Management has told staff what they might need to give up to make salary savings this year and next

What’s on the table includes;

* cancelling the Enterprise Agreement pay rise set for October

* no annual leave loadings this year and next

* staff required to reduce annual leave balances

The university will need a staff vote to vary the enterprise agreement to make the savings

In return for which, staff will get as much as nothing.

The way these proposals generally work is that management specifies the number of FTE positions it wants to cut and offer undertakings – a commitment not to abolish a specific number of jobs, a promise to go to voluntary before forced redundancies, for example, if staff accept temporary cuts to conditions.

But not at Murdoch U, at least not yet. Perhaps there will be more information in staff meetings. “People are fuming,” a learned reader remarks.