Parkes teachers joined thousands of Catholic school staff who stopped work on Wednesday in what is the first strike by Catholic educators since the 1990s.
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Staff from the Catholic primary schools in Parkes, Forbes and Peak Hill met at the Forbes Services Memorial Club to strike for three hours over a new enterprise bargaining agreement released by the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations (CCER).
Close to 30 teachers and support staff rallied together to protest the changes to the agreement which was released by CCER without any consultation with the union or its members.
“They’ve changed the rights and conditions that staff currently have,” teacher Peter Nunn said.
A meeting was meant to take place between CCER and the Independent Education Union to discuss the new conditions both parties wanted and come to some sort of agreement.
Instead CCER handed out the bargaining agreement at the end of term one without any consultations.
Wages, conditions and job security were some of the major concerns in the new agreement for teachers.
“Teachers would move from 25 to 15 days sick leave,” Mr Nunn said.
“There’s nothing about maternity leave – it’s a blank page.”
Other changes include plans to abolish senior positions in schools, strip away conditions, reduce sick leave, increase hours of face-to-face teaching, remove caps on class sizes, no restrictions on the use of temporary teachers, cutting the wages of new support staff by between $6,000 and $17,000, and increasing the school day.
Independent Education Union organiser for Wilcannia-Forbes Marilyn Jervis said these changes are all about removing regulations as much as possible.
“It’s cutting conditions that teachers have fought hard for over the years,” she said.
Ms Jervis said it is significant that Catholic teachers have not taken industrial action since the 90s.
“I think that demonstrates just how angry those teachers and support staff are and yes, they’re angry that their conditions are being stripped away,” she said.
Catholic teachers and support staff are campaigning for the three R’s – recognise, respect and reward.
As part of the stop work meeting in Forbes, teachers and support staff spoke to Ms Jervis and walked from the Forbes Services Club to the diocese office in Johnson Street.
They all wore red, the union’s colour, and waved balloons and signs of protest as they walked the streets of Forbes.
“This shows that Wilcannia-Forbes can still meet together to show we are united and willing to stand up for our rights,” Mr Nunn said.
“It is just so they realise that we’re not happy the agreement was put in front of us with no consultation and no inclusion of the current agreement.”
Everyone in attendance at the stop work meeting signed a petition opposing the changes and Mr Nunn said those that are absent will also have the option of signing.
“We’ll send that off to show our solidarity,” he said. “We want our voices heard.”
