The National Tertiary Education Union has slammed Southern Cross University's latest threat to pressure staff into taking cuts to their real pay and conditions.
The University has rejected every single claim made by NTEU members and is now signalling it could hold a ballot on its proposed enterprise agreement without NTEU support.
The proposal includes a pay rise well below inflation, which at over 7% has sent the cost of living through the roof in 2022. It also strips core work conditions including limitations on the use of insecure workers, severance payments, and procedural fairness for performance and disciplinary matters, to name a few.
Southern Cross has failed to address appalling safety issues after a survey in August found 82% of staff were regularly experiencing psychosocial hazards.
The report found 44% of staff were likely to seek medical advice for work-related stress, 63% rated SCU workplace culture as negative or extremely negative, and 36% said they were likely or very likely to resign from the university.
With the university's main campus in Lismore, many staff have experienced trauma from the floods and are now having to cope with management's callous approach to bargaining negotiations.
"We're extremely disappointed SCU management wants to push ahead with a proposed Agreement that entrenches a significant real-wage cut, removes long-standing entitlements, and does nothing to address the serious workload and job security issues our members have raised," NTEU NSW Assistant Secretary Vince Caughley said.
"Not only has SCU management dismissed serious work health and safety issues identified by the NTEU, they haven't incorporated a single claim that our members have put forward.
"This tells you everything you need to know about the approach of the university administration.
"Staff at SCU deserve greater respect. The community expects more of our public institutions.
"We call on SCU management to withdraw their threat to conduct an enterprise agreement ballot without our support, and return to negotiations."
