WA Catholic and independent school staff: your agreements and pay, clause by clause.

1. The employers are the ten bodies in Schedule 1 (cl 2.1(a)):
   1. Catholic Education Western Australia Limited;
   2. Mazenod College Limited, Servite College Council Inc, Loreto Nedlands Limited, Mercy Education Limited, John XXIII College Inc, Norbertine Canons Inc, Edmund Rice Education Australia Colleges Ltd, Edmund Rice Education Australia Flexible Schools Ltd and Marist Schools Australia Limited.
2. The principal of each school has "delegated authority to act on behalf of the Employer" (cl 2.4). The school is not the employer.
3. It covers "all teaching staff registered with the Teacher Registration Board of Western Australia" employed by those employers in a registered school or an early childhood service (cl 2.2).
   1. Middle leaders are covered.
   2. Principals, assistant principals and deputy principals "or similar position however so named" are not (cl 2.3).
   3. A teacher with a Limited Authority to Teach is a teacher under the agreement (cl 3.15).
4. Continuous service carries over between the Schedule 1 employers (cl 3.3), and so do long service leave (cl 41.15) and the Senior Teacher classification (cl 8.7).
5. Term:
   1. it began seven days after approval (cl 4.1), on 23 February 2024 (Application by CEWA [2024] FWCA 622 at [19]);
   2. its nominal expiry date is three years from approval, 16 February 2027, "However, this Agreement shall continue to operate beyond the nominal expiry date until it is replaced or terminated in accordance with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)" (cl 4.2);
   3. "Negotiations for a replacement agreement will commence six (6) months before the nominal expiry date of this agreement" (cl 4.3).
6. The relationship with the award.
   1. The agreement "covers all matters pertaining to the employment relationship and operates to the exclusion of any modern Award including the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 ... or other industrial instrument except where expressly referred to".
   2. It also says that legislation, including the NES, "or Employer policy or procedure or other documents referred to in this Agreement are not incorporated into the Agreement" (cl 5.1).
   3. The NES applies alongside it and prevails where it gives a greater benefit (cl 5.2–5.3).
7. The approval. Three better off overall test concerns were raised by a bargaining representative (Application by CEWA [2024] FWCA 622 at [3]–[4]):
   1. no 90% ceiling on part-time hours, as the award has;
   2. the carve-out of the yearly timetable and staff calendars from consultation (cl 12.2, 12.10);
   3. no redundancy pay where hours are cut by 25% or more without consent.

The third was dealt with by an undertaking, which inserted cl 13.8 (Application by CEWA [2024] FWCA 622 at [5], [17]). On the second, the Deputy President approved the agreement "on the basis that" the consultation steps must be followed where a new calendar or timetable changes a teacher's regular roster or ordinary hours (at [11]–[12]). On the first, the Deputy President found the agreement still passed the test (at [13]–[14]).

1. Full-time: 38 hours a week averaged over term weeks (cl 6.2(a), cl 16.2).
2. Part-time: the full-time equivalent is the teacher's scheduled classroom teaching as a share of 1,280 minutes; for example 512 of 1,280 minutes is 0.4 (cl 6.2(b)). Agreed additional hours are paid at the part-time hourly rate plus 30% in lieu of non-term pay (cl 6.2(b)(iii)).
3. Relief (casual) teachers: employed "for a minimum engagement of a half day to a maximum of 19 consecutive working days at the same school" (cl 7.7).
4. Fixed-term: for listed reasons, at least four weeks and no more than two years (cl 6.4).
5. Probation: six months for new teachers other than relief teachers, with one week's notice either way (cl 6.5).

The agreement prints these minimum annual rates (cl 7.1(a)). Teachers start at Step 2 and move to Step 10 by annual increments; a teacher with Limited Registration is placed on Step 1 "with no further incremental progression" (cl 7.2).

Source: teachers' agreement cl 7.1(a). The table headings mark the 2022 column "5%" and the 2023 column "3%".

1. An increment is a year of full-time-equivalent teaching experience, so "a Teacher employed as part-time 0.5FTE must complete two years service before progressing to the next increment"; above 0.9 FTE counts as a full year (cl 7.3).
2. Placement on appointment is by full-time-equivalent teaching experience (cl 7.4).
3. Upgrading a qualification with a Graduate Diploma, Honours, a Masters or a Doctorate credits one extra year, but a Master of Teaching or Education that is the teacher's only teaching qualification does not count, and nothing is paid before written notice of the qualification (cl 7.5–7.6).
4. The hourly rate is "the applicable minimum annual salary divided by 52.16, divided by 38" (cl 3.7).
5. A $3,000 one-off payment went to full-time teachers employed at the time of the vote, pro rata for part-time teachers, not to relief teachers, and "will not be added to base salaries" (cl 7.1(d)).

