Our union's Queensland branch has its origins in 1919 when twenty like-minded employees formed the Assistant Masters Association.  This union was complemented a year later by the Assistant Mistresses Association.

When these two unions amalgamated in 1970 the newly formed organisation took the name of the Queensland Association of Teachers in Independent (Non-Governmental) Schools - Union of Employees, or more simply, to a generation of our members, QATIS.

The union boasted 774 members at the time of amalgamation and then doubled in the next five years and trebled in 10 years.

In the 1930s Ruth George played the major role in re-establishing the universal award covering non-government assistant mistresses. During the depression assistant school mistresses had been forced to accept pay reductions in their award.

Ruth George and her colleagues took on the challenge of restoring their salaries despite the opposition of the employers. Her determination and commitment to this cause was crucial in overcoming the employers’ objections and opposition.

In 2007 the Queensland and Northern Territory branches of the IEUA merged to become the IEUA-QNT.

The NT division recognised the limited resources available to it in order to successfully deal with the introduction with the Howard government's industrial relation laws that were introduced in 2006.

Both the branches overwhelming favoured the amalgamation and the IEUA-QNT was born.

In 2013 IEUA-QNT has a growing membership of just over 16,000 teachers, school officers, early childhood teachers and assistants,and ELICOS and business college staff across Queensland and the Northern Territory.