The campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union is calling for management to provide a 4 per cent pay rise, before bargaining begins for a new enterprise agreement

It follows a precedent for such a pay rise set by U Tas VC Rufus Black last week – a 4.6 per cent pay rise, with a one-off $1000 payment for staff earning under $80 000, “recognising that we are in an inflationary environment and cost of living pressures are affecting everyone,” (CMM July 4).

At Monash U, the union argues the 1 per cent rise due this week, under the old enterprise agreement is “ inadequate to inflation” and staff need 4 per cent more, “to keep our wages from falling in real terms.”

A 5 per cent rise would be in-line with what the NTEU wants per annum for the life of three year agreements across the country, now being, or due to be, negotiated.

The national union upped its original ask (4 per cent per annum for three years) when inflation first showed signs of taking off (CMM May 31).

Uni Sydney announced a 2.1 per cent increase plus a flat $1000 one-off, “in the context of increases to the cost of living” in May – which may be a low ball enterprise bargaining, which is now underway, tactic. It certainly would be a challenging sell for the university to make it the standard annual rise for the next agreement, what with the recently announced 2021 $1.04bn headline surplus.