Union Win! Catholic Employers agree to an interim 3% pay increase
Back in September, IEU(SA) Branch Secretary, Tim Oosterbaan wrote to Catholic Education SA Director Neil McGoran about enacting a 3% salary increase. A response was received that this request would need to be taken to the 16 employers for endorsement. After a period of 8 weeks we were notified of a positive response and a joint statement was developed. After some minor changes (they tried to take credit for initiating the request) the joint letter was sent to all Catholic school employees.
As many would know the next two Catholic EA increases are set to match the Government schools wage outcome, currently being negotiated by the AEU. With the government counter offer back in September being 3%, it made sense that this 3% could be passed onto staff.
So from the first full pay period after 1 December Teachers and support staff employed in Catholic schools will get a 3% salary increase. Any future increase and back pay to 1 May (when the increase was due) will occur once the Government and the AEU agreement is in place.
You may have seen our IEU(SA) Organisers out in schools, meeting with Reps and active members. Catholic school negotiations will commence in the first half of next year. We have developed a series of flyers to highlight that Catholic Teacher and Support Staff are the lowest paid teachers in the country. Incidentally, this 3% increase just surpasses Tasmanian Catholic school teachers, but they have been bargaining for around 2 years, so they will almost certainly overtake SA Catholic school teachers.
SA Catholic school teachers are also some of the hardest working. When you compare 2024 Student Contact Time to Victorian Catholics you find that SA Catholic school Primary teachers have 2 hours more lessons per week, which equates to 80 hours a year, or 3½ more weeks of work. When you compare Catholic Secondary teachers it is even worse: 3 hours per week, 120 hours per year or 5½ weeks extra work.
If you work in a Catholic school, here are 3 things that you should do now:
- Talk to your rep about the flyers and getting one of our organisers to visit
- If you don’t have a rep consider putting your hand up
- Talk to a colleague about why you are a member and ask them to join – go to ieusa.org.au/join-the-ieusa
We know that when negotiations start the number of members and the level of activity at branches is crucial in getting a good outcome.
We just need to look at the great workload outcome in Victorian Catholic schools or the fantastic salary outcome in NSW Catholic schools to see that when IEU members stand together we get better outcomes.
We hope that this pay increase goes some way to alleviate the cost of living pressures, but we know that it is not enough.
