Union members at Xavier High School, Albury, Holy Spirit Primary School, Lavington, St Joseph’s Primary School, Culcairn and St Patrick’s Parish School, Albury, will leave work from 9.30am to 12.30pm and meet at the Commercial Club. 

Holy Spirit Primary School teacher and branch president of the Independent Education Union, Simon Goss, said schools would be open as usual despite the industrial action. 

An estimated 3000 teachers and support staff across NSW and the ACT are expected to strike over their right to arbitration.

Mr Goss said industrial action was never taken lightly, but teachers were concerned that their employer, the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations, was refusing to agree to independent arbitration.

He said teachers feared without guaranteed arbitration they would have no recourse to prevent class sizes growing to 35, as exists in the diocese of Sydney, or working terms increasing. 

Mr Goss said Fair Work changed the interpretation of arbitration in the previous enterprise agreement, so now both parties must agree before it goes ahead.

“Without that our work conditions are up for grabs and could be changed without notice or recourse,” he said. “They say (not having arbitration) has always worked in the past, but it hasn’t worked ‘fine’ this year.

“Our work practices are left in serious doubt – we might become the only profession in Eastern Australia without guaranteed arbitration.”

Mr Goss said staff across Albury were uneasy, left in the dark and some contracted staff feared retribution for taking protected industrial action.

The action comes as both parties failed to reach a new enterprise agreement following the previous agreement’s expiration in December.

Executive director of the CCER Tony Farley said the dispute resolution procedures proposed in the new agreement were the same ones that have been in place for seven years.