Two years, too long! The campaign for a Tasmanian Catholic Agreement ramps up
Overworked, frustrated Catholic educators in Tasmania are planning to take action to support their campaign for a fair deal, two years since the expiry of their last IEU-negotiated Agreement.
In the first year of negotiations, the IEU had to take employers to the Fair Work Commission just to force them to attend bargaining meetings. The second year started more productively, but it was seriously derailed when the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office introduced ridiculous new claims 18 months after bargaining started!
Rather than seeking to ensure that Tasmanian Catholic schools remain competitive with government schools, employers are digging in their heels over deeply unreasonable new claims such as the ability to forcibly transfer staff between schools and an increase to the number of days that teachers can be required to work. They also want to extend the period of notice that teachers have to provide on resignation and weaken vital hard-won clauses such as the scope of Consultative Committees, redundancy provisions and performance management procedures.
Dealing with these distractions has delayed discussion of the union’s important claims, which seek to ensure that the work of our members is properly valued and respected and that working conditions in Tasmanian Catholic schools do not fall behind those in government schools.
On the second anniversary of the tabling of the IEU Log of Claims, we asked a few members how they were feeling about the employer delays. Here are a few of our favourite responses:
“I don’t understand how genuine and sincere attempts at bargaining can take this long. It’s either incompetence or a deliberate attempt to not engage with their employees. How insulting.”
“If I was this slow at doing my job I would have been sacked by now.”
“If this goes on for much longer it will make the span between Olympic games look short.”
“I’ve built a house, got married and now having a child in the time it’s taken them to still have done nothing.”
IEU members at St Aloysius College are sick of waiting for a fair deal!
What is now very clear is that it’s time to turn up the pressure!
Late last year, the union held urgent meetings with Reps from around the state, who decided to escalate the campaign unless there was rapid progress at the bargaining table. Sessions in Hobart and Launceston received enthusiastic support from Reps fed up with the interminable delays – and also gained significant media attention.
A Campaign Strategy Meeting was held with Reps from around the state in February, in which plans for a ‘week of action’ from 18 March were finalised. During this week, IEU staff will be out in force across the state, backing up Reps and meeting with staff to talk through the key issues – and most importantly to help sub-branches brainstorm the kinds of actions they’d take to turn up the pressure on employers to agree to a fair deal.
This next phase of the campaign is not about disrupting the education of our students, which is a last resort. Right now we want to show employers that collectively we are strong and determined, and to remind them that if they continue to obstruct and hinder bargaining they will give us no option but to consider formal industrial action – and that the disruption caused by this will be a direct result of their intransigence.
We sincerely hope that local campaigning will move the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office to the negotiating table with meaningful offers, but if not, the option of industrial action looms large. It would be no shock to see exasperated educators choose this more combative approach if their legitimate needs continue to be ignored and disrespected.
We’re determined to get a good deal for members in Tasmanian Catholic education finalised, and a new level of campaigning will be unveiled across the state to make this happen.
IEU Reps met in Hobart to plan the campaign
Tasmanian Catholic members deserve the following improvements, to match those already in place in government schools:
full payment of the Lower Income Payments delivered in government schools
a reduction in scheduled class time for primary teachers (to match government schools)
a better School Support Employees classification and wages structure
improved paid parental leave entitlements
top-up payments for Deputy Principals and Education Officers
15 days personal leave for all staff
workload reductions for graduate teachers and mentors
limits to meetings
preparation time for Teacher Assistants.
What IEU members in Tasmanian Catholic education can do:
Attend the campaign meeting in your school in the week of 18 March and bring your colleagues along.
Invite non-members to join you in your union. We need to keep growing to win this campaign!
Keep the conversations going in your workplace.
Support your Rep! A campaign like this is demanding for our hard-working Reps, and your support will mean a lot.