Ballarat's Federation Uni staff take strike action over pay, conditions and job cuts as management seeks a 'sustainable roadmap'

National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) members at the niversity will take industrial action on Thursday, saying management has opposed job security and fair pay for casual staff. NTEU Federation University branch president Mathew Abbott said the overwhelming majority of union members have voted to stop work for 24 hours, with members of the university's campuses joining a mass protest at the Mt Helen campus from 11.30am on Thursday.

The action follows another continuing and indefinite strike by staff in the university's business programs area over job cuts. That industrial action began on Monday, with the NTEU saying it stems from a failure of the university to adequately agree upon a dispute resolution process in the face of widespread job cuts within the programs, and a growing culture of job intensification and unannounced workplace changes.

While the two issues are separate, Mathew Abbott says the university's management is rejecting good-faith proposals.

"NTEU members are fed up with FedUni management's capricious and tardy approach to bargaining," he said.

"We negotiated in good faith only to have FedUni reject reasonable claims designed to cut down on insecure work and enshrine basic rights in the agreement. This strike sends a clear message to management's bargaining team: it needs to return to the table and get serious about our reasonable claims."

In a statement, Federation University said it wanted a fair but sustainable outcome for all staff, and blamed COVID-19 for falling student numbers which affected the university's budgets and forced "difficult choices."

"Federation, with the great support of our staff, has developed and is implementing a roadmap to a strong and sustainable future. With an agreed schedule for Enterprise Bargaining with the union, we remain hopeful of reaching a fair result for all our staff, while recognising the need to be fiscally responsible during a challenging time for the university sector," the release said.

The NTEU says this message leaves staff incredulous, with COVID actually having little impact on student numbers. Programs cut and replaced by others attracting fewer students is just one issue, said a staff member.

"If management wants to make our university sustainable, perhaps they should reconsider their level of expenditure on external consultancies, up from $425,000 in 2018 to $1.3 million in 2019, $2.2 million in 2020, and $3.2 million in 2021," they said.

"The action of members is informed by the experience of the business discipline staff over the past couple of years, including job cuts at the end of 2019, 2020 and 2021, a major restructure of study programs and courses in 2021,disputed by staff at the time and predicted to fail.

"This has caused a major reduction in student enrolment and retention, and is responsible for the job cuts currently proposed. One of the biggest concerns raised by staff is the university's refusal to consult with them - the subject matter experts."

Documentation seen by The Courier on changes to the university's Institute of Innovation, Science and Sustainability confirm 8.7 full-time jobs will be cut in Business, Biotechnology, Food and Nutritional Sciences, and Geoscience. The paper says any disputes over the cuts have been resolved.

Other documentation seen shows the university withdrew its Bachelor of Business BB5 course at the end of August 2021, replacing it with another Bachelor of Business course which appears to be offered away from Ballarat.

It warns international students non-commencement in the program will result in them being reported to the Department of Immigration if they do not enrol with another provider.

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