Staff at WSU’s pathway-provider, The College are voting on a management proposed enterprise agreement 

The deal includes a 1.25 per cent annual pay rise across the agreement, half of what the WSU branch of the National Tertiary Education Union asked for.

The NTEU has campaigned against the agreement, arguing doubling the payrise is entirely affordable given the College earned $70m last year (up from $62m in 2019) and paid a $35m royalty to the university. There is also a dispute over whether casual staff are paid for all marking-hours.

But WSU management must be confident it has staff support – enterprise agreements opposed by the union are generally rejected in all staff votes.

With enterprise bargaining at the university itself underway both management and union bargaining teams will likely factor the College result into their strategies.