On Tuesday the university committed to a 3.75 per cent pay rise

VC Iain Martin told staff, “we are very conscious of the cost-of-living increases across Australia and the resultant financial pressures on you and your families,” (CMM yesterday).

Evidently not conscious enough for the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union which has a petition calling for a 5 per cent rise.

“Many Deakin workers are low-income casual teachers, librarians, and administrative and laboratory staff. They don’t have the luxury of high incomes to deal with rising costs,” it states. “Deakin staff moved mountains to keep the university operating through the pandemic. Now we need the university to do its bit.”

This follows the union demand at Monash U for a 4 per cent addition to the long promised 1 per cent pay rise now due (CMM July 11).

The NTEU national leadership is calling for 5 per cent per annum for three years in all new enterprise agreements.

These early arguments will be closely watched by managements around the country as bargaining picks up. So far inflation-focused one-off offers range from 2.6 per cent (plus $1000) at Uni Sydney to 4.6 per cent (plus $1000 for staff earning up to $80 000 at Uni Tasmania).