LOCAL teachers will be among thousands of Catholic school union members to take part in statewide strikes on Wednesday and Thursday over a pay issue.
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More than 6300 teachers in 173 schools across Queensland will stop work for half an hour at the end of the school day on Wednesday and an hour at the end of the school day on Thursday.
Of those, more than 360 members will be from schools in the Toowoomba region.
Those schools include Sacred Heart Primary School, St Anthony's School, Youth and Community Learning Centre, Mary Mackillop Catholic College, St Thomas More's Primary School, St Mary's College, Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, St Joseph's College, St Saviour's Primary School, St Maria Goretti School, St Saviour's College and St Ursula's College.
Teachers at the Mount Isa Flexible learning centre will also take part in the action.
The protected action includes a ban on going to staff meetings and doing duties outside school time unless they are directly related to planning, preparation and correction.
Independent Education Union of Australia – Queensland and Northern Territory branch secretary Terry Burke said employees had no choice but to take the action.
“Catholic school employees across Queensland are taking this action and committed to continuing this campaign until their employers recognise employees’ legitimate concerns, respect their professionalism and reward their contribution to the high quality of education in Queensland Catholic schools,” Mr Burke said.
“Queensland Catholic school employers’ rejection of comparable wages for Queensland Catholic school teachers with their New South Wales counterparts is hypocritical given Catholic schools in both states receive comparable funding and require teachers to do comparable work.”
Mr Burke claimed the interstate pay discrepancy was unfair.
“Simply because of their postcode, Queensland Catholic school teachers at the top step of the automatic scale currently receive $6,792 less per year than their equivalent counterparts in a NSW Catholic school,” Mr Burke said.
“The current employer wage offer is inadequate, totally ignores this disparity and would continue to put Queensland teachers at financial disadvantage compared to their New South Wales counterparts.”
