A learned reader at CQU suggests the interests of management are unfairly served by the first enterprise bargaining pay rise not being backdated to when the deal was done. However a university spokesperson responds that salary increases start when Fair Work Australia ticks the deal and while all is well with the new agreement this is taking time – FWA has had the paperwork since end October.  And the National Tertiary Education Union explains that pay rates will work out over time.

Instead of a 2 per cent rise on the day of FWA approval and then 2 per cent on the next four anniversaries of that the union proposed, and management agreed to, 2 per cent on approval and then 2 per cent on 30 September 2018, 30 August 2019, 30 July 2020 and 30 June 2021. “The first increase is a little slow (approval is taking longer than we expected). But staff then effectively get a pay rise every 11 months.  Swings and roundabouts,” NTEU Queensland secretary Michael McNally says.