From the expiry of the current agreement, to the expiry of the new agreement, the following pay increases are to occur:

• Administrative Pay increase in June 2022 of 2.1% (not part of the negotiations)
• Pay increase end of June 2023 of 4.6%.
• Pay increase end of June 2024 of 3.75%.
• Pay increase end of June 2025 of 3.75%.
• Pay increase start of June 2026 of 4.0%

• The Agreement will require the University to introduce and maintain 5 days of special paid leave to cover casually employed staff who need to take time off due to illness or injury.

• A new 30-day pool of leave for staff to use for the purposes of gender affirmation.
• Staff will also be entitled to use their full amount of personal leave, a further 50 days per year, for the purposes of Gender Affirmation. Staff will not be required to provide medical certificates on an on-going basis and leave for this purpose will not count towards the number of days a staff member can take without certification. 

• Staff can use their full entitlement of personal leave, 50 days per year, for menstruation and menopause reasons. Staff will only be required to provide medical certificates once per year and leave for this purpose will not count towards the number of days a staff member can take without certification.

• Staff will be able to access their full entitlement of personal leave, 50 days per year, for all assisted reproduction purposes (not just medical procedures). Staff will only be required to provide medical certificates once per year and leave for this purpose will not count towards the number of days a staff member can take without certification.

• Emergency services leave has been increased to 10 days per year – previously 3 days per year.

• The Agreement creates a requirement to introduce a comprehensive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Safety Policy.
• The policy will be created with involvement from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Staff and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander JCC.

• The Agreement provides for the recognition of extra duties and load for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff.
• The Agreement makes it clear that no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Staff member is required to undertake cultural work beyond their position description if they choose not to.

• The Agreement introduces requirements to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Staff are employed proportionally across all forms of employment. This will ensure that the University does not meet its Employment targets by employing large numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff in casual and fixed-term roles.
• The Agreement introduces new requirements to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders staff are employed across all areas of the University and at all levels of employment.

• The Agreement introduces a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Language Allowance.
• The Allowance recognises two levels of use and proficiency in a native language.

• The University will take all reasonable steps to reduce casual academic work by 20% progressively over the life of the Agreement.

• Creation of 330 new ongoing academic roles.
• 110 will be 40:40:20 roles, 50% of which will be a pathway for existing casuals providing support as early career researchers. 220 of the roles will be Education-Focused, with a minimum of 25% to be for internal applicants. 

• PhD students will have the option to undertake a 3-year fixed-term role (a PhD Fellowship) instead of undertaking rolling casual contracts. 

• Unpaid parental leave will not impact a staff member’s ability to progress to the next increment.

• Positions cannot be abolished in a change process unless any workload implications have been specifically addressed.
• Workloads to be reviewed proactively on a regular basis.

• Introduction of a new appeal panel for workload appeals. Whereas previously appeals went straight to the Chief Human Resources Officer, they will now go to a panel consisting of a management representative, a union representative and an agreed internal chair for a recommendation.
• Where a staff member is seeking a review of their workload they will not have to perform excess work and cannot face performance or conduct actions as a result of refusing to undertake the extra work.
• Vacant positions and leave must be factored into assessments of workload.

• Professional staff on HE0 1 – 7 will have an extended paid redeployment period of 6 months (providing a total redeployment period of 9 months) for the life of the Agreement, entirely funded by the University.
• Professional Staff at HEO 8 and above, and all academic staff, retain their current 13 week redeployment period.

• Management sought to remove internal advertising for all staff. Currently they must advertse all roles up to and including HEO 9 internally for 6 days prior to advertising externally.
• NTEU reps fought to retain internal advertising, and management have agreed to retain internal advertising for all roles up to and including HEO 7.
• Management are encouraged to advertise all positions internally, allowing managers who are willing to recruit from within to do so.
• NTEU reps retained the requirement that internal candidates up to and including HEO 5 must be offered the role where they meet the requirements.

• The Agreement will see the introduction of eligibility lists for professional staff recruitment.
• Where an internal candidate at any level was deemed appointable, but did not get the role, should a similar job at any level be required within a defined period, the appointable internal candidate will be considered for the job and the job will not be advertised externally.

• The Agreement will include a right that staff cannot be expected or required to monitor emails or other University systems when they are not at work.

• The Agreement strengthens the limitations on management’s ability to reject applications to take flexitime.

• The PSDF is a training fund that allows staff to undertake next-step career training. It is not a fund for management to use to train staff in their current job. The Agreement increases the value of the Fund by 10% from $2 million to $2.2 million.
• The Agreement also creates a new role to administer the fund. This role will ensure that the fund is correctly spent on staff-chosen development options as there were previously issues with local managers using the fund for on-the-job training.

• The Agreement will include a provision that prohibits management from using department-wide metrics and performance results against individual staff. Staff performance evaluation will be limited only to the staff member’s individual performance.

• Staff who move from one role in the University to a similar role in the University must have their existing increments recognised. This has previously been at the discretion of the local hiring manager.

• Where a staff member has their position downgraded through the reclassification process, the staff member will retain access to their current classification, including all future increases and increments, if the position is downgraded. Previously this was disputed by some local managers who sought to retain current salary but not future increments and salary increases.

