Monto teachers on strike | Burnett Today

by Julian Lehnert

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Staff at a Monto Catholic school participated in a statewide strike action last month, stopping work for one hour on Wednesday to protest what their union calls a ‘workload crisis’ and ‘unfair wage rates’.

Teachers and school support staff at St Therese’s Catholic Primary School in the North Burnett town of Monto were among the over 4,000 members of the ‘Independent Education Union – Queensland and Northern Territory’ to go on strike on Wednesday, 23 August.

The strike, which impacted 106 Catholic schools in the state between 10 and 11am, was intended to protest the breakdown of negotiations between the union and the Queensland Catholic Education Commission – the employer of the striking teachers and support staff.

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IEU-QNT Branch Secretary Terry Burke explained that “employees had no choice but to take strike action” as the QCEC and the schools under its purview did not address the demands of union members raised during the negotiations process.

“Queensland Catholic school employers have failed to take the steps needed to protect working and learning conditions in their schools,” Mr Burke said on 23 August.

“There are some significant challenges facing Queensland Catholic schools which have major impacts on staff and students.

“[These are] the fact the employers have failed to take real action to address the workload crisis in our schools that is seeing teachers leave the sector in droves, and the fact that support staff in Queensland Catholic schools are still paid outdated and unfair wage rates – rates which haven’t changed for over 30 years.

“These issues are faced by teachers and support staff across Queensland Catholic schools – including at St Therese’s,” Mr Burke said.

According to a QCEC spokesperson, the Commission made union members an offer early on in the negotiation process, which they said began in November of 2022.

The offer includes an 8.75 per cent wage increase for 2023 as well as further wage increases and other benefits in the following 2 years, though the spokesperson did not go into detail on this last part.

The offer also reportedly includes “school consultative processes (…) in which staff will provide feedback and advice about workload issues”.

The union’s demands for better school support staff pay, the Commission claimed, were withdrawn during the negotiations and as such were not included in the offer.

A QCEC spokesperson expressed their confusion over last week’s industrial action, saying the union already resolved to vote on the offer in September.

“Union representatives agreed at a Fair Work Commission conference on 25 July that formal negotiations had progressed as far as they could and were therefore finalised and that employers would proceed to an employee vote on proposed enterprise agreements,” they explained.

“While the Branch Secretary of the IEU-QNT is keen to organise action, it’s difficult to understand what is hoped to be achieved by this latest action after previously agreeing that negotiations have been finalised,” the spokesperson said.

“It is unclear why the IEU-QNT continue to refer to pursuing a claim for increased school officer wages as the union confirmed in writing during negotiations that its ‘position tabled was withdrawn’.”

The IEU-QNT’s Terry Burke disagreed with the commission’s statements.

“Employers in [the 25 July] compulsory conference were told that the outstanding issues – a meaningful structural intervention to teacher workload and work intensification and a school officer wage scale reflecting work value – didn’t go away because the employers refused to discuss these,” he explained.

“Employer representatives then questioned whether the authorised industrial action would go ahead.

“They were told specifically and directly that we would consult our members on the outcomes of the compulsory conference and it was in the hands of members whether they wished to proceed on the industrial action in light of the outcomes of the compulsory conference.

“We consulted with our members and the members made it very clear that they remained unhappy with the two issues which were outstanding and they wanted to proceed to take the industrial action. They have done so today in a one hour stoppage,” Mr Burke said on 23 August.

“Employee representatives never made any suggestion let alone a statement that industrial action was off the table.

“The employers have heard what they want to hear – and are then making claims on that rather than all that was said.

“Our members are taking this action to raise the alarm that things need to change – it’s time the employers heard our voice,” the union representative said.

The Queensland Catholic Education Commission declined to comment further, as did St Therese’s Catholic Primary School.