There is a workplace deal at ANU with the National Tertiary Education Union telling members that an ‘in principle agreement’ is reached, with a final version to be ready for staff votes “in weeks or months.”

ANU workers will receive three 2 per cent pay rises, plus two $1800 payments between next month and July 2021. According to Vice Chancellor Brian Schmidt and NTEU assistant national secretary Matthew McGowan, this translates to an average 9.1 per cent pay rise for academic staff and 10.6 per cent for professional staff. Fixed-term staff will also receive the same 17 per cent management superannuation contribution as continuing employees – which the union is pushing for across the country.

There were signs of a stoush a while back at ANU, with the union kicking-up over management plans to extend the span of the normal working day and for staff to have use their own leave over Christmas shutdown but the union says the bargaining team “fought off” management demands.

Following last week’s win at the University of Sydney, this is another achievement for the NTEU at a university where bargaining was long and difficult in the last round. As such it demonstrates the success of the union’s obvious intent to give managements no reason to follow Murdoch U’s strategy of using the Fair Work Commission to strip out prior agreement conditions in bargaining. There are now deals announced, or about to be at, CQU, Deakin, Edith Cowan, Curtin, UWA, UniSydney, UniAdelaide and now ANU.