UNIVERSITY of Newcastle union members have voted to reject the institution's latest offer in enterprise bargaining, dashing hopes an agreement will be secured before Christmas.
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As previously reported, UON surprised the National Tertiary Education Union Newcastle branch on Monday by tabling a revised offer, which includes a 9.5 per cent salary increase over three years as well as six additional days of paid holidays per year.
UON announced on Tuesday it was forecasting a deficit of at least $23 million for 2022 and Vice Chancellor Professor Alex Zelinsky told the Newcastle Herald he was "not proposing any staff reductions in 2023 at all at this stage" but added "it all depends on where we also end up with enterprise bargaining".
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"If [the offer] gets rejected and we have to go back to the drawing board and offer more, then we have to find ways to pay for that."
Branch president Associate Professor Terry Summers said members voted on Wednesday to reject UON's offer.
"The members were angry with management and they have been for some time," he said.
"I think management has lost their staff... they keep calling themselves leaders but leaders are people that others follow willingly. I can't see that. They just look like managers to me."
Dr Summers said the union and management started having preliminary discussions mid last year ahead of the agreement expiring in September 2021, which is when bargaining began in earnest.
"The [revised] offer hasn't addressed any of the things we've been trying to get out of bargaining, so the offer hasn't addressed secure jobs, safe workloads or fair pay," he said.
"In fact it's attacked all of those things. What it looks like is job security will decrease with this offer, workloads will go up and real pay will decrease. There's nothing we can hang our hat on at all."
He said the parties would either continue bargaining, or UON may take the offer to all staff without union endorsement, which is called a non-union ballot.
"We were bargaining in good faith and essentially we were thinking we could come to an agreement," he said.
"There's no way people can accept these diminutions of conditions, it's crazy stuff.
"The sentiment for industrial action has been very strong for a long time, almost since we started.
"The change process and some of the other things going on have not made the staff very happy at all. The feeling is very low."
A spokesperson for UON said it would make a statement after meeting with the union on Friday.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Kent Anderson said on Monday UON's offer "strengthens benefits and conditions while securing the future of our university for the long-term".
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Helen Gregory
Helen Gregory joined the Newcastle Herald in 2010. She is the masthead’s education reporter and has written for the H2 and Weekender sections, as well as across a range of issues. Helen is a Walkley Award winning journalist and was also part of the Newcastle Herald team that won the United Nations World Environment Day Media Award for Environmental Reporting.
Helen Gregory joined the Newcastle Herald in 2010. She is the masthead’s education reporter and has written for the H2 and Weekender sections, as well as across a range of issues. Helen is a Walkley Award winning journalist and was also part of the Newcastle Herald team that won the United Nations World Environment Day Media Award for Environmental Reporting.
