First Edition, March 2025
Commonwealth Teachers Group (CTG)
Australian education unions lead the way on new collective bargaining rights By Brad Hayes Federal Secretary Independent Education Union of Australia (IEU) Over the last 2 years, education workers in Australia have experienced the biggest change in workplace laws for
decades.
And the good news is that these changes, introduced by the Australian Labor Party, have reinstated critical workplace
rights for workers and their unions.
Union member campaigns, including those by EI affiliates the AEU, NTEU and my union the IEU, were instrumental in
winning the reforms and bringing fairness to Australian workplaces.
While the new laws benefit Australian workers in many areas, a stronger right to collective bargaining has been the
biggest change for IEU members.
Previous conservative anti-union governments in Australia gutted the rights of workers and imposed major hurdles on
unions seeking to bargain or exercise their right to strike.
Thanks to the political and organising campaigns of Australian unions, we now have access to a much-improved
bargaining system that is no longer stacked against workers.
The teacher shortage in Australia has been exacerbated by stagnant pay and working conditions that have eroded the
appeal of education as a career, and have driven down recruitment and retention rates. Strong bargaining laws have
increased the capacity of the profession to secure wage increases and improvements to their daily work, restoring
their status as professionals and allowing them to focus on their core task - teaching and learning.
Access to multi-employer industry wide bargaining
Prior to the 2023 reforms, tens of thousands of IEU members had been forced to bargain under a system that locked
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