Union says no to ACU savings plan

A national meeting of  members at all Australian Catholic University campuses yesterday voted near unanimously to oppose management’s savings plan

The university wants to save $42m on staff as part of its COVID-19 cost cutting. Management commits to no voluntary redundancies but fixed term employment would be reviewed and sessionals and casuals would lose work. And if there is a proposal to “vary” the 2 per cent pay rise for 2021, now in the Enterprise Agreement, it would go a staff vote (ACU June 15).

When all this was announced NTEU branch president Leah Kaufmann said the union would oppose any changes, “proposed by the ACU alone.”

And yesterday members voted to do that, agreeing to campaign against any management proposal, “that leads to job losses, reduces job security, increases staff workloads, cuts staff pay, or eliminates or reduces previously agreed staff pay rises.”