Academics at four Australian universities have won pay rises of up to 18 per cent and most of the other 32 public tertiary institutions are expected to reach salary agreements with the higher education unions over the next two months.
The University of Canberra became the first to offer a 10 per cent wage increase over two years in the round of enterprise bargaining taking place across the nation. The National Tertiary Education Union rated the proposed agreement as a significant breakthrough in its long-running pay campaign and acclaimed the fact that the rise would not be at the cost of jobs or working conditions.
But the union has accepted that universities will be seeking voluntary redundancies and that these are likely to result in the loss of 2,000 or more academic and general staff positions.
Under the Canberra agreement, academics will receive a combined percentage increase and cash payment equal to an average of 10 per cent in three stages over two years. It follows a 1.3 per cent rise awarded at Canberra and the Australian National University earlier this year. Last week, agreements were reached at the Australian National University, where academics will receive an average 10 per cent rise over the next two years; at the University of Wollongong, which has offered 11 per cent over months, and at the University of Western Sydney where staff will get an 18 per cent rise in three equal parts over the next three years.
NTEU general secretary Grahame McCulloch described the agreement at Wollongong as a model for the whole sector. It not only guarantees continuance of all working conditions but also includes provision for changes if there is any national improvement in salaries. The university will also sign a legally-binding deed allowing for deductions of union dues.
The NTEU sees the guarantees as important because of the conservative government's new industrial relations legislation which is intended to reduce union influence.
A spokesman for the University of Canberra described the outcome there as "a best compromise agreement" that would add Aus$6 million (Pounds 3million) to the wages bill. "This amounts to an act of faith on our part that the university can, through doing things differently, attracting new fee-paying students and allowing natural attrition to occur, find the money needed to fund the salary increases," the spokesman said.
Mr McCulloch said the agreement demonstrated that universities could provide double-figure pay rises without sacrificing jobs or conditions of employment.
The prospect of big increases at some less well-off universities is more problematic. Now there will be substantial differences between the salaries academics can earn in one university compared with those being paid elsewhere.