The agreement ties later rises to the agreement between the Director General of the Department of Education and the State School Teachers' Union of WA, which is now SCH013.

(a) Clause 7.1(b) says:

"The percentage increase of 3% to the minimum annual rate of salary on 6 December 2023 at 7.1 a) and the allowances at clause 8.8 and 8.13 and Schedule 2 of this Agreement is based on the anticipated percentage increase which will be paid to teachers employed in accordance with an Agreement registered by the Director General Department of Education and the State School Teachers Union of WA in the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission on 6 December 2023. If teachers employed in accordance with an Agreement registered by the Director General Department of Education and the State School Teachers Union of WA in the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission receive a percentage salary increase higher than 3% from 6 December 2023, Teachers will be paid the difference in percentage salary increase from the time the increase is paid to Department of Education teachers."

(b) Clause 7.1(c) says:

"During the term of the Agreement, the minimum annual rate of salary at clause 7.1 a), allowances at clause 8.8 and 8.13 and Schedule 2 of this Agreement will be increased at the same time and by the same quantum as increases paid to teachers employed in accordance with an Agreement registered by the Director General Department of Education and the State School Teachers Union of WA in the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission."

(c) What SCH013 gave. Department of Education teachers received "5% effective on and from 6 December 2023; 4% effective on and from 6 December 2024; and 3% effective on and from 6 December 2025" (SCH013 Sch A). SCH013 schedules no rise after 6 December 2025.

(d) What the words produce. Reading cl 7.1(b) literally, the public rise from 6 December 2023 was 2 percentage points above the anticipated 3%, so the difference is added to the 3% in the printed table, making 5% on the 6 December 2022 rates. Then cl 7.1(c) adds the public 4% and 3%. The result, which is derived by us and is not printed in the agreement:

Each figure is the 6 December 2022 rate multiplied by 1.05, then 1.04, then 1.03, rounded to the dollar at each step.

(e) A caution about that derivation. The printed CEWA Step 10 from 6 December 2023, $119,246, is already the same as the public top step (increment 2.9) after the public 5% rise: SCH013 moved increment 2.9 from $113,568 to $119,246 on that date (SCH013 Sch A, Table 4). So:

• (i) the literal reading of cl 7.1(b) above puts the CEWA top step about 1.9% above the public top step ($130,216 against $127,737 from 6 December 2025);
• (ii) a reading that keeps CEWA level with the public scale would give $127,737, the public increment 2.9 rate from 6 December 2025.

The clause's words support the first reading. CEWA's own current salary schedule was not seen for this guide, so the figures in the table above should be treated as an arithmetic reading of the agreement, not as CEWA's published rates.

(f) The next rise. Because SCH013 has no rise after 6 December 2025, the CEWA scale has no further scheduled increase until SCH013 is replaced. SCH013's term expires on 5 December 2026 (SCH013 cl 5.1), and it continues in force until replaced (Industrial Relations Act 1979 (WA) s 41(6)).

(a) The relief rates are "formulated by taking the annual salary of Step 7 in clause 7.1a) and dividing by 200 for the daily rate and dividing by 400 for the half day rate". The rate "is inclusive of a 25% casual loading", and an increase in Step 7 increases the relief rates (cl 7.9).

(b) The rates are in lieu of public holidays, annual leave, sick days "and all other monetary entitlements" (cl 7.8).

(c) Printed rates (cl 7.10):

(d) On the derived Step 7 of $120,542 from 6 December 2025 (section 1.4(d)), the cl 7.9 formula gives a full day of $602.71. That is derived, with the same caution as section 1.4(e).

(e) For primary schools a half day is half the scheduled school day worked consecutively; for secondary schools, half the periods in the day worked consecutively; more than half a day attracts the full day rate (cl 7.10, note).

Source for this section: teachers' agreement cl 8 and Schedules 2 and 3.

(a) Senior Teacher allowance: $5,643 a year (cl 8.8). No effective date is printed against it. To progress, a teacher needs two years' full-time-equivalent experience at Step 10 and Accreditation to Teach in a Catholic School (cl 8.5), and must keep the accreditation current (cl 8.6). The classification is portable between Catholic schools covered by the agreement (cl 8.7).

(b) Exemplary Teacher allowances (cl 8.13):

Appointment needs a successful appraisal by the Principal, at least a year as a Senior Teacher, and is limited to one Exemplary Teacher per 500 students at a school (cl 8.9). It is for three years (cl 8.11) and is not portable (cl 8.12).

