A planned full-day strike was suspended after discussions between the Independent Education Union (IEU) and the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations late last week deemed the industrial action inappropriate.

Negotiations on the agreement have spanned more than a year, however final touches are expected to be made to the document in coming weeks.

NSW/ACT IEU general secretary John Quessy said on Monday union members had "stuck to their guns" to defend the quality education they provided throughout the prolonged dispute.

"The document that we're working on is an enterprise agreement [which] will be over 200 pages long, so it's not at all surprising that getting the words right is going to be fundamental," Mr Quessy said. 

"We had to clarify some understandings, we've got most of those [but] there are still a few things that we'll try and nut out at a meeting with Catholic employers next week.

"We feel that we've made substantial and significant progress and it would not have been appropriate to continue with industrial action when so much had been achieved."

The Wollongong Catholic Education Office said the decision was a win for students as well as teachers.

"It's a good outcome ... at this point in time we are very close to finalising the negotiations," spokesman Tim Gilmour said. "It's been a challenging and important process to get to this point."

Mr Gilmour said the office would now assist with "finessing" the required aspects of the document.

"We're confident that can happen with some ongoing discussions with the IEU in the weeks ahead and then we hope to have an enterprise agreement we can put to staff for their support and their vote," he said.

This story originally appeared in the Illawarra Mercury.