At Western Sydney U the National Tertiary Education Union is cross with management, which proposes “an extraordinarily slow pace of bargaining” for the new enterprise agreement. “It will be completely inadequate to get this stuff done in a timely fashion and it needs to be done because there are important job security questions at risk,” the union bargaining team warns.

But up at CQU the NTEU is cross with management over the cracking pace VC Nick Klomp proposes, because “bargaining can be really divisive.” Union industrial officer Robert Rule responds the NTEU has agreed to weekly meetings until July. “Given how far we are apart we do not expect quick negotiations.”