UniSQ strike: Hundreds of UniSQ staff to walk off job in biggest action in decades

The University of Southern Queensland has responded to claims of “unnecessary escalation” from the educational facility, as hundreds of staff prepare to go on strike next week.

University of Southern Queensland. Supplied

More than 200 UniSQ staff will walk off the job next Wednesday as a result of UniSQ management’s refusal to discuss the rights of staff further.

Plans for the half-day strike come after claims from the National Tertiary Education Union that the university refused to meet further with union representatives and instead engaged the Fair Work Commission.

Branch president Professor Andrea Lamont-Mills claimed UniSQ had an “over-reaction” as the parties moved closer to a final agreement.

“(NTEU) members see it as yet another aggressive, unnecessary escalation,” Dr Lamont-Mills said.

“UniSQ Members are super keen to strike…they are keen to show UniSQ management that they won’t agree to losing important rights and entitlements.”

The strike is set to begin on October 25 from noon.

The union told the university it has until next Tuesday to come back to address their concerns, or the strike will proceed.

A UniSQ spokesman said the university disputed the union’s claim that the Fair Work Commission referrral was an unnecessary esclation.

“The university is pursuing the conciliation process outlined in the Fair Work Act 2009 using an independent facilitator as the most effective way to reach agreement for the benefit of our staff,” he said.

“An independent facilitator is a reasonable next step in the process with agreement unable to be reached after 21 enterprise bargaining meetings, including a full day of discussions on Wednesday this week.

“The university provided the NTEU with detailed feedback on Thursday this week, but the NTEU has not yet responded.”

NTEU secretary Michael McNally claimed one of the key issues for the union was that the university refused to commit to criteria that identifies redundant roles, and using forced redundancies as a last resort.

“The job security of all staff at UniSQ is at stake,” he said.

“Moving to forced redundancies without using all other measures like redeployment and natural attrition first might actually cost the university money.”

The university spokesman said he university provided in-principle agreement on six of 10 outstanding issues raised by the union.

“Progress was made on the other matters during the detailed and respectful discussion, but as the university was unable to agree to all 10 matters, the NTEU advised they could not recommend the agreement to their members,” he said.

It is the first time in two decades staff from the university have gone on strike.