Catholic school teachers told to limit work amid pay dispute

About 25,000 Victorian Catholic school teachers have been told not to attend camps or school concerts next term as a pay dispute heats up.

The union has told Catholic school teachers to cut back on unpaid work as a pay dispute heats up.

About 25,000 Catholic school staff will not speak to parents outside school hours, combine classes or attend concerts or school camps next term.

Members of the Independent Education Union at more than 350 schools are refusing to do

“freebie” unpaid work in term four as their pay dispute heats up.

The union is calling on teachers to refuse to do any extra work such as covering additional classes when staff are sick, attending non-critical out-of-hours activities, or answering emails or calls from parents out of hours.

Staff will not turn up to work early or stay beyond their last class, will refuse to breach class-size limits and not wait around after class to chat to parents.

The union has been mired in protracted negotiations with Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) and those from the Ballarat and Sandhurst Dioceses.

Sale Diocese schools and government schools have already signed a new industrial agreement giving teachers pay rises and time in lieu for overtime, among other key conditions.

As the Herald Sun revealed recently, Catholic staff pay and conditions lag behind many other private schools, with a gap for leading teachers of up to $40,000.

An email to affected staff from the union’s general secretary Deb James notes that they “are left with no option but to show them what schools look like without staff constantly going the extra mile”.

“In practice, this means you do the work that you are legally required to do, and no more,” she says.

“No ‘voluntary but encouraged’ attendance at information nights, concerts, fetes or mass.

“No to overtime requests. No to ‘I know you’re busy, but would you mind just…’”.

Ms James said it “beggars belief that Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools are still holding out on basic, urgently-needed improvements to workloads and consultation that were agreed months ago across government education and in Catholic schools in the Diocese of Sale.

“At a time when schools should be doing everything they can to attract and retain staff, they seem determined to turn their own schools into second-rate workplace,” she said.

The Catholic dioceses have been given two weeks to come up with a better offer and avoid the industrial action.

Catholic Education Commission Victoria executive director Jim Miles said the Catholic employers are “committed to negotiating in good faith in a responsible and transparent process”.

“We want to formalise agreed outcomes regarding pay and other working conditions as soon as possible,” he said.

“We aim to allocate resources in ways that deliver the best outcomes for students and families while fairly and responsibly rewarding our staff.

“A number of commitments, particularly regarding teacher workload reduction, consistent with the improvements made in the Victorian Government Schools Agreement, have already been made,” Mr Miles said.