In an email to all ANU staff, ANU Vice Chancellor Genevieve Bell requests that staff forgo their expected 2.5% December pay rise under the current Enterprise Arrangement to assist the University to meet their budget shortfall. This change would need to be approved by the majority of staff to go ahead.
This is following a directive from the ANU Council to reduce the ANU’s current cost base by $250 million by the end of 2025. As a result, Bell claims in the email, “The financial challenge we are facing is real and substantial”.
Bell shares that she announced to ANU Council this morning that she would be reducing her salary by 10% effective immediately. She exhorts staff, “That is what we are doing, and everything needs to be on the table including all of our salaries.” She is recommending that other executive staff agree to 2.5% salary reduction.
In the email, Bell closes with, “I know this is a big ask, but I hope it is a sacrifice you are prepared to make along with me and our University’s leaders.”
A spokesperson for ANU told Honi Soit that, “on forgoing the 2.5 per cent December pay increase – as outlined this will only go ahead if approved by a majority of all ANU staff. Staff would still receive a 16 per cent pay increase of the course of the current Enterprise Agreement.”
In response to the email, the ANU branch of the NTEU has organised a snap rally to be held at noon tomorrow on campus to oppose the offer. The union claims the changes could result in 638 job losses by January 2026.
NTEU ANU Branch President Millan Pintos-Lopez said in a previous statement about the cuts that “We’re concerned for the people whose roles have been identified as surplus and will work with our members to try to save jobs.”
