La Trobe University educators staged a 36-hour stopwork last week, affecting classes at the Bundoora, Bendigo, Shepparton, Albury and Mildura campuses.
Four picket lines were set up around the multi-entrance Bundoora campus.
The industrial action was called after the failure of university staff to progress a new collective bargaining agreement with management. The previous three-year agreement ended 18 months ago.
After almost two years of negotiations, staff rejected an offer they claim falls below the salary average at other universities, saying it would leave staff worse off in real terms.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) La Trobe University branch president Virginia Mansel Lees said the university’s recent announcement of 350 job losses meant even heavier workloads and had added to discontent among staff.
“Management’s offer of 10.25 per cent [pay rise] over four-and-a-half years is less than the rate of inflation,” Ms Mansel Lees said.
“This pay offer is in real terms a pay cut for staff, who are already stretched to capacity with unfair workloads. Compared to the bonuses received by senior management, and taking into account the vice-chancellor’s assurances of La Trobe’s sound financial position, we think our pay requests are more than reasonable.”
NTEU La Trobe branch organiser Liz Schroeder was even more direct.
“The university can’t retain and attract great staff if it’s paying amongst the lowest pay rates in the sector,” she said.
The warring parties are due to meet again this week and NTEU assistant national secretary Matt McGowan said there were positive indications the university’s management wanted to resolve the dispute.
But further industrial action is foreshadowed if there is no progress.
“Universities rely on the goodwill of their staff,” Mr McGowan said.
“They are announcing the university will take more and more students and there are going to be job cuts. They’re asking more and more of staff without compensation.”
