The Monash University branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) voted for a 24 hour strike beginning midday Wednesday March 20, provided University management does not submit to Union demands.
The NTEU called for improvements to job security, a 1,645 hour ceiling on academic workloads, the right to work from home, and a 4.5% pay increase for 2024.
“An Enterprise Agreement that doesn’t deliver these fundamental improvements should be unacceptable to all,” a Monash NTEU spokesperson said.
The NTEU has been engaged in an enterprise agreement bargaining process with Monash University since late 2022. Negotiations began over 55 clauses, of which only 12 remain to be settled.
The planned strike comes after inconclusive bargaining with Monash University management on March 7. The Union “attempted to discuss and reach agreement on a number of key clauses” such as “leave, conversion of fixed-term staff, hours of duty, and on-call allowances”.
“It seemed to us today that the University only wants agreement as long as it is on their terms,” the NTEU said following a March 7 meeting with Monash University management.
According to the NTEU, the University refused to modify the fixed-term conversion policy. The NTEU noted that management “argued that because the Award allows the university to offer rolling fixed-term contracts indefinitely, there was no need to offer staff anything better than conversion after four years.”
University management refused a Union offer to “accept the status quo” on work hours provided Monash University made concessions on professional staff probation. Management also declined NTEU requests for 600 additional full-time-equivalent positions.
Additionally, the University would not concede any changes to long-service leave. According to the NTEU, “Monash HR told us that despite Monash’s long-service leave being the worst in the state, they simply weren’t prepared to offer anything better.”
The University made minor concessions in some areas, committing to consideration of staff requests for on-call allowances with accompanying review procedures for rejections, and a possible increase for non-birth partner parental leave to 12 weeks.
Impending strike action follows recent scandals involving Monash University, including a $127,000 party, decried as “lavish” by the NTEU, for leaving Vice-Chancellor Margaret Gardner at the National Gallery of Victoria in late 2023.
Monash University NTEU Branch President Dr Ben Eltham said “Monash’s University Council has serious questions to answer about who approved such an egregious waste of money.”
According to Dr Eltham, University staff were “rightly angry” about the event. “With a litany of governance failures now piling up at Monash, it’s hard to see how Chancellor Simon McKeon’s job is tenable,” Dr Eltham said.
Dr Eltham questioned why the University’s own performing arts centre was not used for the party.
National President of the NTEU, Dr Alison Barnes, said “sadly these revelations are shocking but not surprising” in response to the party. “Where was the lavish function for all the Monash casual academics who had more than $10 million in wages stolen?”
Barnes said “the lack of accountability is appalling,” and called on the Federal Government to “overhaul the broken governance model in response to the Universities Accord.”
A Monash University spokesperson told Honi that “the University remains committed to reaching a fair and equitable agreement with the NTEU as quickly as possible. We believe all remaining matters can be resolved with continued goodwill and openness to compromise on both sides.”
The University “respects the right of the NTEU to take industrial action. The strike action will, however, not assist in the resolution of the remaining matters under negotiation.”
“The University will be open and operating as normal. There will be no reduction to student services, scheduled classes will continue, and we expect any impacts of the industrial action to be minimal.”
