SIA Application: The Fair Work Commission’s assessment of the IEU’s Single Interest Application, backed by thousands of staff through official statements of support last year, has been repeatedly delayed by employers. They initially submitted wildly inaccurate data and then sought extensions, claiming difficulty assembling basic records such as payroll listings. 

Meetings with the VCEA: The IEU and the VCEA are meeting, but progress has been extremely limited. The IEU has detailed and argued for every point in the democratically-developed Log of Claims – however employers have been extremely slow in response, and have cancelled almost every bargaining meeting scheduled for March and April. 

AEU: In the state sector, bargaining between the Victorian government and the AEU is continuing at a faster pace, but remains unresolved, with further industrial planned across Term 2. The AEU has flagged a new phase of targeted regional actions, including work bans. Outcomes in the state sector remain critical to bargaining elsewhere, including the Catholic sector, where pay parity has been a benchmark since it was secured by the IEU in 1997. 

Term 2 campaign actions: IEU members will ramp up our campaign with a number of actions. See below for more details. 

This term, we’re stepping up our campaign. While the legal fight for fair bargaining through a Single Interest Authorisation continues, the most important thing we can do is show employers that members are united and won’t accept second-rate rights, conditions or salaries. 

Across the state, IEU members are taking action on multiple fronts throughout Term 2. Each sub-branch will choose the lawful actions best suited to them, from speaking out and gathering at school gates to showing visible solidarity in union colours. 

Beyond the school gate, we’re taking our message straight to parents, Catholic leaders and local MPs. We’ll make it clear: it’s time for employers to agree to an SIA so real, fair bargaining can occur, achieving the outcomes that members deserve. 

And we won’t do it alone. Through mass online briefings, regional meetings, training, media engagement, and stronger connections between workplaces, we’re building collective power to increase pressure on employers. 

Full details about how to participate in our term of action, including resources to assist you, are on this webpage below these FAQ. 

There are many ways to get involved, including: 

• participating in school or regional actions 

• ‘Black Fridays’: wearing IEU colours or badges 

• attending briefings and meetings 

• talking with colleagues about the campaign 

Activities must not interfere with your normal work duties. This means no stopping or delaying work, and no working differently in a way that restricts duties. 

Activities should take place outside work time or during breaks. If you are unsure, speak with your IEU Organiser. 

Wearing union gear is not industrial action, as long as you comply with workplace policies and lawful directions. 

Full details about how to participate in our term of action, including resources to assist you, are on this webpage below these FAQ. 

The IEU and the VCEA are meeting, but progress has been extremely limited. We attend only to put forward our claims for a single interest agreement covering the sector. 

The IEU bargaining team has outlined every item in the democratically-endorsed Log of Claims in detail, but since then the employer team has cancelled and postponed meeting after meeting. While meetings between the AEU and Victorian government continue at high frequency, the VCEA were unable to attend meetings in 6 weeks in March and April.  

This problem will be familiar to longer-serving staff – in every round of bargaining over the last two decades, employers have dragged the chain and delayed bargaining, either deliberately or through dysfunction and internal disagreement. This is one of the many reasons we need an SIA, which would grant us the right to seek a Good Faith Bargaining Order. 

Delays are not just frustrating. They are a feature of the employer approach to ‘co-operative’ bargaining in Victorian Catholic education over recent decades. 

Right now, there is no effective way to require employers to meet regularly, respond in a timely way, or engage meaningfully in negotiations. Talks continue without producing outcomes. 

This pattern has occurred in previous bargaining rounds as well, and highlights why we need an SIA. 

A Single Interest Authorisation would create a coordinated bargaining process across employers and introduce real accountability. For example, if one party keeps cancelling meetings, refuses to engage, or delays negotiations, the other party can apply to the Fair Work Commission for a Good Faith Bargaining Order.  

This means: 

• parties can be required to meet and participate 

• delays cannot continue without consequence 

• bargaining must proceed in a genuine and timely way 

Victorian Catholic employers refusal to adopt an SIA suggests a desire to maintain a system that disadvantages employees and slows progress.  

