Strathcona Girls Grammar teachers to take action over workload, pay disputes

Teachers from elite private school Strathcona Girls Grammar will begin industrial action next week amid stalled talks about working hours and pay.

From next week, teachers at Strathcona Girls’ Grammar will refuse to attend assemblies, wear union T-shirts at work and put industrial campaign messages on their emails.

Three quarters of the prestigious school’s staff, including 100 teachers and a dozen teaching assistants will begin industrial action next Tuesday amid stalled talks about working hours and pay, the Herald Sun can reveal.

Independent Education Union (IEU) members at Strathcona voted 98 per cent in favour of taking industrial action as they negotiate a new enterprise agreement, with full-day strike action still a possibility. The union members voted on Wednesday to escalate industrial action if needed from term two.

External view of Strathcona Girls Grammar. Picture: Supplied

The school and union members have been in talks for the past six months, but outstanding issues include enforceable limits to scheduled teaching time, protection of time for preparation and marking, salaries and the right to access arbitration in the case of a workplace dispute.

IEU general secretary David Brear said: “Workload limits are critical to the sustainability of the work educators do — so, of course, they need to be expressed in an enforceable Agreement rather than being relegated to policies that can be changed by the employer on a whim.”

“Strathcona is a high fee school but the wage offer on the table just doesn’t cut it for staff living through a cost of living crisis. The IEU has already won significant wage increases for staff in several independent schools and we will be campaigning hard for significant uplift to salaries across non-government education in 2026 and beyond.”

The school has been contacted for comment.

The current Strathcona Girls’ Grammar agreement expired on January 31, 2025 and required teachers to be at school for 195 days a year, with teachers paid between $109,000 and $126,000 after 11 years. Beginning teachers are paid $84,000, and teachers with positions of responsibility receive additional loadings of up to $20,000.

Strathcona Girls Grammar school principal Lorna Beegan. Picture: Supplied

Unlike similar agreements at other private schools, it doesn’t set limits on scheduled teaching and preparation time.

The dispute comes as some of Victoria’s most prestigious private schools are facing increased pressure to give teachers workload relief after Catholic sector educators received a reduction in teaching time of one hour a week in 2023 and half an hour in 2024.

Meetings before and after school were also limited to no more than two hours a week under the recent Catholic agreement.

Strathcona Girls’ Grammar’s principal Lorna Beegan told the Herald Sun last week the school “is in the process of negotiating an enterprise bargaining agreement and this is a part of the process”.

“We are working collaboratively to reach a fair and balanced outcome that benefits both our staff and the broader school community,” she said.

Only a small number of high-fee private schools have voted to take industrial action in recent years, including Xavier College and Scotch College.

Xavier College staff voted on action including not attending Saturday sport and issuing detentions through to a 24-hour stoppage over workload negotiations in 2023.

Scotch College staff were also unhappy with a stalled pay deal back in 2024, leading to threats of industrial action.

Strathcona Girls’ Grammar’s latest financial report shows the school made a loss of $4000 in 2023 from a total income of $31m. It paid ten executive personnel a total of $2.2m. Its year 12 fees are nearly $40,000 annually.

Originally published as Strathcona Girls Grammar teachers to take action over workload, pay disputes