Unholy row: Catholic schools split over teacher pay and conditions

Victoria’s Catholic schools have split during negotiations over teacher pay and conditions, with staff in almost 50 schools in the state’s east winning salary increases and reduced teaching hours, while teachers in the rest of the state risk being left behind.

The Catholic diocese of Sale, which governs 47 schools stretching from Narre Warren in Melbourne’s outer south-east to Orbost in east Gippsland, has exited the drawn-out talks and struck its own four-year deal with the Independent Education Union. “Teachers feel like they are being betrayed by our employers, particularly over the last two years of COVID,” Mark Williams, principal of St Martin De Porres School in Avondale Heights, said.

Parties in the negotiations said agreement had been reached over pay increases, but negotiations had bogged down over workload reductions, especially on matching the state government’s commitment to reduce face-to-face teaching time by 90 minutes a week.Catholic schools would similarly have to recruit hundreds of extra teachers from next year, one secondary school principal said. Catholic schools educate 21 per cent of Victorian students, compared with 64 per cent in government schools.

However, he said there was no straightforward solution to paying for the extra teachers that would be needed, other than raising fees. The union this week wrote to Catholic principals and urged them to enter breakaway negotiations in the interests of striking a new deal in time to plan for the 2023 school year.

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

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