Job security is key to working together to build a fair and productive workplace. A university that values its staff does not subject them to the stress and uncertainty of permanent insecurity.

Workloads were already at crisis levels in our universities pre-Covid. Since then, job cuts and the demands of shifting online have tipped them further over the edge. It’s not fair or safe for staff to be forced to work late, on weekends or while on leave just to meet deadlines. It harms our health and our capacity to deliver excellent teaching, research and support services.

NTEU members are campaigning for measures to create fairer and safer workloads. University senior managers must prioritise staff and budget accordingly — we are its most important resource. If they want to do more, they need to employ more people.

Professional staff make up more than 50% of total employees in our sector. We are the heart of a great university. We are highly skilled and dedicated to our work. We take as much pride in the achievements of our universities as our academic colleagues. We make a great team.

But our skill and dedication is not matched by the respect we are shown at work. We are constantly subjected to organisation change. Our input into those processes is usually ignored, with negative results for our work areas. Too many of us have to re-apply for our jobs every year.

NTEU members are seeking improvements that will show professional staff the respect we deserve and allow us the space to do our jobs and build meaningful careers supporting the universities we love.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are badly under-represented in our universities. Structural inequality has created a significant employment gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians. Reconciliation and justice have to extend into our workplaces.

The improvements we seek for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff are set by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander NTEU members. We are seeking meaningful, numeric employment. We want numeric targets because percentages constantly shift with total staff numbers and we want to see positive measures that give opportunities to more people.

A fair workplace is an inclusive workplace. We must all work together to ensure that workplace fairness extends to everyone and that work is safe and welcoming to all.

NTEU members have proudly been at the forefront of both the trade union movement and wider society in championing improved parental leave and domestic violence leave. But our work is not done. This round we are seeking provisions to assist trans colleagues and further provisions for parents.

The Covid pandemic has shown us that it’s possible for many of us for work from home at least some of the time. It’s also shown that for many of us, that is preferable.

While we definitely still value office time for collaboration and community building, working from home a couple of days a week helps our work/life balance. We save wasted time and money commuting and can get a few chores done in break times, freeing up evenings and weekends for recreation and family time.

A healthy work/life balance requires more than just work-from-home provisions. We need to stop our work seeping into our personal and family time. We need the right to disconnect from work outside work time.