School staff at 206 Queensland Catholic schools, including three schools located in Kedron, will undertake a 30-minute stop work action on Tuesday, 19 November 2019.
Mount Alvernia College, Padua College, St Anthony’s School are among the authorised Catholic schools to participate in the short work stoppage. The latest action was announced by Independent Education Union – QNT following a range of work bans on 7 November.
The work bans undertaken in 195 authorised Chapters include the banning of attendance at any meeting of staff; banning duties during scheduled meal breaks; banning supervision or cover periods; banning playground/transport supervision; and banning employer requests for data collection or analysis.
Whilst an agreement was reached on a number of issues raised during the Single Bargaining Unit (SBU) meeting, IEUA-QNT said that they were left with no choice but to escalate their campaign after employers failed to implement meaningful interventions to address work intensification, resolve middle/senior leader issues, and continued to stand against $1250 on-off payment to all school staff.
“The 30-minute stop work will allow Chapter members to meet to consider the employers’ positions and the member actions necessary to address our final remaining issues.”
Independent Education Union – QNT
Authorised Queensland Catholic schools will participate in a 30-minute stop work action from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on 19 November as a result of “employers’ continued failure to put in place meaningful interventions to deal with work intensification or resolve middle/senior leader issues,” Independent Education Union – QNT said.
The outstanding issues that led the union to consider a 30-minutes stop work action include: striking a better work-life balance; middle and senior Leaders issues; and contemporary pay and wage parity.
Queensland Catholic Education Commission, on the other hand, announced that Catholic schools will be open and operating on 19 November and said that all students would be appropriately supervised and that QCEC would keep the impact of the stop work action to a minimum. Moreover, QCEC said that employers are still keen on finalising the negotiations as soon as possible.
“Employers have put forward an offer that includes a 2.5 per cent general wage increase, a generous package of improved benefits for Middle and Senior Leaders and increased pay for Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers,” QCEC Executive Director Dr Lee-Anne Perry said.
“Employers have also offered to cut classroom contact time for primary teachers to allow more time for collaboration.”
The full list of 206 authorised Catholic schools can be found here.
