Staff and employers of the Murdoch University Student Guild have reached an in-principle agreement in the latest round of bargaining after four weeks of negotiations.
Despite the short time frame, the negotiation team for the workers, which constituted an NTEU Industrial Officer and two Murdoch Guild staff members, were able to keep members in the loop throughout the entire process.
The workers’ bargaining team noted that the employer team were fair, just and willing to cooperate with the requests of the union membership to come to a positive and favourable outcome for the workers.
Two key sets of conditions that were won include leave entitlements for staff experiencing domestic violence, and clauses that facilitate the transition of staff on maternity leave back to part-time or full-time employment.
The agreement was reached at roughly the same time as Murdoch University’s Enterprise bargaining agreement, which lasted over a year and a half and involved a drawn-out, bitter dispute process between the NTEU’s bargaining team and the university’s management.