University of Southern Queensland staff to stay away as pay negotiations falter

University laboratories and lecture theatres will fall silent as staff agitating for stronger work protections stay home without pay.

Union members will not work throughout Tuesday after claims of a “hyper-aggressive” response from their employer, the University of Southern Queensland, to proposed industrial action.

The National Tertiary Education Union had initially planned to start minor industrial action on Tuesday by refusing to work outside the hours of 5pm and 9am.

Documents obtained by The Chronicle show the university responded by telling staff that it would not accept any work from staff participating in the partial ban.

In accordance with the Fair Work Act, staff affected by the work ban would also forfeit pay while the ban is in effect.

Local NTEU organiser Professor Andrea Lamont-Mills said the university’s response was “hyper-aggressive”.

“We proposed the partial work ban because it would minimise the impact on students as they head into their final exams for the year,” she said.

“The university did not have to do this.

“It could just accept the partial ban, but they have chosen to accept no work and now members have been advised that they should not come to work.”

UniSQ failed to answer questions relating to its response, but in a statement reiterated that union members had foreshadowed the partial ban.

“The University of Southern Queensland highly values its staff and remains committed to achieving agreement with the NTEU on an improved enterprise agreement as soon as possible,” a university spokesman said.

“The University has proposed a salary increase of 16.5% over five years, which acknowledges the cost of living, and includes an immediate 5% increase once the agreement is endorsed by staff.”

It is unknown how many staff will be affected, with the union saying staff are not required by law to tell it in advance if they intended to take part in the partial ban.

About 93 per cent of NTEU members voted for the ban about two weeks earlier.

Prof Lamont-Mills said the partial ban would have only affected professional staff who were rostered to work from 8am-4pm as well as academic staff who stay late or come in early to catch up with marking and administration duties.

The union had planned to run the partial work ban indefinitely.

Prof Lamont-Mills said the full ban would stop on Tuesday afternoon, because the university’s position adversely affected students.

“We don’t want to maximise disruption to students, we want to minimise the disruption,” she said.

“We are going ahead with other actions, such as making statements to staff and students about why we are taking action and responding to emails in all-caps and no punctuation.”

The union has been negotiating with the university for a new enterprise bargaining agreement since the start of the year.

It is asking for greater protection around outsourcing, redundancy, termination and a genuine reduction in the use of casual staff by converting casual positions into continuing positions.

Importantly, the union wants workload commitment clearly outlined in the EBA.

“These are not unreasonable asks for a pay offer of 3.3 per cent per year that is the second lowest of Queensland universities and is among the lowest of union negotiated offers across Australia,” Prof Lamont-Mills said.

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