Catholic school staff are gearing up for an hour-long stop work on the back of unresolved pay issues.
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Independent Education Union of Australia NSW/ACT Branch acting secretary, Carol Matthews, said negotiations for a new enterprise agreement began in early February.
"It is now November and employers are no closer to resolving pay issues," she said.
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The IEUA NSW/ACT Branch, which represents more than 32,000 teachers and support staff, wrote to Catholic employers on October 25 to express members' frustration about the slow progress of negotiations.
According to the Branch, employers have not responded.
In the public sector, the NSW Industrial Relations Commission granted a six per cent increase in remuneration to teachers over 2022 and 2023 on November 11. Catholic employers are not legally bound to follow the Commission's wage rates but have typically followed them.
Ms Matthews described the wage increases as "derisory", and said they were not enough for "IEU members nor for members of the NSW Teachers Federation".
"Teachers' salaries have been falling relative to other professions for more than a decade now and this year's intensifying cost-of-living pressures only make matters worse," she said.
"Salaries for support staff in Catholic schools are below those in government schools, yet Catholic employers are still dragging the chain on pay parity."
For most schools, the stop work will take place between 8.30am and 9.30am on Tuesday, November 15. However, not all schools are taking part in the action.
Along with negotiations over pay, the union is calling for practical action to reduce the unnecessary administrative burden on teachers to allow sufficient time for proper lesson planning.
In Goulburn, Saints Peter and Paul's Parish Primary School staff will strike from 9.30am to 10.30am on Wednesday, November 16.
"Our members are tired and frustrated with their employers' failure to respect them by negotiating in a fair and timely manner," Ms Matthews said.
"They won't even discuss simple, sector-wide measures we know could mitigate workload pressure.
"Teachers care deeply about their students and understand the inconvenience next week's brief stop work will cause [but] they are left with no option but to take action in an attempt to bring their employers to the negotiating table."
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