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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Helen Gregory

Hunter teachers and staff prepare to strike over pay and conditions

Concerned: Therese Fitzgibbon said employers were not looking after staff wellbeing. "We're sending them in every day tired, exhausted, overworked." Picture: Marina Neil

HUNTER Catholic school teachers and support staff participating in the sector's first full-day strike since 2004 may take further industrial action if employers don't improve pay and conditions.

Independent Education Union of Australia NSW/ACT branch Newcastle organiser Therese Fitzgibbon said she expected more than 500 Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle employees to attend Friday's 10am rally at Wickham Park, before they march to the Catholic Schools Office (CSO).

They will sing Hear Our Voice, a version of union anthem Solidarity Forever.

"They're pumped, they have really genuine concerns about the teaching profession and the impact on student learning," she said.

Students were not entering the profession, she said, and both young and experienced teachers were leaving it, citing a lack of work-life balance, unsustainable workloads - for every hour face to face there is 90 minutes of paperwork - and non-competitive pay.

The union is calling for a pay increase of between 10 and 15 per cent over two years; two more hours release from face-to-face teaching per week; a reduction in paperwork; an end to staff shortages causing "daily disruptions" and for support staff to be given pay parity immediately with public school colleagues.

She said there could be further action. "If there's no change I don't know that we'll have a choice, schools can't continue as they are."

CSO director Gerard Mowbray said the diocese had provided a backdated pay increase above the agreement and agreed to at least match any increase to public school teachers, but was bound by what it received in government funding and school fees.

"While we respect our staffs' right to take industrial action, we are disappointed by their plans to strike and the inconvenience this causes to our students and families," he said.

"While their actions won't change our ongoing commitment to negotiate with them in good faith or, to provide them with the best outcomes we can, it will significantly impact students and their families.

"This is particularly disheartening given the disruption they have already endured over the past two years due to the pandemic.

"However, we look forward to returning to our negotiations and concluding these in a timely and effective manner for teaching and support staff."

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