Campaigning to win better workplaces and better unis

Damien Cahill

NTEU NSW Division Secretary

The last two-and-a-half years have been traumatic for the higher education sector.

JOB CUTS, chronic overwork, widespread job insecurity and ongoing workplace restructuring all underscore the urgent need for change.

Enterprise bargaining presents an enormous opportunity for NTEU members to win better workplace conditions and a decent pay rise. To make this a reality, we will need to build a collective campaign capable of shifting uni management from its business-as-usual approach.

Across NTEU Branches in NSW we have made positive steps towards building such a campaign. To date, four Branches in NSW – Sydney, Western Sydney, UTS and Newcastle – have won ballots for the right to take protected industrial action. In each case, strong supermajorities (around 95%) supported industrial action.

So far, three days of strike action have been taken by members at Sydney Uni, Western Sydney Uni members organised a half-day strike, and members at Newcastle Uni have begun a campaign of work bans. More action is planned. It is perhaps not surprising that NTEU members have got behind the campaign of industrial action so

strongly. Having lived through the last two years of trauma, university staff want better workplaces and better universities. The issues on which the NTEU is campaigning speak to these desires. We are campaigning to change university enterprise agreements and win: a significant reduction in insecure employment and its conversion into permanent jobs; enforceable regulations against overwork; curbs on rampant workplace restructuring and a fair pay rise.

In great news for union members nationally, members at Western Sydney University (WSU) have shown that the changes we are seeking to win through our bargaining campaign are realistic. As a result of a strong union campaign the NTEU has won the following changes as part of a new enterprise agreement at WSU:

• A reduction in academic casualisation by 25% and its conversion into 150 FTE permanent teaching and research jobs • The right to disconnect from work-related emails and communications outside of work hours • Working from home rights for professional staff • Stronger conversion rights for fixed-term staff • A staff member cannot be subject to more than one change management program over the life of the agreement that would result in redundancy • 20 days per annum gender affirmation leave • Pay rises of between 4.6%-6.4% in 2022, and a compounded pay rise of 14.2%-16.3% over the life of the agreement, with lower-paid professional staff receiving proportionately higher pay increases.

Proportionately, this represents possibly the most significant program of decasualisation in the last 20 years. And it shows what is possible. The task now is to extend these wins to other universities through a strong and nationally coordinated campaign.

Support Sydney Uni NTEU members on their 4th day of strike action this year

Wednesday August 17

Pickets open at 7am

Digital picket from 9:

show your solidarity wherever you are in the country!

Register at https://actionnetwork.org/ events/nteu-usyd-digital-picket/

Support Sydney Uni staff in their fight for job-security, fair pay and an end to predatory managerialism and exploitative casualisation.

#Usydstrike