James Vassilopoulos, Melbourne

Multi-campus stop-work meetings of the Victorian University of Technology (VUT) branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) on February 9 resolved to strike on March 8 and to hold a 48-hour strike on March 23-24. The strikes have been called because the negotiations with university management have been unsatisfactory.

The NTEU is seeking a mid-2008 expiry date to its enterprise agreement with the VUT and a 22.5% salary increase, plus a $1000 bonus upon signing the agreement.

NTEU representatives met VUT vice-chancellor Professor Elizabeth Harman on March 3 and she refused to concede to these two demands. VUT is claiming it has no money to fund the pay rise. The VUT 2005 budget, however, has already factored in an effective wage increase of 22.5% over the period. The budget statement of financial position also concludes that the university “expects to be in a sound financial position during the 2005-2007 triennium”.

Other issues that NTEU members at the VUT are campaigning for are reduction of staff workloads, a cap on overtime and reduction of the percentage of casual workers compared to permanent workers.

The NTEU stated in a December 2004 offer of settlement that there has not been any trade-off of key conditions for the proposed salary increase. But the union will have to work hard to ensure fair results regarding performance management.

There are five universities out of eight in Victoria that are still negotiating enterprise agreements. The NTEU has had some recent successes, gaining a 24.5% and 24% salary increase at Monash and Wollongong universities respectively.

From Green Left Weekly, March 9, 2005.
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