By Robyn Marshall
BRISBANE — The National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) won an important victory at the University of Queensland on October 28. The academic, research and teaching staff voted decisively (62.5%) against UQ management's wage increase offer of 7.5% over three years.
The NTEU is arguing for a 14.7% wage increase over two years and seven months, a figure which reflects expectations of inflation and is in line with wage increases won at other universities, such as Sydney University, this year.
In a clear attempt to sideline the union, Vice-Chancellor Brown used the federal Coalition government's industrial legislation to force a non-union ballot on academic and research staff. This meant that the ballot was heavily weighted against the union.
Management distributed 3736 ballot papers, including to all tutors, even if they had taught for only one hour during the year. The NTEU, which has 800 members at UQ, was unable to get a list of potential voters and had to rely on word of mouth and posters to put the case for a "no" vote on the 7.5% offer. The result, out of 1637 votes cast (42.4% of potential voters), was 986 against and 592 for.
In a mealy-mouthed statement admitting defeat, Brown declared, "[The] university management negotiating team will give careful consideration to the implications of the vote, including the significance of the overall number of votes and the distribution of yes and no votes".
The NTEU UQ branch has been negotiating since last December for a wage rise. This victory will force management to come to the negotiating table and make a realistic offer. The university's annual budget exceeds $500 million; it can afford to increase staff wages, which, by industry standards, are very low.
Federal education minister David Kemp was in Brisbane on the day the ballot was declared, confident that the NTEU would be soundly defeated. A media conference, at which the government and university management would come out all guns blazing, had been planned. When the union victory was declared, however, the minister, management and the media uttered hardly a peep.
The union's victory at UQ follows the non-union ballot at the University of New South Wales in September in which 74% of staff rejected management's enterprise agreement proposal.