THE union representing Catholic school teachers in Queensland has applied to Fair Work Australia for approval to allow the teachers to have a vote on industrial action.
The Queensland Independent Education Union lodged the application with Fair Work Australia, the national workplace relations tribunal, on Tuesday.
QIEU members working in Catholic schools across Queensland are seeking wage increases, which Catholic education authorities are not prepared to resolve until arbitration on a corresponding public sector case is decided.
QIEU general secretary Terry Burke said the union was seeking pay increases of up to 21.5 per cent over three years (for experienced teachers), and 15.5 per cent (for the majority of teachers), to bring their pay rates into line with interstate counterparts.
The union claimed teachers in Queensland Catholic schools earned about $7000 a year less than teachers in New South Wales and Western Australia.
Mr Burke said the negotiations applied to every Catholic school in Queensland.
He said the authorities had approved an interim pay increase of 4.5 per cent in May in line with Queensland Education.
The orders sought from Fair Work Australia would allow union members to have a secret ballot on whether to take industrial action.
Mr Burke had been meeting with diocesan Catholic Education authorities and representatives of religious institute schools. He said they had indicated they were prepared to continue discussions but that negotiations on pay increases could not be resolved until after the public sector arbitration was decided.
Queensland Catholic Education Commis-sion executive director Mike Byrne said Catholic sector employing authorities have been working closely with the QIEU since January to negotiate a new agreement on both wages and other conditions for all employees for the next three years.
“This has been a process carried out in good faith and the Catholic sector responded to the union’s request to provide a 4.5 per cent increase to all school employees, including teachers, from May 1 with a commitment to further negotiation around the wages claim when the outcome of the public sector arbitration process is known,” he said.
“We are now aware that this arbitration case will commence on November 2 and is expected to conclude at Christmas with a decision on the outcome likely to follow early in the New Year.
“Historically we have tried to provide comparable salary outcomes with the government sector, so the result of this arbitration process is clearly significant.
“The clearer timeline would allow negotiations to focus on finalising other issues and to conclude negotiations around wages before the next teacher pay increase would be due in May 2010.”
