According to the NTEU’s branch at RMIT Training, the offer provided to staff members promised “low wages and excessive workloads”.

Swinburne NTEU’s strike joins a wave of industrial action in Victorian universities, including UniMelb, Monash, and La Trobe.

The new agreement was upvoted by approximately 97% of union members and is a result of one and a half year of negotiations, and strikes this year.

Staff rallied on Open Day to build support for industrial action against unfair pay, overwork, and casualisation.

ANU took strike action on 27 July to demand job security and better workloads.

The increasing mistreatment of staff in the tertiary education sector is symptomatic of a larger evil: university degrees become increasingly commodified, and universities themselves become corporatised.

The dispute has been ongoing since November last year, and includes a demand for pay rises that cover the rising cost of living in the UK.

The proposal will see 23 positions cut and the dismantling of the Health Services Unit.

"This pay offer suggests ANU staff are seen only as a cost… rather than real people with mortgages or rent to pay, families to feed, and bills to pay.”

22 months of bargaining has come to a close, with 80% of NTEU members voting for the agreement.