The University of New South Wales National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Branch voted overwhelmingly to adopt a new agreement earlier this week, including an 18% staff pay rise over four years.
The new agreement was upvoted by approximately 97% of union members and is a result of one and a half year of negotiations. The new agreements offer an average of 3.9% annual pay rise, with the first pay increase of 6% to occur this year onwards.
This development also promises 256 secure jobs for casuals — 90 professional staff and 166 academic jobs. Other gains include intellectual freedoms in place for staff, better conditions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, an increase in paid cultural leave from 5 days to 10 days language allowance to casual employees, and 30 days yearly paid gender affirmation leave.
UNSW NTEU Branch President Richard Vickery said, “Staff stood together in support of colleagues in precarious employment. Union members recognise that a secure work environment is critical for the well-being of all staff and to provide continuity of educational support for students.”
The regulation of workload and regular reviews of working conditions are important parts of the agreement. According a media release by NTEU UNSW, “Workload review will consider the duties required of the positions, the hours worked to achieve outcomes compared with hours allocated, and whether tasks require modification or reallocation without impacting classification. Importantly, professional staff have also won a workload review after restructure, to assess whether there has been an impact from making positions redundant on the workloads of the remaining staff.”
The University went on strikes for three weeks earlier this year with rolling stoppages and a 24 hour work stoppage.