While employers claim to support timely negotiations, their refusal to support an SIA contradicts that position. The IEU also wants a prompt resolution—but not at the cost of the fundamental rights of our members. 

The SIA is not just about increasing pressure. It is about making bargaining function properly. 

The Fair Work Commission is currently considering the IEU’s application, which is supported by thousands of staff. Employers have delayed the process by submitting inaccurate data and seeking many weeks to produce that data for checking. 

Despite this, the core issue remains clear: employers already coordinate their approach across the sector, while staff are forced to bargain in a fragmented system. 

This allows employers to control the pace of negotiations, delay progress, and avoid pressure to reach agreement. 

An SIA would limit that control by introducing coordination, transparency and accountability. It creates a system where bargaining is expected to deliver outcomes, not just continue indefinitely. 

By refusing to consent to an SIA and attempting to bypass proper bargaining last year with their so-called “offer,” these employers have made clear they want to weaken staff to impose outcomes and minimise costs. Their approach reflects an outdated, hardline stance that prioritises money and control over working conditions, job satisfaction, and professional autonomy.  

Rather than engage in genuine negotiation, they seek to impose outcomes and avoid bargaining with staff who have the same recognised industrial rights as most workers in Australia. 

IEU members have endorsed a Log of Claims focused on practical, achievable improvements, including: 

• fair pay that more than keeps pace with the state sector 

• measures to address unsustainable workload 

• safer and more supportive workplaces 

• protection of conditions and professional autonomy 

These claims reflect the everyday experience of staff across the sector. They are reasonable and necessary, but we want a level playing field in order to negotiate them from a position of strength.  

The issue is not just what is being negotiated. It is whether the system can deliver outcomes at all. 

Right now, it cannot. 

The SIA campaign is about making sure bargaining leads to real improvements, not just more process. 

The AEU is escalating its campaign after limited progress in negotiations with the Victorian Government, including work bans and stopwork actions. 

Outcomes in the state sector have a big influence on Catholic sector bargaining, particularly on pay. 

Currently, Victorian Catholic education staff are the only major cohort of education workers in the country who are not allowed to take protected industrial action in pursuit of a new Agreement improving their wages and conditions. This is because our employers (unlike their counterparts in every other state and territory) insist on a form of bargaining that undermines the rights of workers.    

This refusal by employers to engage in fair bargaining has led IEU members to campaign to win a Single Interest Authorisation, which would enable Victorian Catholic education staff to access the same bargaining rights as their colleagues.   

In Term 4 2025, a majority of staff signed Statements of Support for fair bargaining rights, but employers continue to put up roadblocks in the Fair Work Commission to prevent their staff accessing these rights.  

Taking unprotected industrial action could put individual members at risk, and could jeopardise our case in the Fair Work Commission – so we need to ensure that sub-branch activities do not interfere with the usual work of your school, including by working differently to normal in a way that restricts or delays that work, stopping work, or not working altogether that day.    

Try outside of work hours or during break times for group activities. If in doubt, speak to your Organiser!  

You can wear a t-shirt or badge to work without risk of penalties, so long as you are complying with your workplace policies (including dress code policies) and any lawful and reasonable directions of your employer. Wearing a t-shirt or a badge is not in itself a form of industrial action. Industrial action includes working differently to normal in a way that restricts, limits or delays your work. 

Everyone has a role to play in promoting and supporting our campaign for fair bargaining rights and a new deal that improves your pay and conditions. 

This web page has a list of actions you and your sub-branch can take. Full details about how to participate in our term of action, including resources to assist you, are on this webpage below these FAQ. 

You can also: 

• encourage colleagues to join the IEU 

• support your Rep (or speak to your school’s Organiser if you don’t have one) 

• If your school doesn’t have a Rep, you can nominate to become one. This would give you increased protections under the Fair Work Act, including paid access to IEU training 

• take part in school-based or regional actions 

Stronger membership and visible collective action increase the pressure on employers to engage and reach agreement. 

If you have concerns about employer responses, the IEU can provide advice and support. 

Every conversation and every action helps move this campaign forward.