valued. Instead, they feel abandoned and underappreciated. 

“And as the chronic shortage of school staff continues into 2026, the Premier and Education Minister ought to know that Victorian students are set up for success when their teachers, principals and education support staff are supported to stay in the profession.” 

We wholeheartedly support our colleagues in the public sector. IEU members are continuing to fight for the right to access the fundamental bargaining tools that our colleagues in government schools are planning to use in their campaign for better pay and workloads.