Catholic teachers strike looming after staff say they were ‘insulted’

FAMILIES of up to 260,000 students face chaos as Catholic schools are threatened with rolling strikes by teachers and support staff furious at a “direct threat to their wages, conditions and job security”.

Up to 260,000 Catholic students will be affected by the teachers’ strike

Teachers at more than 220 schools have already indicated support for industrial action as early as this term in protest against a proposed new enterprise agreement, but up to 570 schools in 11 dioceses could ­become involved.

Catholic staff said they were “insulted” by plans to abolish senior positions in schools, strip away conditions, reduce sick leave, increase hours of face-to-face teaching and ­remove caps on class sizes.

Independent Education Union secretary John Quessy yesterday said legal ballots would be held under the eye of the Australian Electoral Commission before action was launched in “terms two, three and four”.

He said they would be the first strikes in Catholic schools since the 90s but the “unprecedented assault on members’ salaries, conditions and job ­security” left no alternative.

“New teachers will be stuck on no pay rise for two years, and new support staff could be paid $6000 to $17,000 less than at present,” he said.

“There will be no winners in this; they (the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations) have said no to everything.”

The union has filed a claim for a 5 per cent pay rise but the proposed enterprise agreement says long-term funding for Catholic schools is “uncertain” with the amount available for each student running at about 10 per cent less than in government schools.

“In this context the importance of finding more efficient and equitable ways to manage our resources remains of critical importance,” the agreement document says.

Mr Quessy said: “There is no question stopwork action will be taken, starting later this term. It could become a long and drawn-out campaign.

“Principals appear not to have been consulted about such significant changes to their work and workloads.”

Executive director of the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations executive director Tony Farley said yesterday he understood teachers were not happy but no changes would occur unless staff voted for them.

Mr Farley said the proposed agreement was just the “start of a conversation” and formal negotiations were expected to start next week.to be held after Friday this week.

Mr Farley said Executive director of the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations executive director Tony Farley yesterday said he understood teachers were not happy but no changes would occur unless staff voted for them. He said the planned agreement was just the “start of a conversation” and formal negotiations would begin next week.to be held after Friday this week.

Current industrial relations practices had been in place for 30 or 40 years but the work environment had changed through technology.

, he said“There is no hard and fast approach by the employers. Everything will be on the table for discussion,” he said.

Employers would continue to referencede the the public sector when setting pay rates and that would not change.

“We want to be really transparent and we do not want to alarm people.”