A team running for the National Tertiary Education leadership says top salaries are “excessive”

The New NTEU ticket says pay for the union’s three top officials, “serve to distance the leadership of the union from the conditions that ordinary workers face on a daily basis.”

Candidate for general secretary, Anastasia Kanjere says if elected she and her colleagues will reduce their pay by 43 per cent to 50 per cent.

The union’s national office states that pay for the three top jobs are pegged to academic pay scales for  Level E (professorial) positions. Pay rates are now $212 000 for the president  and national secretary, with a loading and $192,000 for the assistant secretary.

Salaries are set by non-salaried members of the union’s national executive, who are themselves elected.

The New NTEU team has a support base among casuals academics.

They are challenging an officers ticket, incumbent federal president Alison Barnes, national assistant secretary Gabe Gooding and present NSW state secretary Damien Cahill, who is running to replace retiring general secretary Matthew McGowan.