That’s why on Monday hundreds of Catholic teachers and staff marched through the city’s streets and ended up at the Diocese of Wollongong head office, demanding a right to arbitration.

Teachers say they are being denied the right to arbitration, and that’s why they aren’t signing off on a new enterprise agreement, after the previous agreement covering Catholic systemic schools, expired in December last year.

‘’The right to arbitration is something I feel really passionate about,’’ Holy Spirit College, Bellambi teacher Katrina Pickering said.

‘’I think we deserve that right as teachers and I want to make sure we get the right agreement in place.’’

The former lawyer added it was imperative for her employers [Catholic Education Office] to come back to the table and negotiate with the Independent Education Union.

‘’Alternative dispute resolution is something the courts are moving towards and you can’t go to courts these days unless you have tried negotiation, mediation, conciliation and arbitration,’’ Ms Pickering said.

‘’It feels like we are being denied this right. A right I teach my kids that everyone in Australia is entitled to.

‘’I don’t feel like we’ve been given the real reasons why they won’t change this clause. It feels like a power grab by our employers.’’

However the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations executive director Tony Farley argues the dispute resolution procedures proposed in the new agreement are the same ones that have been in place for the past seven years.

‘’They do have access to arbitration via consent of both parties, it's exactly the same agreement that the union agreed to for 450 independent schools this year,’’ Mr Farley said.

Read more: Wollongong Catholic teachers and staff to strike and hold rally on November 6

IEU NSW and ACT branch secretary John Quessy can see the irony in having a dispute on how to resolve a dispute, but said the union was left with no option but to take protected industrial action.

‘’We want an umpire and they don’t. We want certainty and they don’t. We want a fair process and they don’t. We want our enterprise agreement and work practices enforceable and they don’t,’’ Mr Quessy said.

‘’Without the right to arbitration, enterprise agreements are compromised.’’

He said staff wanted to be able to call on an independent umpire if and when negotiation and conciliation falls.

‘’Arbitration does not create disputes, it settles them,’’ Mr Quessy said.

This view is shared by Heath Dennelly, a teacher at St Josephs High School in Albion Park.

‘’Arbitration is important as a last resort,’’ he said.

‘’But it is the CEO’s major sticking point, and that is what’s preventing the agreement going through. That’s disappointing from our perspective.’’