• Management’s major claim was to remove the right of staff to work 40:40:20.
• The University has dropped its claim to remove the right of balanced academic staff to have 40% teaching, 40% research and 20% service. This remains the default for all non-education-focused staff unless they agree to work otherwise. All aspects – teaching, research, and service – have been protected.
• Staff will retain the option to have a different breakdown where such an arrangement suits both the staff member and the University.

• Retained Faculty workload committees, which management initially wanted to abolish.
• New process introduced where workload models cannot be agreed.
• In the first instance any intractable disputes will go to the Central Workload Committee for advice and assistance.
• Where this does not resolve the issues, the Provost will have the right to make a determination.
• Management wanted this right to be the final right. However, it is agreed that this right comes before the local staff vote on the new workload model.
• If staff disagree with the model proposed by the committee or the Provost, they retain the right to reject the model at the vote.

• The Agreement introduces an appeal mechanism for unreasonable academic workloads.
• Whereas previously the final appeal over excessive work was to management, the Agreement will see the introduction of a new appeal mechanism.
• Where workloads cannot be agreed at the local level the matter will be referred to a committee consisting of an NTEU representative, a management representative, and an agreed internal chair.
• Management will not be able to overrule the decision of this committee.

• There is currently no limit on the number or percentage of EFRs that management can have, as the 120-person external hiring cap expired in 2021.
• The proposed Agreement caps the number of EFRs at 25% of all non-casual teaching staff.
• Currently EFRs can be given a 70% teaching load, which can be extended to 80% “by Agreement”. EFRs will have an absolute maximum teaching load of 70%.
• “Reasonable” normative expected workload allocations to be developed within 12 months of Agreement.
• A 10% reduction in education focused teaching load for 2 years for Levels A and B (and Level C staff who have not held a substantive academic position for two years), with capacity to request 1 year extension.
• A right to transition to a balanced (40/40/20) position after 4 years, plus a calendar year’s notice, provided: (a) the staff member has developed an approved research plan; (b) they have met expectations for research and GLE relative to opportunity; and (c) this has been approved by the Dean and DVCE/DVCR and such approval cannot be unreasonably withheld.
• The ability to transition to 40:40:20 prior to this time through agreement with management.
• All EFRs seeking a review of their workloads will have access to the three-person committee (see previous item).

• The University will create 330 new ongoing roles (in addition to filling current vacant positions).
• 110 of these roles will be 40:40:20 with 50% of them (55) to be pathway roles for existing casuals into 40:40:20 positions. The successful staff will have a 40:40:20 allocation from the start of their employment but will have reduced research expectations as early career researchers.
• 220 of the roles will be EFRs. 25% of these roles will be specifically designated for internal applicants.
• The University will reduce the percentage of casual academic staff as a percentage of total academic FTE by 20% from 2021 numbers.

• The Agreement will include a provision that states that casual academic staff must be paid for all work they are required to perform.
• The Agreement will include an additional provision that allows academic casual staff to have any work allocation, or lack of allocation, reviewed so that no unpaid work will be demanded.
• Minimum 2 hour engagement when required to attend campus.
• Definitions in the agreement of lectures and tutorials updated to avoid misclassification.

• The Agreement will see the introduction of a PhD Fellowship position. These positions will give PhD students the possibility of obtaining a 3-year fixed-term role instead of undertaking rolling casual contracts.
• PhD students will have the option of casual roles or applying for a Fellowship. Management will use the equivalent of the casual academic staff calculations in the allocation of hours for teaching (e.g. for tutorials).

There are many issues in the NTEU log that have not been achieved. These include:

• No forced redundancies through indefinite redeployment.
• No change process to be implemented without staff approval.
• A limit of 120 EFRs filled through external advertisement.
• Automatic conversion after 2 contracts.
• Only one change process per staff member over the life of the Agreement.
• 17% superannuation for casuals.
• Commitment not to use wall boards to publicly rank professional staff performance.
• No surveillance (CCTV or otherwise) of workspaces and lunch areas.
• Publication of management KPIs.
• Improved trade union leave of 10 days per year.
• Climate emergency clause.

There were numerous issues in management’s log that they have dropped. These include:

• Removal of right to 40:40:20 (claim dropped – NTEU members retained right for staff to work 40:40:20).
• Periodic employment – introducing teaching only roles for teaching periods (claim dropped – NTEU protected the right of ongoing and fixed-term staff to have a research and service allocation).
• Removal of leave loading for higher-paid staff (claim dropped – NTEU members retained leave loading for all staff).
• Remove Academic Workload Committees (claim dropped – NTEU members retained the Committees).
• Weaken the dispute resolution clause (claim dropped – NTEU members retained current provisions).
• Completely remove the requirement to advertise internally for professional staff roles (NTEU members retained the requirement up to and including HEO 7, and the Agreement will require management to consider internal advertising and recruitment for all other levels).
• Stop the rollover of unused money in the Professional Staff Development Fund (claim dropped – NTEU members retained long term rollover).
• Reduce the number of hours for which a causal staff member can be engaged in a single instance (claim dropped – NTEU members retained the current provisions, with a modification in casual staff’s favour, allowing them to split the three hours over several occasions if and only if they choose to, without any right for management to impose this on them).
• Massive reduction in the number of continuing staff obliged to be employed in the Centre for English Teaching (NTEU members have retained 22.5 positions, which covers all existing ongoing staff).