After a lengthy period of toing and froing, University of Newcastle (UoN) staff have agreed to support a 13% pay rise.

But, the fight’s not totally over.

While National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Newcastle branch members overwhelming voted in favour of their proposed new Enterprise Agreements (EA), they’re vowing to turn their attention to equity for casual staff.

“We’re very proud to have found a balance of improving benefits for our employees that ensure our university remains a contemporary and competitive workplace and ensuring our financial sustainability in a tough environment,” UoN Vice-Chancellor Professor Alex Zelinsky said.

As well as the 13% salary increases, the UoN’s latest professional, academic and teaching staff agreements include the following add-ons:

• Introduction of Life Leave to provide greater flexibility in use of existing Personal Leave entitlements for activities such as school concerts, weddings and life-admin days
• Three additional paid days off as university concession days
• The ability to swap Public Holiday arrangements, including for Australia Day
• Increased Domestic & Family Violence and Abuse Leave
• Enhanced Parental Leave conditions

“Our university has worked very closely with union representatives from the CPSU, NTEU and staff throughout this process,” Professor Zelinsky said.

“We’re very pleased to have reached this point.”

The vote in support of professional staff was 96%, while the agreement for academic staff and teachers was 93%.

Those figures contrast with the tremendous opposition to management’s initial offer, which was rejected by 90% last year. 

NTEU Newcastle branch president Associate Professor Terry Summers admitted it had been a long process over the past 22 months.

“The vote is a strong endorsement of the hard campaign to achieve reasonable working conditions at the university for casual staff, professional staff and teachers and academic staff,” he explained.

“NTEU members stayed staunch and, through that commitment, we have won a good outcome for everyone.

“We successfully defended existing conditions that management were so intent on winding back.

“And, our members achieved some very important wins. 

“For example, they won agreement that casual staff must now be paid for all hours worked. 

“For professional staff, members achieved guarantees for reasonable hours. 

“For teachers and academic staff, they secured an agreement that workloads shall be transparent and can actually be completed in the time allocated.”

Associate Professor Summers said at the end of the day, the students and staff were the university.

“I want to express my thanks to all of our bargaining team and all our members at the UoN who campaigned so hard to defend our existing conditions and won important new gains,” he added.

“I want to thank the students who supported us… and the wider community too. 

“We have said consistently that staff working conditions are student learning conditions – and that’s a key reason for why reasonable working conditions are so important.”

Associate Professor Summers noted that despite the important wins, management backflipped on super for casual staff.

“Management continues to pay casual staff a lower rate of super, despite acknowledging equitable super is an important equity issue,” he said.

“This is a critical equity issue – management knows it – and one that we will continue to prosecute. 

“We are not done yet.

“Equity means equity and we will continue to fight for it.”

Both EAs now go to the Fair Work Commission for approval ahead of implementation. 

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