November 6, 2019
More than 7000 school teachers and support staff from 195 Catholic schools across Queensland are set to begin work bans on Thursday as part of protected industrial action.
St Patrick’s Primary School at Nanango and St Mary’s Catholic College in Kingaroy are among the schools where work bans have been authorised.
The industrial action won’t affect regular school lessons.
Independent Education Union of Australia – Queensland and Northern Territory (IEUA-QNT) Branch Secretary Terry Burke said while there a been some progress in the negotiations at a meeting on Wednesday, critical employee concerns regarding workload and maintaining wage parity with the State sector remain unresolved.
The work bans will take the form of:
- Banning attendance at any meeting of staff (except meetings regarding student welfare, and staff and student safety),
- Banning duties during scheduled meal breaks,
- Banning supervision lessons or cover periods,
- Banning playground/transport supervision (with the exception of real safety risks for students), and
- Banning employer requests for data collection or analysis.
“The onus is now on the employers to finalise these negotiations and until they do so, the work bans authorised to take place in 195 Queensland Catholic schools will continue,” Mr Burke said.
He said strike action could not be ruled out at this stage.
“Taking strike action is an absolute last resort for employees and would only be the result of the failure of Queensland Catholic school employers to address these remaining, significant staff concerns.”
A further negotiation meeting with Queensland Catholic school employers has been scheduled for November 27.
- Related article: Teachers Vote For Work Bans
