Staff at James Cook University have approved the enterprise agreement jointly proposed by management and the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union. The vote was announced late Friday, with 48.5 per cent of eligible workers turning out and 90 per cent of them approving the deal. It was a consensual conclusion to a tough time, neither management nor union backed away from a blue in the bargaining.

With JCU settled the pattern of consensual deals with modest pay rises and no swingeing cuts in conditions seems settled across the country. Apart from Murdoch U that is, where neither side appears interested in compromise.