Enterprise bargaining is about to begin: it can make big differences

Universities are moving from responding to COVID-19 to rebuilding after initial impact, which means dealing with a, “perverse combination of scarcity of resources and the imperative of technological change.”

Elizabeth Baré, Ian Marshman, Teresa Tjia and Janet Beard (all Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education) propose six ways managements and unions could use bargaining to improve conditions for staff and make universities more adaptable.

In particular, they propose, addressing the changed nature of casual teaching, which has made, “historic methods of pay calculation outmoded or excessively complex.” They make the case in Features this morning.