Back to bargaining at Uni Queensland

Management has dropped the idea of asking to extend the existing enterprise agreement for 12 more months

The university floated the proposal on the grounds that an extra year “would provide staff with greater stability at a time of uncertainty.” To which campus commentators responded that it would also give management a better sense of what a post(ish)pandemic world will look like in terms of income and a chance to bargain accordingly for the next agreement (CMM July 21).

Whatever management’s motives, the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union responded by suggesting that a precondition of union support for an extension was management committing to new job protections (CMM July 23).

The university could have gone it alone on the all-staff vote needed to pass an enterprise agreement variation but has now decided not to. “As the unions have advised they will not support the proposed extension, the university will resume the bargaining process with a view to reaching a new agreement.”

This is understandable. The general experience at universities is that while the majority of staff are not union members they listen to the comrades on wages and conditions.

And if Uni Queensland management had provided extra job protections to win union support for a 12 month delay it would have created a higher base for the union’s log of claims next year.