NTEU UC Bargaining Update
UC Management say NO to bringing forward salary offer
NTEU concerns about significant progress ahead of 26 March Member Meeting
On Wednesday we had Meeting 6 of UC Bargaining, and we communicated the outcomes of our last NTEU Member Meeting at the Bargaining Table:
Members have unanimously supported campaigning for an immediate 1.4% cost-of-living pay rise, which we would also seek to be written into the new Agreement (see our letter to the Vice-Chancellor)
Members have unanimously supported asking that UC leadership bring forward an overall salary offer as part of Bargaining
Members have resolved to meet on 26 March to consider escalation if there is not significant progress in bargaining negotiations
Significant progress
We were asked what we meant by significant progress, and our answer was pretty clear – our members want to see improvements. We especially highlighted workloads, job security, and salaries as key issues of concern.
We have concerns in all of these areas. The UC Management team have proposed removing key job security provisions, and we have significant concerns that things like the weekly teaching caps and teaching-free blocks for academics may be under threat. Professional staff workloads will be discussed on 25 March, ahead of our next Member Meeting on 26 March.
We also got a clear NO on a cost-of-living salary increase – though that won’t stop us campaigning for one. We got a clear NO on bringing forward a salary offer.
It’s pretty clear to us that if we want to move UC leadership, we’ll need to stand up together for an Agreement which values, supports and respects UC staff.
Job Security
UC have revised their position on fixed-term employment. It’s better than originally proposed, but elements of it still rely on the Fair Work Act. If the provisions in the Act change, UC staff will lose the corresponding entitlements – so we need to ensure that certain entitlements are protected rather than being the bare minimum that legislation requires.
Redundancy is still very much a work in progress. We’ve put a position that entitlements should not go backwards – UC’s position contains significant diminutions compared to the existing agreement. However, it’s not just notice periods and payouts. It’s also about the reasons why a role can be made redundant. We don’t want roles made redundant if the work is still there, whereas UC’s proposal is much broader in terms of circumstances the University can make someone redundant. We’ve highlighted spill-and-fills, as well as sacking Level Ds to replace them with Level Bs.
This is an important job security clause for continuing staff, so there is more to do.
We had discussions on misconduct processes, and some aspects of termination and review of decisions. It’s early days – there are some commonalities, but we want to make sure there are adequate protections in place, such as review of decision panels.
Let’s talk about AI
We proposed a clause on artificial intelligence and other digital technologies. We want to put protections in place that can help mitigate against job losses and ensure the ethical and transparent use of AI. We also want protections against things like recorded lectures being used in place of the lecturers, to guard against academics recording themselves into redundancy.
We’re all for embracing new technologies, but the benefits need to be shared. AI can free up time for staff to do more productive work (who wouldn’t like less admin?), or to reduce workloads, but it shouldn’t be used to replace workers.
Workloads
We’ve tabled a proposed clause on Academic Workloads. We were clear we’ll continue to workshop this with members, and we will circulate more details in the near future on a 13 March workshop for those interested in continuing to engage in improving the situation at UC (RSVP in person, register for online).
We’ll also be having a similar workshop on professional staff workloads on 12 March (RSVP in person, register for online), ahead of discussions at the bargaining table on 25 March.
All of these meetings are open to all members – even if they don’t affect you directly, it is good to learn about issues affecting your colleagues so that we can build solidarity and support one another.
Other matters
There was some good progress on other issues. Fixed-term employment is closer to resolution than it was, despite the remaining work left to do. We locked in Parental Leave, including improvements to access as well as an increase to Partner Leave. Reclassification is all but sorted – it’s a process which should have been working anyway, but now a new clause will help to make sure it does. We’re also closer to resolution on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment.
Our next Member Meeting is on 26 March, where we will evaluate whether we have made significant progress. The ball is in UC’s court and we'll see in the next couple of meetings whether they come to the bargaining table with clauses that will satisfy our members.
We look forward to seeing you on 26 March!
In solidarity,
NTEU UC Bargaining Team
Lachlan, Craig, Bethany, Katie, Denise and Luke
Meeting 6: 25 February 2026
Invite your colleagues to join NTEU at www.nteu.au/join
Authorised by Dr Lachlan Clohesy, ACT Division Secretary, National Tertiary Education Union