Melbourne University staff launch seven-day strike after management and union deadlock

Staff at Australia’s most elite university will walk off the job for up to a week after bargaining negotiations broke down between the union and management.

Melbourne University staff will go on strike after the union said management refused to negotiate on secure jobs and a fair wage rise.

Staff at the University of Melbourne will strike for up to one week from Monday after management’s refusal to negotiate on secure jobs and a fair wage rise, the union says.

Union members voted to take industrial action after negotiations between vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell’s representatives and the National Tertiary Education Union remain deadlocked following a year of failed talks.

In a statement, the union said all NTEU members — including staff from the faculty of arts, Melbourne law school, the VCA school of art, student services and the library — will stop work from Monday amid their bid to secure a 15 per cent wage increase over three years, or the equivalent of CPI plus 1.5 per cent.

Professor Duncan Maskell, vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne.

The University of Melbourne is Australia’s wealthiest tertiary institution, reporting $2.9bn in revenue in its latest 2022 annual report and $3.1bn the year before that.

As well, the union says the university has refused to negotiate workloads, flexible work arrangements and limiting restructures.

NTEU national president Alison Barnes said the university has already claimed the title of being Australia’s “worst” underpayment university and engaged in industrial scale wage theft.

“Even after repaying $45m in lost wages, university management is trying to deny staff the fair pay increase they deserve,” Dr Barnes said.

“Universities need to abandon approaches like Melbourne’s to enterprise bargaining. It’s seriously out of touch with the universities accord which is rightly pushing institutions to become exemplary employers,” she said.

NTEU University of Melbourne branch president David Gonzalez said senior management “proved” they would not engage constructively.

“For this negotiation to be making little progress after a year tells you everything you need to know about the way management has behaved,” he said.

“Staff don't take any strike action lightly, especially not for an entire working week. We have been left with no choice.”

In February this year, the University of Melbourne reported it had back paid $45m in lost wages to current and former staff “who were paid incorrectly for work they performed”, according to an internal notice.

The notice to staff from deputy vice-chancellor Pip Nicholson said the university was trying to reduce reliance on casual staff.

“We are discussing this important issue with the NTEU in the enterprise bargaining process that is currently underway,” she said in February this year.

The university has been embroiled in two fair work cases in the past year involving the underpayment of staff.

In February, the Fair Work Ombudsman alleged it underpaid 14 casual academics in the faculty of arts between 2017 and 2019 worth $154,424 in total.

As well, the FWO accused Melbourne University of threatening the university allegedly took adverse action again two casual academics to stop them from claiming payment for work performed.

A spokesman for the University of Melbourne said it will continue to engage constructively with the union.

“We have responded to the union’s claims but have not accepted them all,” he said.

“We are shortly entering into a phase of intensified negotiations in order to resolve the sticking points, having already reached in-principle agreement on a number of matters.

“As experienced across the entire sector, regrettably bargaining has typically been protracted.

“In relation to pay rises, without any obligation, the University has given staff two pay rises outside of bargaining over the past two years in genuine recognition of the work undertaken by our staff.”