They voted to reject an enterprise agreement, following a series of rolling stoppages culminating in a strike on December 4.

Staff from district schools including: St Bede’s, Braidwood; St Mary’s, Crookwell; and St Joseph’s Primary and Ss Peter and Paul’s primary schools in Goulburn stopped work for four hours on the day in a dispute over a 2.5 per cent pay rise that was settled nearly a year ago, but has yet to be paid to them. 

An Independent Education Union spokesperson said the members voted down the Catholic employers' Enterprise Agreement (EA), with 88 per cent voting no. 

“The union campaigned strongly against the proposal and urged a no vote, which was delivered with this vote. 

“There were 15,968 teachers and support staff in 11 Catholic dioceses who voted and a resounding 14,031 voted down the Catholic employers’ non-Union EA.”

At issue was the refusal to guarantee access to arbitration by the Fair Work Commission in regard to any future disputes about the EA and other agreed conditions.

The union had argued that the proposal put the rights and working conditions of staff at risk in Catholic schools.

Meanwhile, IEU Secretary John Quessy said it was a “solid result.” 

“This is not the end of the matter and we still need to thrash out an EA which is acceptable to our members,” Mr Quessy said. 

The IEU is seeking to reopen a dialogue with Catholic employers.

“If employers have the best interests of their staff at heart, they’ll return to the bargaining table to negotiate a reasonable agreement,” he said.

“Members have shown that they are willing to take strike action, and employers should have no doubts about whether they will continue to, if their right to arbitration in particular is not upheld.”