Tasmanian Catholic Education Agreement drafted and ready for the vote!
UPDATE 5 DEC: the TCEO has now indicated that it is unlikely to be ready to commence the Access Period this year, which means the ballot will most likely occur at the start of Term 1, 2025. We are currently in discussion about which of the agreed provisions can be introduced early as a sign of good faith. We will update members when these matters are confirmed.
After a series of meetings in late November with Catholic Education Tasmania, drafting of the proposed Tasmanian Catholic Agreement has now at last been finalised.
We have been advised by the employer that they intend to circulate the draft Agreement to all employees in early December, signalling the commencement of what is called the Formal Access Period. During this time, the employer must facilitate information sessions in every school to ensure that all employees are familiar with the provisions of the proposed Agreement and can cast an informed vote.
The employee ballot will commence no less than 7 days after the circulation of the proposed Agreement, and if it is supported by a majority of employees, it will be sent to the Fair Work Commission for review and approval after which it becomes legally enforceable.
If this timetable holds, we expect the vote on the new Agreement to commence in mid-December.
As you know, the wins in this proposed Agreement were not handed to us on a platter – they were fought for in a long campaign by IEU members right across Tasmania. We encourage you to remind your non-member colleagues of this and to invite them to join you in your union.
Keep the conversation going. Let’s get this hard-fought Agreement endorsed so that improvements to salaries and conditions can flow through to employees, and let’s grow our union so we can keep winning into the future!
We congratulate all IEU members employed in Tasmanian Catholic education you their efforts to improve workplaces for the benefit of staff and students!
A look back at the campaign…
It took information ‘blitzes’ of schools, a submission to the Fair Work Commission for a protected action ballot order, widespread media engagement, and repeated member actions, but in early September, in-principle agreement was finally reached on a deal for staff in Tasmanian Catholic schools.
It was industrial action – and the threat of it – that finally moved employers to drop contentious claims, and end their resistance to badly-needed improvements in conditions, after three years of delayed negotiations.
It had been ten years since industrial action had occurred in Tasmanian Catholic schools – and in 2024, winning the right to take protected industrial action is a lengthy, complex and technical process.
In August, members resoundingly supported all 18 potential industrial actions proposed in the protected action ballot, with over 80 per cent support for every potential action, and six receiving over 90 per cent backing. This result meant members had the option of everything from partial work-bans limiting email responses all the way up to stop-work action or full-day strikes. Importantly, it also sent an extraordinarily powerful message to employers.
Members were most resistant to the employer’s claim for the forced transfer of staff up to 65 km from their homes, and sought teacher workload reductions and pay parity with government schools.
What’s in the deal?
✅ No forced transfers between schools under this Agreement
✅ Low income payments
$1000 payment will be made in March 2025 to most school support employees and teachers at or below Level 4 (pro-rata for part-time employees)
✅ Pay parity
Nexus with government school salaries maintained and further 3% increase in 2025
✅ Teacher workload reductions
Primary teacher maximum face-to-face teaching time to reduce over the life of the Agreement from 22 to 21 hours per week
Secondary teacher maximum non-teaching duties reduced from 5 to 4 hours per week (from mid-2025)
✅ Improved parental leave
Paid primary carer leave increased to 18 weeks; paid partner leave increased to 4 weeks
Superannuation payments made on first year of maternity leave
10 days’ paid foster carer leave
✅ Improved teacher classification progression
Removal of current pay progression caps for teachers without full registration
Four-year trained teachers to commence at Level 5
✅ Job security
Inclusion of redundancy pay schedule
✅ Leave improvements
Paid family violence leave increased to 20 days
3 days’ paid cultural leave for First Nations employees
✅ Increased meal and first aid allowances
How we got there
Blitzes
In 2023 and again early in 2024, IEU staff visited Tasmanian Catholic schools, trying to reach as many members as possible, and improve the chances of further recruitment. This, combined with ongoing efforts from Reps, Organisers, and members, saw IEU membership in Tasmanian Catholic schools rise by 18 per cent in 2024.
