Enterprise Bargaining Agreement – FAQ

Updated: Friday 18 September 2026

We understand the Enterprise Agreement negotiations are important to our College community. In the past, negotiations over staff agreements were often confined to conversations between a college and its staff. The current landscape facing all schools may now be raising questions for staff and families.

Throughout the current negotiations for Overnewton, the Board is receiving regular updates on the bargaining process and is overseeing the College’s approach to financial sustainability, educational quality and its responsibilities as an employer.

To support our community in their understanding, we have responded to some of the most common questions and will continue to provide updates as negotiations progress.

What does the bargaining process entail?

Enterprise bargaining is a formal negotiation process between the College and employee bargaining representatives.  Bargaining representatives do not have to be members of the Independent Education Union (IEU) (and current negotiations typically included 15 staff members).  The College is represented around the table by senior members of the leadership team and, usually, a representative from Independent Schools Victoria. The IEU represents its members at the table.

Enterprise Agreement bargaining follows a set process, including notice periods for Union visits to the school and time to review proposals.

The negotiation meetings commenced with the first meeting on 10 March, and we recently held our eleventh meeting, on average every 2 weeks during term time.

Why have negotiations taken so long?

There is significant work, from both parties, to be done between meetings. This includes, for example, modelling financial impacts of claims and working through the operational viability of work conditions for staff.

The broader education environment continues to evolve and recently the new Victorian Government Schools Agreement included a significant increase in Government school salaries, which has shifted expectations across the education sector while Overnewton’s negotiations were already underway.

There has been a significant gap between employees’ expectations (originally claiming 37 per cent but this week tabled as 27 per cent over three years) and what the College considers financially sustainable (16 per cent over three years).

It is also important to know that Overnewton has a single Agreement for all staff, that is, both Teachers and Educational Support Staff. This means that negotiations need to take into account the needs of both types of employees who, often, have quite different roles in the College. This means there is a lot to work through.

There has been some agreement between the parties on many of the claims; some that still require a discussion of operational requirements in order to enact them. The College is continuing to discuss the outstanding matters and wants to reach an agreement as soon as possible.

The College and Bargaining Team are continuing to meet, including a meeting earlier this week. The College is also meeting with wider staff through engagement sessions, small group and one-to-one conversations.

What is the College’s salary offer for staff, and how does it compare with Victorian Government school salaries?

The College’s initial wage offer was 14 per cent over three years (2026-2028). Following feedback from staff that the offer would not provide base salary parity with the Victorian Government schools, we increased our offer to 16 per cent, which represents the largest salary increase in the history of the College.

We have also committed to backdating the first 5 per cent increase to February 1, 2026 to ensure our staff receive their salary increase for this year. The 16 per cent offer also extends to schedule rates for Educational Support Staff (ESS).

The Victorian Government agreed to a 28.3 per cent to 32.4 per cent (depending on the teacher/classification) increase over four years (from 2026-2029).

Why has the Victorian Government been able to offer more for their staff?

The Government has had to respond to the needs of their employees, to shore up future workers and keep teachers and support staff working in public schools.

Government sources of funding are different to independent schools in many ways. For example;

The Government can cross-subsidise across departments;
The Government can access consolidated revenue (e.g. from general taxation)
The Government has the ability to borrow money to cover operating expenditure.

Why is the College unable to meet the IEU’s current wage requests?

Overnewton is a not-for-profit organisation, meaning that we need to budget carefully for our income and expenditure every year. We should make operating surpluses and then reinvest those into the College.

By this we mean;

Any operating surplus derived by the College is entirely reinvested into the College to ensure long term sustainability (eg. infrastructure improvements, capital projects, new programs for our students, and paying debt)
Our financial structure is different from that of Government schools or schools operating within a larger Catholic or independent system. Overnewton manages its own budget and cannot draw on funding pooled across a broader network of schools.
The College can borrow to fund major capital projects, and has done so in the past. Borrowing is not, however, a sustainable way to meet recurring costs such as salaries and daily operations.

Overnewton does not receive a separate Government funding allocation to cover wage increases, but we are also not expecting our current Government funding allocation per student to decline.

Any funds for increased salaries must come from the College’s own income. Staff salaries represent around 70 per cent of Overnewton’s cost base. Any material increase in salaries must be funded by one or a combination of:

Cost reductions, which have implications for services and programs;
Fee increases, which have implications for our families and ongoing enrolment numbers

As a rough guide, using our 2025 audited reports as a model, without cost reductions or additional Government funding, for every 1% increase in employee salaries, tuition fees would need to be increased by 1.2% to fund the increase in salary and associated employment on-costs, such as superannuation and leave. To be clear, the College endeavours to find savings in other areas every year, to offset as much of the increased wage costs as possible, but with staffing accounting for 70 per cent of our expenditure, the range of cost-saving measures are narrow.

How would Overnewton Teacher salaries compare with Victorian Government schools if the 16 per cent offer was accepted?

We have a single College Agreement for both Teachers and Educational Support Staff. The College is offering 16 per cent for all staff of the College who are covered by the Agreement.

Our benchmarking for Teachers would mean that 97 per cent of teachers at Overnewton (all those at Levels 3 to 11 of the Teacher Scale) would be paid at or above the equivalent Government school base salary rate by February 2028.

Level 1 and 2 Teachers are well supported within the College, with access to experienced mentors, engaged and motivated students, and supportive teaching loads designed to ease their transition into the profession. These supports reflect the College's ongoing commitment to nurturing early-career teachers and helping them build confidence, skill and resilience during these formative years.