(c) Promotional positions (Schedule 2). Secondary promotional allowances run by level of responsibility and school size; from 6 December 2023 they range from $16,197 (Level 1, more than 1,000 students) to $3,133 (Level 4, fewer than 300 students). Primary Special Responsibility Allowances are $3,074 each from 6 December 2023.

(d) Clause 7.1(b) and (c) apply to the allowances in cl 8.8 and 8.13 and Schedule 2 as well as to salaries. The rates printed above are therefore the 6 December 2023 rates, and the same tie applies to them.

(e) Travel: reasonable travelling expenses when required to work away from the usual place of work (cl 8.3), and a vehicle allowance "of not less than that provided for taxation purposes by the Australian Taxation Office" where a teacher is required to use their own car (cl 8.4).

(f) Remote area package (Schedule 3): location allowances paid fortnightly and indexed each 1 July to the WAIRC's Location Allowance General Order, air conditioning reimbursement, relocation and travel, financial incentives by school group, and extra leave in the most remote groups.

Source for this section: teachers' agreement cl 16–27.

(a) Workload as a hazard. "The Employer recognises that excessive workloads are a psychosocial hazard and that teacher workloads are risk factors that the Employer has a duty to address under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020" (cl 16.1).

(b) Hours:

• (i) "Notwithstanding the NES", ordinary hours for a full-time teacher are 38 hours a week averaged over term weeks (cl 16.2);
• (ii) hours in term weeks are variable; in return a teacher "is not generally required to attend for Non-Term Weeks", subject to professional development, student free days and other required activities (cl 16.3);
• (iii) the timetable and calendar for the coming year, and each teacher's projected teaching load, are given out by the end of the year (cl 16.4);
• (iv) the maximum number of attendance days "is 198 days" a school year (cl 16.5), with listed exclusions such as weekend co-curricular activities, trips and conferences by mutual consent, and recall in exceptional circumstances (cl 16.6);
• (v) teachers may be required to attend up to 15 minutes before and after classes (cl 16.7).

(c) Face-to-face teaching. The maximum scheduled classroom teaching load is 1,280 minutes a week (21 hours 20 minutes) for primary teachers, including kindergarten and pre-primary, and for secondary teachers "inclusive of pastoral care group or homeroom" (cl 17.1). It may be averaged over term weeks (cl 17.2).

(d) Release time (DOTT), exclusive of recess and lunch (cl 18.1):

• (i) A teacher who must develop or adjust an Individual Education Plan for a funded student with disability gets "an additional 15 minutes DOTT per student per week", which may be banked (cl 18.5).
• (ii) Banked DOTT "must be returned to the Teacher within two terms", with a discussion about when within two weeks of banking (cl 18.2).
• (iii) DOTT "should not be regularly timetabled to conflict with regularly scheduled school activities such as assemblies" (cl 18.4).

(e) Internal relief. Where timetables are disrupted by absences, teachers may be called on in a set order; teachers on the maximum load cannot be required to relieve for planned absences; agreed relief is compensated by time off or banked DOTT, not by a payment (cl 18.6).

(f) Duties outside class:

• (i) co-curricular activity up to 40 hours a year, with paid time or time off for agreed activity above that (cl 19);
• (ii) up to two formal parent-teacher meetings a year outside the normal school day (cl 20);
• (iii) a paid meal break of 20 minutes free of duties after five consecutive hours (cl 21);
• (iv) playground supervision shared "fairly and equitably" (cl 22);
• (v) staff meetings outside instruction time "totalling up to 15 hours per term, with no meeting exceeding one hours' duration unless" agreed (cl 23).

(g) Right to disconnect. Teachers need not initiate, read or respond to communication from staff, parents or the community outside working hours or off site, including on leave and in vacations, except in emergencies and for staffing or health matters (cl 24). The statutory right in FW Act s 333M also applies.

(h) Early childhood services open 48 or more weeks a year have their own hours clause: 38 hours averaged over four weeks, between 6.00 am and 6.30 pm, with overtime at 150% then 200% (cl 25).

(i) Workload concerns go to the line manager, then the Principal, then the dispute procedure (cl 26).

(j) The agreement has no class size clause.

Source for this section: teachers' agreement cl 30–46.

After at least seven years' continuous service, long service leave is paid pro rata on termination, except termination for serious misconduct (cl 41.13).