In March, IEU staff visited Catholic schools all over the state, updating staff on the state of bargaining and hearing their concerns about their workloads, conditions and pay. One of the key issues for staff was the lack of parity between the Catholic sector and government schools on parental leave – later fixed in the in-principle agreement.
To fight the TCEO’s retrograde, last minute claims, staff made collective commitments unique to each school. Some agreed that all staff would wear “2 years, too long” campaign badges for a week. Some committed to meet as a group with banners at the school gates and march in together, others to wear IEU merchandise on inter-school faith days, at school dinners and at parent-teacher interviews.
IEU badges and stickers flew off the tables and ‘2 years, too long’ cookies were popular conversation starters.
Staff survey
In July, a staff survey in Tasmanian Catholic schools revealed just how disillusioned staff were at continued delays in negotiations on their long overdue Agreement.
“I'm disheartened by the lack of empathy and compassion from my employer. It makes me wonder if they remember we are real people,” one member wrote, speaking for many.
“Losing faith with employer. We’re just a number to them. I now realise that,” was one comment that captured the prevailing sentiment.
“The survey results show that CET is losing goodwill by delaying the Agreement with anti-worker claims such as the forced transfer of staff over 65 km from their homes,” the union reported.
Many members said they were at the end of their tether and considering leaving the sector; others expressed concern at the parental leave disparity, the treatment of Teacher Assistants and how low-income payments were being paid in state schools but not in the Catholic sector.
Tasmanian Catholic Education bargaining timeline
15 February 2022
Following extensive member consultation, the Independent Education Union provides a Log of Claims to the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office Bargaining Team.
15 March
The IEU meets with the TCEO and explains our log of claims in detail.
23 May
The employers issue the Notice of Employee Representational Rights.
15 June
The IEU emails the TCEO seeking date for a bargaining meeting.
The TCEO fails to respond and continues to refuse to meet with the IEU in person. The TCEO claims it is consulting directly with staff through a ‘portal’ but cannot satisfactorily explain how this ‘consultation’ will operate.
8 August
The IEU makes an application to the Fair Work Commission for good faith bargaining orders. This forces a commitment from the TCEO to meet with us on three scheduled dates, including at least once in person.
6 + 26 October
The parties meet online. Limited progress.
7 December
The TCEO meets in person with IEU bargaining representatives at their lawyer’s office in Melbourne
Early 2023
Thanks to a change of personnel on the TCEO bargaining team, regular in-person meetings resume - however, progress is far too slow, with the employers apparently determined to undercut conditions in government schools.
Mid-2023
The TCEO continues to resist crucial workload-busting measures that would bring Catholic schools closer into line with Tasmanian Government schools. Astonishingly, they also table unacceptable new claims - 18 months into negotiations - to extend the working year and allow the forcible relocation of staff between schools.
November
IEU Reps from Catholic schools meet and determine to commence member campaigning in Term 1 2024 if employer representatives continue to fail to bring an acceptable position to the bargaining table.
March 2024
‘Campaign Blitz Week’ sees dozens of schools committing to take action to build awareness of the bargaining impasse and to put pressure on employers to revise their position.
July
There have been four meetings with the TCEO since March and there is some progress. However, many of our claims are still in discussion and awaiting formal response. A member survey reveals the depth of dissatisfaction amongst members at employer intransigence.
August
The IEU meets with Catholic Education Tasmania for a full day of bargaining negotiations and IEU members’ endorsement of the PABO results in real shift at the table. The deal isn’t done but agreement is closer around some key issues.
Anna Stewart Memorial Project participants in Hobart join the campaign, making banners and placards and conducting an action on the streets. Their enthusiasm provided the campaign with a major fillip and percolated a lot of ideas back through school sub-branches.
IEU members begin to undertake industrial action in the form of partial work bans.
The IEU meets again with employers and the parties reach in-principle Agreement on the key issues most important to IEU members.
September / October
Ongoing work on drafting & clarification between the IEU and the TCEO.
December
Drafting finalised! Access Period to commence in the first week of December, with an agreed aim of holiding and all-staff ballot by the end of the school term.
If the ballot is successful, the draft Agreement will then be submitted to the Fair Work Commission - once approved it will at long last come into binding legal effect.