CQU pitch to staff: fewer holidays and no pay rise

Enterprise bargaining is just underway at CQU, with the vice chancellor making his case direct to staff

In a video message to staff, Nick Klomp repeats the university’s three core proposals.

* a five-day reduction in leave, “still more generous than the vast majority of universities.”

* a two-year agreement, instead of the three years plus, common across the sector

* no pay-rise in the two years. “I want to share the successes of the university but we can only do that if we are stable and get through the next couple of years. … In 2023, we will be in a much stronger position to be really generous with our staff.”

Professor Klomp contrasts what he says CQU needs with the National Tertiary Education Union’s log of claims, which he suggests are drawn-up to apply nationally, and will not work at CQU. “We are not the University of Sydney, we have been effected more than most universities by the closure of international borders.”

“Being swept up in a national agenda and debate and national politics – that is not appropriate for us.”

And he asks campus unions for a quick negotiation, saying enterprise bargaining “can be really divisive.”

Perhaps to encourage them he also urges all CQU staff to be involved, saying agreements are for all staff, not just union members.

If campus unions don’t sign-up this will be a hard-sell. The majority of staff at universities are not union members but they tend to take the comrades’ advice on pay and conditions. The last time CMM remembers university staff voting for an enterprise agreement opposed by the NTEU was at Charles Sturt U in 2013 , when VC Andrew Vann (CMM September 10, September 22 2013) won the backing of the other campus union.