1. Notice is at least seven term weeks either way, including the NES notice, except for relief, fixed-term and probationary teachers (cl 11.1); fixed-term teachers give or get at least four term weeks (cl 11.2). During notice the employer may pay in lieu or direct the teacher not to attend but to remain available (cl 11.4).
2. "Teachers may be dismissed without notice for serious misconduct" (cl 11.9). The agreement does not define serious misconduct, and it has no discipline procedure. See the discipline and dismissal page.
3. Redundancy pay (cl 13.3):

• (i) Severance is "in addition to the notice requirements" (cl 13.5).
• (ii) It is not paid to a teacher with less than 12 months' service, a fixed-term teacher at the end of the term, a relief teacher, a teacher terminated for serious misconduct, or on a transfer where the new employer recognises service (cl 13.7).
• (iii) By the undertaking, cl 13.8 says: "If a part-time employee's hours are reduced, without their consent, by more than 25% of their current FTE they will be entitled to the provisions of this clause" (undertaking 1, PDF p 60; taken to be a term of the agreement, Application by CEWA [2024] FWCA 622 at [17]).

Source for this section: teachers' agreement cl 12, 14 and 15.

1. Consultation follows the model term: for a definite decision to make a major change, and for a proposed change to regular rosters or ordinary hours, the employer must notify and discuss, and teachers may appoint a representative (cl 12.1–12.12).
2. Two carve-outs. "The development and introduction of the Employer's yearly timetable is not a major change or a change to the hours of work" (cl 12.2), and the "reasonable development of staff calendars and timetables" is not a roster or hours change (cl 12.10). The Commission approved the agreement on the basis that, where a new calendar or timetable does change a teacher's regular roster or ordinary hours, cl 12.9(a), 12.11 and 12.12 "must be followed" (Application by CEWA [2024] FWCA 622 at [11]–[12]).
3. Disputes about the agreement or the NES (cl 14.1) go through these steps:
   1. discussion at the workplace with "relevant Leadership", starting at an appropriate level and then involving the Principal (cl 14.2–14.3);
   2. referral by a party to the Fair Work Commission (cl 14.4);
   3. if the Commission is satisfied the workplace steps were followed, it "must attempt to resolve the dispute by mediation or conciliation" (cl 14.5);
   4. if that fails, it "may then: (i) arbitrate the dispute; and (ii) make a determination that is binding on the parties" (cl 14.6(b)), but not one inconsistent with the agreement (cl 14.7).
4. "Any party to the dispute may, at any stage, appoint a representative of their choice" (cl 14.8). "At all times whilst a question or dispute is being resolved work will continue" (cl 14.9).
5. A Joint Consultative Committee of employer and union representatives meets once a term on the agreement, safety, industrial matters and ongoing issues including workload balance (cl 15).

1. It covers "all support, operations and general staff" of the Schedule 1 employers in registered schools and in early learning centres and outside school hours care (cl 2.2).
2. Schedule 1 lists nine employers: the teachers' agreement's ten, without Loreto Nedlands Limited.
3. It does not cover registered teachers, early learning centre teachers under the teachers' agreement, the most senior bursar or business manager, or members of a religious teaching order and ministers of religion (cl 2.3).
4. It was made on 13 May 2026, approved on 1 September 2026, operates from 8 September 2026, and has a nominal expiry date of 1 September 2030 (Application by CEWA [2026] FWCA 2400 at [2] (PDF p 2), [9] (PDF p 3)).
5. Bargaining ran under a single interest employer authorisation made on the union's application (Independent Education Union of Australia v Catholic Education Western Australia Limited and others [2023] FWCFB 177 at [1], [36]).
6. It operates to the exclusion of the General Staff Award (cl 5.1). Employer policy "is not incorporated into the Agreement and does not form part of it" (cl 5.2).

Schedule 2 has eight streams. Each table has a column headed with an asterisk, explained as "On commencement of the Agreement". Some tables also have a column headed 13 June 2026; others have none.

