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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Sarah Lansdown

'This is a historic deal': Catholic school support staff to get pay rise, extra leave

Independent Education Union NSW/ACT branch secretary Mark Northam. Picture supplied

Learning support and administrative staff at Catholic schools will be paid the same as their public school counterparts under an interim deal reached with NSW and ACT Catholic school dioceses.

Support staff can expect pay rises between five per cent and 13 per cent backdated to the start of this year and all staff will have greater parental leave benefits from June 1.

Independent Education Union NSW/ACT branch secretary Mark Northam said the interim settlement agreement had been reached after 18 months of negotiation and stop work action.

"The union's executive determined it was appropriate to secure significant improvements for support staff in NSW and the ACT," Mr Northam said.

"This is a historic deal. It's been a long time coming. The way is clear for significant improvements for teachers going forward."

Teachers and support staff in Catholic schools will have extra parental leave entitlements from June 1.

The primary carer will have two extra weeks of leave and the partner who takes over care of the baby when the initial carer returns to work will be able to access 12 weeks of paid leave.

A deal is yet to be made on pay rates for ACT teachers, but Mr Northam said a positive and productive meeting was held with Catholic Education officials in Canberra on Thursday.

He said the union was anticipating that an agreement on teachers' pay will be reached soon.

A joint statement from the union and Catholic Employment Relations, which is working on behalf of 10 Catholic diocese, said the systemic school enterprise agreement would be finalised later this year when there was clarity on the public sector outcome.

"Until then we will continue to engage in productive conversations relating to the management of workload for teachers," the statement said.

It comes after the Australian Education Union ACT branch accepted a proposal from the ACT government which delivers pay rises of between 13 and 26 per cent for classroom teachers.

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