The National Tertiary Education Union of Australia has decided that salary deals being negotiated in the near future must deliver a 16 per cent wage increase by June 2012. Recently, the NTEU secured a 16 per cent wage increase over four years at Deakin University, in a deal that has persuaded the union to set a minimum increase in similar deals.

Depending on the expiry dates of agreements, at a minimum this is likely to equate to about a 4.25 per cent annual compound increase. However, NTEU general secretary Grahame McCulloch said the NTEU also would be expecting to secure increases above that. “I’m sure there are a significant number of institutions (that) are likely to reach settlements higher than that, having regard to their present and projected market position,” he said.

In the only other long-term agreement secured so far, the University of Sydney has agreed to an effective 5.6 per cent annual increase out to May 2012.

There have been a series of short-term deals that expire at the end of this year. Victoria University has agreed to a 4 per cent annual increase that, according to the government, reflects the university’s “budget uncertainties”. The Australian National University agreed in November to a 4.5 per cent rise that the NTEU says is effectively an average 5.5 per cent increase, after taking into consideration changes to pay scales. The University of Western Australia has agreed to an effective 4.3 per cent annual increase.

Needless to say, the current round of employment negotiations at Australian universities has challenging implications for New Zealand universities as they attempt to achieve salaries equivalent to their trans-Tasman counterparts.

From Andrew Trounson at the Australian