Why this is important

The Macquarie University Enterprise Agreements nominally expired in December 2021, over a year ago. Since then, there have been sixteen meetings between union representatives and management.We have achieved in principle agreement on:

1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment targets, with budget and loadings remaining to be negotiated;
2. Working from home provisions and the right to disconnect, in particular for professional staff; and
3. Gender affirmation leave, with only the number of days per annum still not agreed.  

We have also reached an important milestone in the formal bargaining process – all NTEU claims have been put on the table and served on management.

Unfortunately, we have not received commitments or acceptable answers from management on the rest of our claims. In particular, MQ management have not seriously engaged with the NTEU’s proposals to:

1. reduce precarious work;
2. improve workloads; or
3. defend Macquarie staff from change management and forced redundancy.

We need to show Macquarie management that we don’t want our working conditions to fall behind.

Other Universities have already signed NTEU agreements with serious improvements to workloads and job security.