Australian universities face new wave of strikes

Australian universities are bracing for a new round of strikes, after staff at four institutions flagged industrial action ranging from overtime bans to indefinite stoppages.

Employees at UNSW Sydney, Deakin, Melbourne and Monash universities have voted to take industrial action, in staff ballots conducted since mid-March. Voters overwhelmingly approved clauses authorising strikes of up to 24 hours, with about three-quarters giving their blessing to longer stoppages.

They also offered wholehearted support for bans on working outside core business hours or performing duties not specified in position descriptions. Staff were less enthusiastic about proposals to disrupt assessment, teaching and online activities but nevertheless gave such tactics their backing.

Meanwhile strikes have continued at the University of Sydney. A full-day walkout on 5 April was the ninth in the current enterprise bargaining period, marking what is believed to be the longest-running strike campaign in Australian university history.

Picketers carried signs demanding “work-life balance”, “fairer workloads”, “casuals’ rights” and “a fair pay rise”. National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members blocked the Western Avenue gate with a sign proclaiming “you can’t put students first by putting staff last”.

The strike followed a walkout on 31 March, planned at what the NTEU claims was the biggest union meeting in the university’s history. Three more stop-work days have been flagged in May.

Curtin University staff also walked off the job on 5 April, after overwhelmingly rejecting a management pay and conditions offer in February. British musician and activist Billy Bragg serenaded staff with a performance of workers’ anthem Solidarity Forever.

Altogether, staff at 18 universities across the country have voted to take industrial action over the past year. Employees at four of them have since come to terms with their respective administrations.

Enterprise agreements covering Western Sydney University, the University of Tasmania, Australian Catholic University and Queensland University of Technology have been gazetted by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) since mid-December. Union members at another two institutions – the University of Canberra and University of Technology Sydney – have endorsed management proposals that have since been put to all-staff votes.

The FWC has also approved an enterprise agreement negotiated at Charles Darwin University last year without union support. The commission had initially refused to ratify the agreement over voting technicalities, but reversed this decision on 6 April.

But resolution appears distant at Monash, despite vice-chancellor Margaret Gardner’s commitment to honour the first tranche of proposed pay rises – a 4 per cent increase from early June – regardless of whether a deal has been signed by then.

Monash union members have resolved to strike on 3 May over their unhappiness with the pay offer, working conditions and the progress of enterprise negotiations.

Union members across the country are particularly concerned about job insecurity, escalating workloads and university governance, according to a survey conducted by the NTEU to inform its next submission to the Universities Accord.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com