We’re all feeling the strain of insecure jobs, excessive workloads, and the rising cost-of-living here at Macquarie. That’s why NTEU members at Macquarie are campaigning for better workplaces to make our University a better place to work and study.
Our colleagues at other universities across Sydney have recently won fantastic improvements to their working conditions through NTEU campaigns and industrial action. Despite management’s posturing, it’s NTEU members who are fighting to defend the core values of this University.
Despite 12 months of bargaining, MQ management is still not agreeing on several of our important proposals:
What proposals are still outstanding?
Job Security - Academic Casuals
- Other NTEU agreements include hundreds of secure, ongoing positions reserved for existing academic casuals at those universities.
- NTEU action has secured 70 ongoing academic positions for casual staff, but we believe existing MQ casuals deserve the first chance at these jobs – and management is still holding out.
Job Security - Fixed-term Staff
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NTEU members have seen fixed-term contracts used to keep staff in precarious employment, despite management renewing the contracts year-on-year. When work is ongoing, fixed-term staff deserve an enforcable right to be converted to ongoing employment.
Collegial Workload Committees
- In the rest of the sector, collegial academic workload processes are the norm. At MQ, however, Executive Deans have nearly unlimited power to hand-pick workload committees and control academic workload models.
- NTEU members have tried multiple attempts to introduce checks and balances on the Deans’ power. We believe that Academic Workload Committees need to meet the collegial standard set elsewhere in the sector, but the Deans have refused to meet our red line on this issue.
What have we achieved so far?
Workload relief
- New conditions to address workload intensification that would result from redundancies during change management.
- Introduction of Post-Implementation Reviews following change management processes.
- Introduction of the Right to disconnect from work outside of work hours.
- Improved work-from-home rights
- Improved Professional workloads for staff returning from leave.
- Assumptions about class sizes will be included in Academic Workload Models.
Job Security
- Redundancy and retrenchment as a last resort in change management.
- Improved redeployment rights.
- New protections to ensure staff aren’t subject to disciplinary action when exercising intellectual freedom.
- We’ve achieved 70 new permanent jobs that will result in a 25% reduction in academic casualisation at MQ.
- We’ve secured limits on how often staff can be subject to workplace change proposals and improved change management processes.
Workplace inclusivity
- 20 days of gender affirmation leave per annum.
- Union representation in Diversity & Inclusion consultation.
- Introduction of a population parity target for the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff.
- Improving and increasing the Family and Domestic Violence Leave provided to Casual staff, from 5 days unpaid to 10 days paid.
What can you do?
A strong union is an active union! We encourage all members to get active and contribute to our campaign. It takes contributions big and small, so even if you only have a little time to spare, you can make a positive contribution.
Materials below will assist you in being an active participant in our BetterMQ campaign.
Donate to the strike fund
Strike action means going without our wages. For many staff, particularly casuals, this can be the difference between making rent or not.
Please donate whatever you can afford to support MQ casual members and low-income members, who have made the commitment to withdraw their labour in support of the NTEU’s campaign for better workplaces, and better universities.