1. Where a 13 June 2026 column is printed, its figures are about 3.5% above the "on commencement" figures (each within $1 of that). The instructional services table says it is "Inclusive of a 3.5% increase"; for the others the 3.5% is our arithmetic.
2. The agreement commenced on 8 September 2026, after the 13 June 2026 date. The agreement does not say how the 13 June 2026 rates relate to the "on commencement" rates in time. This page reports the tables as printed.
3. Several tables print no 13 June 2026 rate: education assistants, First Nations educators, facilities and school operational services, psychologists, early learning centres and outside school hours care. The agreement does not print a 13 June 2026 rate for those classifications.
4. Undertakings given on approval set higher 13 June 2026 rates for some steps: nursing Level 1.1 $75,454.19, 1.2 $80,212.19, 1.3 $80,602.36 and 3.1 $95,722.59; instructional services 1.1 $58,327.39 and 1.2 $59,690.44 (undertakings D and E, PDF p 120).
5. Hourly rates are the annual salary divided by 52.16 and by 38 (for example $62,102 gives $31.33); for education assistants the divisor is 32.5 hours ($59,473 gives $35.08).
6. Later rises. Clause 34 says: "The Base Salary/MHR for the Classifications set out in Schedule 2 will be increased at the same time and by the same percentage rate as increases paid to commensurate Employees employed in accordance with the equivalent industrial agreement registered by the Director General, Department of Education in the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission as determined by CEWA."
7. A one-off payment of $3,000 to ongoing and fixed-term staff employed when the agreement commenced, pro rata for part-time staff, not casuals, in the first pay period after commencement, and not added to base salary (cl 35).
8. An employee becomes eligible to move one step after each 12 months of full-time-equivalent service from the agreement's commencement, unless under a formal performance improvement process and the improvement is not yet satisfactory (cl 31.2–31.3). An employee can ask in writing for a classification review (cl 32).

1. Full-time staff work 38 hours a week, or an average of 38; part-time staff work fewer hours on a written regular pattern; casuals are paid the hourly rate plus 25%, with a two-hour minimum engagement (one hour before and after school for OSHC) (cl 7–9).
2. Education assistants are full-time at 32.5 hours or more; hours between 32.5 and 38 are paid at the ordinary rate, and overtime only above 38 (Sch 2 cl 3.5–3.6).
3. Reduced Working Year Arrangement. Where the contract says so and the classification allows it, the employer may require staff to work less than 48 weeks a year with unpaid leave for the rest; salary is averaged over the calendar year and the unworked weeks count as service (cl 11). Education assistants, boarding and nursing staff are paid for the full year instead (cl 11.4).
4. Penalty rates: shift work at 115% and 130% (cl 26); overtime at 150% then 200%, 200% on Sunday and 250% on public holidays (cl 57); weekend ordinary hours at 150% and 200% (cl 58).
5. A right to disconnect clause summarising FW Act s 333M (cl 16).

1. Notice follows the NES scale, not the teachers' seven term weeks (cl 62.1–62.7). Staff may be dismissed without notice for serious misconduct (cl 62.10). Probation is three months (cl 13).
2. Redundancy pay is on the same scale as the teachers' agreement: 4 weeks at one year up to 16 weeks at eight years and over, in addition to notice (cl 63.2, 63.4). That is above the NES from six years to less than nine years, and from ten years. Casual service does not count (cl 63.3).
3. The duties clause requires staff to "not engage in any activities that seek to publicly harm the reputation or criticise the actions of the Employer" (cl 19(d)). The teachers' agreement has no equivalent.
4. Consultation follows the model term (cl 64).
5. Union delegates.
   1. The agreement has a full workplace delegates' clause, including representing members in consultation, disputes and "disciplinary processes", and up to five days' paid initial training (cl 65).
   2. On approval the Commission also inserted the General Staff Award's delegates' rights term under FW Act s 205A (Application by CEWA [2026] FWCA 2400 at [4]).
6. Disputes. The union can be a party in its own right where a member is affected; the Commission may mediate, then arbitrate; and work continues unless there is an imminent safety risk (cl 66).

Source: the Teachers Award, minimum rates in cl 17.1, operative from 1 July 2026.

1. The award's maximum attendance is 205 days a school year (cl 15.5); the CEWA teachers' agreement sets 198 (cl 16.5).
2. A part-time teacher under the award works not more than 90% of full-time hours (cl 11.1–11.2; Application by Catholic Education Western Australia Limited [2024] FWCA 622 at [4], [13]); the CEWA teachers' agreement has no such ceiling.
3. The award ladder is by accreditation and service, not by years alone, so the CEWA steps do not map onto it exactly. As a scale check, the printed CEWA Step 2 from 6 December 2023 ($83,744) is close to award Level 2 ($83,004 from 1 July 2026).
4. In 2021 a Full Bench found that teachers' award rates had never been properly set on work value (Independent Education Union of Australia [2021] FWCFB 2051 at [645]).

Source: the General Staff Award, minimum rates in cl 17.1, operative from 1 July 2026. The annual figure is the weekly rate multiplied by 52.18 and rounded (note 1 to cl 17.1).

1. Movement to the next pay point within a level follows each 12 months, after a performance review, unless the review shows unsatisfactory performance (cl 17.2(a)–(b)).
2. The award does not apply to teachers engaged as such, principals and deputies, the most senior bursar or business manager, or members of a religious teaching order and ministers of religion (cl 4.3).