Subject: Campaign update and invitation to join your union – the IEU

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Dear Colleagues, 

The IEU negotiating team and Catholic employers continue to meet. The IEU’s aim is to secure a new Agreement as soon as possible, with well-deserved wage increases, no erosion of existing conditions, and improvements to key entitlements including time in lieu and the 30+8 provisions. 

The union has already made the imperatives of staff clear to Catholic employers, and we are actively seeking the employers’ timely response with a fairer offer. Catholic employers still have substantial work to do. The employers are yet to provide their proposed redrafting of redundancy, parental leave and long service leave provisions, and they continue to resist improvements on other key issues. 

The outcome in government schools has delivered historic salary increases and major improvements to conditions that are also badly needed in Catholic schools. In previous rounds of bargaining, however, Catholic education staff have waited a year or more after government schools to secure their own Agreement. 

We want to make this time different. So even as the IEU continues to negotiate with employers, we are also maintaining our Single Interest Authorisation campaign in pursuit of fairer bargaining rights. The strength of the SIA campaign is being felt by the employers at the bargaining table. 

Our employer is one of the 24 employers currently in the IEU’s SIA application before the Fair Work Commission. We’re still waiting for the Commission’s decision - but this nationally significant case could be decided at any time. 

If the SIA is granted, but employers still have no offer that employees have voted up, these 24 employers will enter the single-interest bargaining framework. Members and our union will gain access to stronger industrial rights, including the ability to seek good-faith bargaining orders and, if needed, ballot for protected industrial action. 

Getting to this point has required an enormous collective effort from Catholic education staff. While there isn’t a further Petition ask for staff at our employer right now, there is every reason to stay informed, stay involved and stay ready for the next stage of the campaign. 

The IEU is determined to secure a fair deal as quickly as possible, without sacrificing the key improvements members need. If employers make an acceptable offer in a timely manner, that will be a win delivered by members’ organising. If they do not, we must be ready to pursue a fairer offer with the bargaining rights available under a SIA. 

Not yet an IEU member? Join the IEU to strengthen the collective power behind this campaign and have a direct voice in what happens next. 

In unity 

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