'Pay offer' a cut to university funding

By Susan Price MELBOURNE — More than 150 members of the National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) and their supporters gathered outside federal treasurer Ralph Willis' office in Footscray on January 25 to protest against the federal government's 5.6% wage offer. Ted Murphy, secretary of the Victorian division of the NTEU, told Green Left Weekly that although many staff members are still away on leave, the union was happy with the turnout. Several more protests, planned for the next two weeks, will target cabinet ministers' electoral offices, including Kim Beazley's in Western Australia, and Nick Bolkus' in South Australia. From Canberra, Nick Soudakoff reports that more than 1500 university workers rallied outside federal parliament on January 22 to demand a fully funded 5.6% pay rise. The action was a combined rally of the five unions covering university workers, and a bus load of National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members from Sydney and another from Wollongong. There was outrage at the latest government offer of a supplemented loan for a 3% pay increase in March and a further 2.6% increase in January 1997. The government offered to pay for the 5.6% ($168 million) increase now, but said that it would impose an "efficiency levy" of $35 million a year from 1999 to 2006. This makes the pay offer a "loan" to universities at 4% interest. This is another cut to university funding, dressed up as a wage increase. Messages of support were sent from Central Queensland University, University of Sydney, University of NSW, Charles Stuart University (Wagga campus), James Cook University in the NT and the Queensland branch of the NTEU. The next step in the NTEU's campaign for wage justice will involve general meetings of members around the country. A combined mass meeting of university workers will be held in Canberra on January 30. Murphy said that these meetings will be held within the first two weeks of February in order to include members currently on leave. "The purpose of these meetings is twofold: to ratify the NTEU's rejection of the federal government's offer and to put a series of resolutions to members regarding possible industrial action ... The focus of any industrial action will be on the month of March, which is the start of the first semester." The NTEU describes the government's offer as "totally unacceptable", and said that it is "unsustainable for universities already operating with severely stretched resources. Serious financial difficulties, leading to widespread job losses, will result." The NTEU is expecting strong support from its membership for the campaign. "I don't think there will be any argument on the resolutions", Murphy said. According to a January 29 NTEU industrial bulletin, cabinet ruled out any possibility that the federal government would fund the pay rise and insisted that universities accept the ongoing cost of the pay rise after the first two years. The NTEU has been arguing that "the tertiary education sector cannot afford such an impost".