Facing $100m hit, QUT proposes 2 per cent wage rise be postponed

A 2 per cent wage rise at Queensland University of Technology will be postponed under a plan to deal with its $100m budget shortfall.

Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil. Photo: Glenn Hunt

A 2 per cent wage rise will be postponed and leave loadings halted for the next 18 months at Queensland University of Technology in a proposed deal with staff unions announced by vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil on Tuesday.

In a sweetener for staff, the university is offering a moratorium on forced redundancies.

The proposal, which will need to be endorsed by a staff vote later this month, is part of the university’s two year plan to tighten its belt and deal with an expected revenue shortfall of up to $100m this year due to COVID-19 and the loss of international students.

It follows earlier measures including a pause in most building programs, a consolidation of administrative divisions and all 150 senior staff reducing their hours to a nine-day fortnight for the next 12 months.

The new deal at QUT also includes a pledge of no forced redundancies at the university until at least June 30 next year, some changes to leave provisions (such as the use of leave during Christmas shutdowns this year and next year) and a commitment to offer retraining opportunities.

It also guarantees that superannuation contributions will be maintained so that retirement savings of staff are not affected.

Professor Sheil said negotiations with the National Tertiary Education Union and the Together Union were “productive” and were “aimed at preserving as many jobs as possible”.

NTEU Queensland division secretary, Michael McNally said he was “disappointed we’ve had to undertake these negotiations”.

“We’re positive about the outcome for staff at QUT,” Mr McNally said. “But it’s in the context of chronic underfunding by the federal government over decades and the exposure of the whole funding mechanism by the lack of international student arrivals which have been propping up the system for decades.”

QUT has the advantage that its savings package is not being opposed by the NTEU. Three other universities — Southern Cross, Melbourne and Wollongong — have lost staff votes on COVID-19 savings packages which the union has opposed.

The savings measures are part of a four-step plan to respond to COVID-19 by preparing the university for “a strong recovery in a fundamentally changed world”, Professor Sheil said.

Another part of the plan is a proposed organisational realignment for the university which would reduce its current six faculties and two institutes to five faculties.

The business school and the law faculty would merge, as would the creative industries and education faculties. Two institutes — health and biomedical innovation, and future environments — would be absorbed into existing faculties. But the Faculty of Science and Engineering will separate into two. A discussion paper on the organisational changes will be released later this week.

A third element of the plan will accelerate the universities’ digital transformation so that its virtual campus offers the same quality of teaching and learning to students as they get from face-to-face learning. “This will enable more flexible learning and give access to high quality QUT courses to a greater number of students throughout Queensland and more broadly throughout Australia,” Professor Sheil said.

The final element of the plan is a strategic review in the second half of this year and early 2021 aimed at delivering the university’s “strong and unique” research and educational programs.