We know that the Victorian Government Teachers will receive a further increase in November 2028. Their salary increase month is November, whereas Overnewton’s is February. This means that our negotiations in 2028, for the 2029-2031 Agreement, will be able to focus on our wages and conditions relative to the Government Schools at this time.

The College recorded a $4.2 million surplus in 2025. Why can’t that fund a higher salary increase?

The $4.2 million surplus represents the College’s accounting result for one financial year. It is not the same as an ongoing source of income that will be available each year. The 2025 result was primarily driven by stronger-than-anticipated enrolments for that year.

Salary increases are an ongoing annual commitment of approximately $40 million per year. The College must therefore determine what can be sustained over the full term of the Agreement; we cannot rely on the result from a single financial year.

The College’s current 16 per cent offer is forecast to increase annual salaries and associated employment costs by approximately $2m in 2026, rising to $6.7m per year by 2028.

We understand the commitment of the IEU, and our staff, to campaign for wage parity with the VGSA. The College has always sought to maintain wages that are slightly above Government schools. The speed with which this year’s increase needs to be matched poses a challenge for the College, and many other independent schools.

The current 27 per cent wage claim from the IEU would increase our staff costs substantially, and quickly. Using the College's 2025 employee cost of approximately $39.95 million as an illustrative base, the IEU proposal would increase annual staff expenditure above 2025 by approximately $3.60 million in 2026, $7.08 million in 2027 and $10.84 million in 2028.

Across our current enrolment of 2,096 students, this represents additional expenditure of approximately $1,716 per student in 2026, $3,378 per student in 2027 and $5,172 per student in 2028. If funded entirely through tuition revenue, this would increase the average tuition revenue requirement from approximately $15,323 per student in 2025 to $17,039 in 2026, $18,701 in 2027 and $20,495 in 2028. This is equivalent to increases of approximately 11.2%, 22.0% and 33.8%, respectively, above the 2025 average tuition fee. These figures are provided to illustrate the potential impact of the wage claim only. They are not proposed fee increases and do not include changes to other College costs, government funding, income or enrolments. The percentages are cumulative increases from the 2025 baseline, not annual fee increases.

This is why the College’s offer has been determined using its multi-year financial forecasts, expected enrolments, government funding, operating costs, capital expenditure and the need to maintain the quality of education and support provided to students.

Can the College pay staff more but also improve facilities at the same time?

Some families might find it helpful to have some background on the College’s finances, to explain how we have used recent surpluses.

Pre-Covid, the College went into debt for two new buildings (Prep-Year 2 and Year 6/7) ahead of the campus realignment. Many of our current families were here when those wonderful buildings opened.

Covid impacted so many of the families in our community. Some lost or reduced work, lost businesses, some encountered family tragedy, and others had to review their living arrangements. As a community, we did not wish to lose these families from our community, and we supported many families to remain at the College through Covid. We kept our fee increases as low as possible to support our families through this time. In 2021, there was no fee increase, and in 2022 it was 2.5%. We also did not cut staff during Covid, which many schools had to do. We wanted everyone to keep their jobs, which was important. The staff even voted in favour of no wage increase in 2021, which was wonderful, and allowed the College to not have a tuition fee increase in 2021.

The Board has made a deliberate decision to reduce the College’s debt and fund essential capital works since that time. The 2025 surplus, together with a range of other financial efficiencies in the past couple of years, have supported the College in strengthening its financial position following operating deficits in 2021 and 2022. Reducing debt lowers interest costs and protects our capacity to continue investing in staff, students and facilities. So, through responsible stewardship of resources we have reduced bank debt over the past three years and been able to begin our work improving other areas of our campuses. This has included landscaping and fencing at Canowindra, a refurbishment of the Year 9 Centre (with phase 2 commencing soon), a new audio-visual system for the Yirramboi Sports Hall and a number of other projects to commence in the coming months.

The College is already considering its next significant capital projects, such as much-needed improvements to the ageing Senior School facilities, alongside our smaller projects to enhance our campuses for our students. The Board and College leadership know that this level of financial responsibility is key to ensuring a sustainable College for current and future students and staff.

Why did fees rise in 2026 when staff did not get a salary increase?

Staff received a salary increase in 2023, 2024 and 2025, under the previous Enterprise Agreement.

Our fee increase for families is carefully considered each year, when we budget for the total costs of the College’s operations for the following year. This includes calculations for staff wages.

This year we have accounted for a staff salary increase, as we are anticipating providing one. However, at the time of setting the budget and fees (in October 2025) we did not foresee that the negotiations would take as long as they have. As said above, the College has committed to back pay.

What happens from here?

The College’s offer over three years has been shared with Union members for consideration.

The College hopes staff will have the opportunity to vote on the offer as soon as possible. We remain ready to work through any outstanding matters.

Details of any confirmed industrial action, including what it may mean for students and families, will be shared through the College’s Enterprise Agreement Updates page.

When will the College inform parents of the fees for 2027?

We are mindful of parents needing to know what our 2027 fees will be, to help make important decisions about their child’s future education.

We intend to be in a position to issue our 2027 fee notification early in Term 4.  While our existing terms and conditions require one term’s notice of withdrawal, we expect that the fee letter will include a revised notice timeline for parents who may be facing the difficult decision to withdraw their child(ren) for financial reasons.

A statement from Independent Schools Victoria

For broader context about the current environment across Victoria’s independent school sector, Independent Schools Victoria has provided the following statement. It outlines some of the wider funding and financial pressures facing independent schools and is available to read below.

Other updates

Other ongoing protected industrial action