Staff at the University of Melbourne will take strike action next week.

Staff at the University of Melbourne will take strike action next week.Credit:Simon Schluter

Union members who work in the Faculty of Arts,Melbourne Law School,the Victorian College of the Arts School of Art,student services,stagecraft and the library will start five to seven day action the same day.

The union’s Victorian division secretary Sarah Roberts said thousands of students could be affected.

“Strikes in arts and law will shut down whole subjects if not courses for the week,” she said.

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Members voted to strike on Wednesday after representatives of the vice chancellor,Duncan Maskell,did not engage on a number of issues,the union said. Their concerns include job security,pay,workloads,flexible working arrangements and limiting restructures.

Union members have sought a 15 per cent wage increase over three years,or an increase in line with increases in the consumer price index that measures inflation plus 1.5 per cent.

University of Melbourne union branch president David Gonzalez said the negotiations had dragged on for more than a year.

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“Staff don’t take any strike action lightly,especially not for an entire working week,” he said. “We have been left with no choice.”

A University of Melbourne spokesperson said the institution had already reached in-principle agreement on a number of matters and would soon enter intensified negotiations “to resolve the sticking points”.

“As experienced across the entire sector,regrettably bargaining has typically been protracted,” the spokesperson said. “The university respects the rights of those individuals who choose to participate in the industrial action,and those who choose not to.”

The spokesperson said alternative arrangements would be made for students.

James Gallagher,co-convenor of the UniMelb Students Support Staff Strikes campaign,said he expected many students to join staff actions throughout the week.

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“Poor working conditions for staff have a direct impact on students’ education,” he said.

“Satisfaction levels are low,class sizes are up and there is less opportunity for face-to-face learning and feedback between staff and students.”

The tertiary education union’s national president,Dr Alison Barnes,said the university had engaged in “industrial-scale” wage theft – giving it the title of Australia’s worst university for underpayment of staff.

“Even afterrepaying $45 million in lost wages,university management is trying to deny staff the fair pay increase they deserve,” she said.

Academic and professional staff from five Victorian universities including the University of Melbournewent on strike in May,cancelling lectures and tutorials and massing in Melbourne’s CBD in a co-ordinated push for higher pay and an end to the sector’s heavy reliance on casual labour.

Seven of Victoria’s eight universities – University of Melbourne,Monash,Deakin,La Trobe,Swinburne,RMIT and Victoria University – have been in enterprise bargaining negotiations for months.

Roberts said Federation University had already finalised negotiations and Deakin had since reached in-principle agreement.

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