Next week Catholic school staff will strike to take action against workplace conditions, with five key demands for their employers. 

Teacher strikes have made headlines time and time again this year, but next week Catholic schools will join a fight that up until now has been one for teachers in the public school sector. 

Independent Education Union (IEU) of Australia NSW/ACT Branch Secretary Mark Northam said that the decision wasn’t made lightly, but after all 11 Catholic dioceses in NSW voted in favour, it was time to take action. 

“Teachers and support staff across both the government and non-government sectors are dedicated professionals pushed to breaking point,” Mr Northam said. 

Catholic schools from Coonamble, Nyngan, Condobolin and Gilgandra all participated in the ballot calling for legal rights to protected industrial action. 

At the school level they will choose what that action will look like, if they choose to participate. 

“Schools have been running on goodwill, but it is rapidly evaporating,” he said. 

The drivers behind the industrial action are a lack of real wages as the cost of living increases, ever increasing workloads and the pandemic causing ‘crippling’ staff shortages in Catholic schools. 

“Catholic school employers are following the NSW Government’s lead in limiting pay rises to 2.04%, a short-sighted approach that has resulted in the current staffing crisis. Teachers are leaving the profession and graduates are not entering it,” Mr Northam said.

Since January the IEU has been negotiating a new enterprise agreement for Catholic schools in NSW and the ACT, calling for better pay, support staff, a cut to paperwork and increased time to plan, as well as an end to staff shortages. 

“We’re anticipating that parents, particularly in regional country areas, understand the importance of attracting teachers into their regional communities,” Mr Northam said.

Mr Northam said that only improved conditions will increase the dire teacher supply, which has plummeted by 30 per cent. 

The IEU has endorsed a full-day stop work on Friday 27 May.