These are some of the conditions set out in a new pay deal likely to be voted through by Catholic teachers across NSW and the ACT in the next fortnight, ending a 18-month-long stoush.

The breakthrough came after thousands of teachers turned out for strike actions last year, and then voted down a proposed deal in December.

The new agreement, which runs 270 pages long, limits meetings for classroom teachers to about 10 hours a term, mandates time be set aside for early career mentoring and explictly does away with any expectation that teachers answer emails out-of-hours. In the territory, the Catholic school year will also be shaved down to match public schools.

While pay rises had been agreed upon, the previous deal did not allow for employment disputes to be settled by the Fair Work Commission, exposing a "major flaw" in the Fair Work Act according to the Independent Education Union.

This week, the union told its members celebrations over the new deal were "imminent", pending a final review of the fine print and then a vote by teachers in about two weeks.

Assistant Secretary of the union Mark Northam said teachers were "astounded" that the right to arbitration was not included in their original enterprise agreement, leading to the "arduous" campaign.

The employer representative body had argued the umpire should only get involved when both parties agreed to the intervention, while the union wanted the option guranteed for members in the enterprise agreement.

"For our members, the biggest drivers were workload, and that notion of going to the umpire to settle a dispute," Mr Northam said.

"It's difficult to believe that in 2018 a right to arbitration clause would not be a national employment standard."

Last week, Sally McManus of the Australian Council of Trade Unions called for the Fair Work Commission to be given greater powers to "umpire" workplace disputes.

Teacher workloads were also thrust into the spotlight this month following the release of the Gonski 2.0 report. Suggestions by Coalition MP Andrew Laming that teachers could work a “regularised” 38-hour week with less overtime if they gave up their holidays, were widely criticised by the sector.

For almost 17,000 Catholic teachers working in 11 dioceses across NSW and the ACT, Mr Northam said the new deal would put up "fences" around workloads.

"That regularly came up as a concern for members, they saw that as critical" he said. "They understand you have to have effective communication but there has to be a boundary around that as well...This is saying it's reasonable for all workers, not just teachers, to have a point in the day where they can choose not to answer emails."

Another critical component of the deal was new conditions for mentoring, Mr Northam said.

"Teacher attrition rates are extraordinarily high, so a way of keeping early career teachers is to ensure they do have that induction and that mentoring not on top of their work but as part of their role."

Under the new deal, NSW teachers will recieve a 2.5 per cent wage increase, backpaid from January, while those in the ACT, who follow government rates, will get a 1.5 per cent pay rise, back paid from April 1 2018.

If teachers vote through the deal this month, it will come into effect seven days after approval from the Fair Work Commission.