Catholics’ Unholy Stance

Catholic Employers’ Opportunistic Position in Modern Award

The national Catholic employers have proposed a longer school year for staff, reductions in conditions and entitlements and that some workers in the schools’ sector should be ‘award free’.

Over the last 12 months the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) has been undertaking work across all industries to create ‘modern national awards’.

On May 22nd “exposure drafts” for the school sector were released by the AIRC

Much of the content in the exposure drafts has been the subject of extensive discussion and agreement between the IEU and the Associations of Independent Schools (AIS).

Prior to the release of the exposure drafts of the modern awards  the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) did not any meaningful way seek to discuss and attempt to agree on the content of modern awards with the IEU or the AIS.

As modern awards only apply to employees where an agreement is not operating or the school remains in the State system, the modern awards will apply to very few if any employees in Catholic schools in Australia.

Conversely, the modern awards will regulate and change the conditions of employment for a significant number of employees nationally in Independent schools.

Even though the awards will not operate in Catholic schools the NCEC seriously proposes cuts to conditions for employees in Independent schools, according to their submission in response to the draft awards.

The NCEC wants the AIRC to:

·         make Catholic Education Office staff, principals and deputy principals award free – no protection for these people of a safety net award

·         increase the maximum number of school days from 205 to 210

·         remove provisions requiring teachers with more than a 90% load to be classified and paid as full-time

·         remove award content in its entirety that would otherwise provide some limits on the employment of fixed term teachers

·         remove the requirement to advise full-time employees of their face-to-face teaching load when the commence employment

·         remove rights for part-time employees to access redundancy when their load is reduced by more than 25%

·         remove the right to full accrual of leave entitlements for ‘averaged’ employees

This is an extraordinary attack on the minimum conditions that would prevail under the new Modern Awards.

Given that these awards will not apply to staff in Catholic schools one has to question why the NCEC believes it necessary to undermine the rights and entitlements of workers in other schools.

The NCEC submissions can be accessed by clicking below (relevant sections are highlighted in yellow)

NCEC submission 12 June - Teachers Award

NCEC submission 12 June - General Staff Award

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