University of Canberra staff to strike on October 26

On Wednesday National Tertiary Education Union members voted unanimously to go on strike from noon on October 26.

ACT division secretary Dr Lachlan Clohesy said members were not getting enough traction on their key claims on pay and conditions.

"We want an enterprise agreement which values, supports and respects UC staff. We don't feel that negotiations are heading in that direction," Dr Clohesy said.

The current system has salaries tied to the consumer price index, but the university has proposed to cap wage increases at 3.5 per cent.

Dr Clohesy said staff would potentially lose thousands of dollars from the end of January 2024 if the university's proposal was adopted.

"In addition, we're not getting much back the other way in terms of conditions," he said.

"Our members are striking for fair salaries, for better job security, for healthy workloads, for flexible work and for improvements for assistant professors."

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Chief people officer Wendy Flint, who is a member of the university's bargaining team, said job security remained the number one priority.

"We have been completely transparent with the NTEU on the university's forecast financial position and have presented this to them on several occasions," she said.

"The UC bargaining team cannot agree to salary increases that the university is unable to afford."

She said it was one of the few universities that did not have redundancies during the pandemic.

Ms Flint said the university would work to minimise the potential for disruptions to students amid the strike.

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