University of Melbourne staff in the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) have called a branch-wide strike next week to force further concessions in bargaining negotiations with the University.

The branch-wide strike will start with a stop-work rally at midday on Monday 2 October and run until midnight on Sunday 8 October. During this time, NTEU members will not be running classes or doing any other work, including communicating with students or planning lessons.

Picket lines are expected to form each morning from Tuesday to Friday at key entrances to the Parkville campus.

"Despite some progress since the last strike, there are simply too many areas that management has failed to engage constructively on,” said NTEU UniMelb Acting Branch Secretary Chloe Mackenzie.

"This follows months of delay on the part of management leaving staff with little choice but to take the drastic step of a university-wide strike for a whole working week.”

The Week 10 strike will involve union members from all faculties and work areas of the University, including teaching, library, administrative and student services staff.

This follows a half-day strike in May and a week-long in some faculties last month in Week 6. These strikes were  focused on obtaining an 80% secure work target and reductions in staff workloads. 

Shortly after the Week 6 strike, the University tabled a counterproposal which would see 75% of staff on a full-time equivalent basis engaged on a continuing basis or a fixed-term contract of at least twelve months.

According to NTEU bargaining representative Professor Joo-Cheong Tham, the union is now pushing for a redefinition of the University’s “core” workforce “so that continuing employment becomes the main mode of employment at this University.”

Despite the secure work concession, the NTEU says there has been no progress on other key demands.

"Our critical claim to address excessive workloads has been ignored; we haven't seen anywhere near enough progress on limiting restructures; and the University continues to refuse to provide for reasonable working from home arrangements for professional staff,” said Mackenzie.

Other demands that have not been resolved include 17% superannuation, First Nations quotas in selection committees, sick leave for casual employees, a minimum research allocation for new academic positions, and a minimum 15% pay increase across three years.

The University has previously offered a 4% pay increase in 2024 and a further 4% in 2025. Including increases of 2.5% in 2022 and 4% in 2023, Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell claimed in an all-staff email that the proposed increases would compound to a total of 15.3% over four years.

Some areas of dispute have been resolved throughout the bargaining process so far, with the union and University agreeing in-principle on provisions for 30 days of paid gender affirmation leave per year, a right to disconnect from digital tools outside of work hours, and the substitution of the January 26th public holiday, amongst others.

The University of Melbourne has been approached for comment.

More to come.