Are you negotiating an EBA in your school? Check out our Better Bargaining Workshop

Help build union power and influence in a school before we commence EBA negotiations so that we can win more for members.

The IEU has over 120 Enterprise Bargaining Agreements in place in independent schools across Victoria and Tasmania, and our best outcomes are achieved when we have a large, active, and engaged IEU sub-branch in a school.

The aim of the IEU Better Bargaining Workshop is to help build sub-branches to be just that. We want to purposefully build union power and influence in a school before we commence EBA negotiations so that we can win more for members.   

Employers commence negotiations with the issuing of the Notice of Representational Rights, which gives staff the opportunity to nominate themselves or someone else as a Bargaining Representative. The IEU is the default Bargaining Representative for union members, and we usually start by building a team of members to work with the IEU Organiser to advocate on behalf of the sub-branch. 

The Better Bargaining Workshop provides Bargaining Representatives with a snapshot of the legal framework under which EBA negotiations take place. It covers the principles of Good Faith Bargaining, the interaction between Awards, the National Employment Standards and EBAs and basic negotiation skills such as interactive listening, framing and effective questioning. 

The most effective preparation for negotiating a great EBA takes place well before the first meeting with the employer.  

When the IEU team sits down to commence talks it needs to be clear to the employer that every staff member in that school knows that the negotiations are taking place – and that they care about the outcome. The IEU needs to know the keenest concerns of every employee group of staff and ensure that every group has a voice in the negotiations. That means teachers, admin, techs, grounds and maintenance, learning support – everyone who is to be covered by a proposed EBA – is on board and committed to working with the IEU to get a good outcome. 

One key role of the Bargaining Rep is to reach out and engage staff in the process. It’s particularly important to use bargaining as an opportunity to sign colleagues up to the IEU, so that when we sit down to commence negotiations it is clear that we speak for the majority of staff and that the issues we are raising are real and heartfelt. 

The IEU ran a Better Bargaining workshop early in Term 2, and more are scheduled for later this year. IEU Organisers can also run the Workshop at individual schools – contact us for details.

This article was originally published in The Point, V1, No2, 2021.