First Edition, March 2025
Commonwealth Teachers Group (CTG)
them out of multi-employer bargaining and denied them basic bargaining rights. However, new multi-
employer bargaining laws now provide an opportunity for members to bargain on a level playing field
where basic rights are restored.
IEU members are making the most of these new laws. We are leading from the front winning improved
bargaining outcomes.
The IEU (along with our AEU colleagues) secured a groundbreaking multi-employer agreement that will
deliver much improved wages and conditions to 32,000 early childhood education workers. These workers
now have the benefit of union led bargaining for the first time.
And this is just the beginning. Other multi-employer bargaining negotiations are now underway across
hundreds of schools and early childhood education services.
Fairer bargaining laws were hard-fought and took years of tough community and workplace campaigns.
They are also under threat of being scrapped by future conservative governments who oppose the laws and
have joined big business in attacking collective bargaining rights.
However, IEU members are committed to take full advantage of our new bargaining rights:
§ How can we bargain in a smarter, more efficient and strategic way across thousands of schools and early
childhood providers?
§ How can we maximise opportunities for member recruitment and delegate development during
bargaining?
We’re always on the bargaining treadmill – the IEU negotiates over 800 agreements across the country. And
just like a treadmill, it feels like we have expended a lot of energy without getting closer to where we need
to be – stronger unionised workplaces in every school.
While school by school bargaining has delivered some important member wins, it hasn’t kept up with
declining rates of agreement coverage across the Australian workforce. And it’s failed to really ‘shift the dial’
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