UNIVERSITY of Canberra staff will go on strike tomorrow (October 26) demanding better pay and job security.

Staff will walk off the job for five hours from noon.

It comes after the union recently rejected the university’s proposal of a 3.5 per cent pay rise.

“UC staff salaries are currently linked to CPI, but the university proposes a cap on future pay rises which would likely cost staff thousands of dollars a year from January 2024 if implemented,” National Tertiary Education Union ACT Division Secretary, Dr Lachlan Clohesy said.

“This follows a period of low inflation, which has meant that UC staff haven’t had an annual pay rise above 2 per cent since 2014.

“While staff are being asked to tighten their belts, the Vice Chancellor’s package was worth almost one million dollars, and hundreds of thousands were
paid in executive bonuses, according to the UC 2021 Annual Report.”

Staff are also demanding healthier workloads, better job security, flexible work entitlements, and improvements for Assistant Professors.

“At present, staff are being asked to give up a lot for very little in return,” Clohesy said.

“The university’s current position makes some progress on academic workloads, but it doesn’t sufficiently address issues such as minimum research and service allocations, and enforceable workload guidelines.

“There is little benefit in terms of professional staff workloads.”