Union members will go out on day three of classes
National Tertiary Education Union members will take protected industrial action for the day, next Wednesday, as part of their enterprise bargaining campaign. There will be a “high vis” event at the gates of the St Lucia campus first thing and a morning rally at the Great Court. Campus observers say no one really knows how many lectures won’t happen.
The union states the action is because the previous agreement expired in mid 2021 and 600 or so days on a new agreement is way overdue.
The university’s enterprise bargaining info page assures staff, it is “committed to finalising a new enterprise agreement through continued good-faith bargaining as soon as possible so employees can have certainty about their terms and conditions.”
To which the university added last night, “constructive negotiations with the NTEU are continuing, and we are committed to finalising a comprehensive and fair agreement as soon as possible.”
The university had sought an agreed delay to bargaining in 2021, proposing to extend the then expiring agreement for 12 months, “provide staff with greater stability at a time of uncertainty” (CMM July 21 2021) but the NTEU made improved job protections a condition. And so management returned to the bargaining table – which is where the parties remain (CMM August 16 2021.
The continuing process at Uni Queensland contrasts with QUT, where a deal through to 2025 was done just before Christmas, with a 14.1 per cent pay rise (CMM December 8).
And after academic staff voting knocked back a management offer at Griffith U in December, negotiations are said to be moving at a solid pace (CMM February 7).
Apart from the pace of talks, observers suggest the big issues at Uni Queensland are the size of a pay rise, workloads and job security – and any move to convert casual academic staff to continuing positions (perhaps following the precedent set by Western Sydney U (CMM February 1).
“Given casuals are the most activist of union members you would think management might come up with something,” a UoQ observer remarks.