A workplace dispute between staff and management at Victoria University (VU) has turned ugly, with the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) claiming its members have been stood down for taking industrial action, while the university has accused the union of misrepresenting its position.
The two parties have been negotiating a new enterprise agreement, but last week the NTEU announced it would take protected industrial action from September 2, claiming management’s latest workload proposal would leave staff worse off.
On Monday, the day before one week work bans were due to begin, the NTEU accused university management of standing down staff participating in the industrial action by refusing to pay them or accept any work.
“This extreme and disproportionate reaction from VU management to legally protected industrial action speaks volumes about senior leadership’s attitude to staff,” NTEU Victorian Division secretary Sarah Roberts said.
“Instead of engaging in constructive negotiations for fairer pay and workloads, VU has opted to punish staff exercising their legal right to take industrial action.”
A spokesperson for Victoria University said the two parties had recently reached an in-principal agreement on a majority of clauses in a new enterprise agreement and that the union’s actions were a setback.
“We are disappointed by this unnecessary action, which only delays the finalisation of a new agreement,” the spokesperson said.
Sarah Roberts accused university management of trying to emulate the 1998 waterfront dispute by attempting to organise non-union labour to break the industrial action.
“That’s just a red rag to a bull,” she said, adding that the union was prepared to escalate industrial action in response.
The VU spokesperson rejected the union’s allegations.
“We are concerned that the NTEU have chosen to misrepresent our response to their action, which is consistent with the Fair Work Act.”
The dispute centres on staff workload, with NTEU VU branch spokesperson Matthew Klugman claiming employees are currently being forced to work more than 50 hours per week, affecting their health and safety.
“Management is proposing worsening already dangerous conditions, and trying to send wages backwards in real terms,” Mr Klugman said.
A university spokesperson said they’ve offered staff new leave entitlements and a further salary increase, on top of a 4 per cent increase earlier this year.
