Management’s COVID-19 pay cut rejected

 What’s happened: A majority of staff (just, it was 51 per cent) turned out to vote on the university’s proposed savings variations to the Enterprise Agreement. They knocked them back by a thumping majority. The poll, declared yesterday was 5190 (64 per cent) against and 2879 for the plan.

Why: The university proposed saving $30m by cancelling the new 2.2 per cent pay-rise introduced under the existing Enterprise Agreement. In return it promised voluntary separations before sackings (CMM May 27). This was not enough for members of the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union, who voted to oppose the plan (CMM May 29).

And oppose it they did, in a vocal campaign that questioned the detail and, need for savings, given the universities reserves.

What it means: This is a major defeat for management. With a yes vote the Fair Work Commission would have waived through enterprise agreement changes. But now cuts to staff costs will be contested long and hard by the union and probably opposed by many staff who aren’t NTEU members but who listened to the union when they voted and will keep listening.

What’s next: Last month Uni Melbourne explained that it was not signing on to the then union-four VCs proposed accord on cuts to save jobs. The deal, “contains provisions that it has no interest in pursuing – such as stand downs, forced leave, forced reduction of hours, large pay cuts of up to 15 per cent and deferral of incremental progression – and believes there is no value in asking staff to vote on changes to employment conditions that it has no intention of making,” university management said then (CMM May 18).

With its savings proposal knocked-back staff will be watching for what the university does now.

The VC is not for turning: “This outcome will not change our ability to survive the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it will certainly make the task ahead more challenging for all of us as we move towards inevitable workforce reductions,” Vice Chancellor Duncan Maskell said yesterday.

“We cannot live beyond our means. We are facing a large reduction in our recurrent revenue and therefore quite simply have to reduce our recurrent expenditure. We will continue the planning process to look for savings we can make without compromising our recovery,” he added.