Staff at Western Sydney U’s pathway provider, The College have emphatically rejected university management’s offer for a new enterprise agreement

College CEO Nicolene Murdoch advises that just under 80 per cent of staff voting were against it. The proposal was opposed by the WSU branch of the National Tertiary Education Union, which argued management can afford more than the 1.25 per cent pa pay-rise across the agreement on offer. The College paid $35m to the university last year, 50 per cent of 2020 earnings, up from $62m in 2019, (CMM August 6).

With bargaining now underway for a new agreement at the university itself, this is a bigger deal than it looks, demonstrating, that staff listen to the union and are inclined to oppose management-only offers. This is certainly the outcome at universities where managements have offered deals in recent years the union has opposed.

If WSU management was using the College offer to get a sense of what staff will accept they now have a good idea