The NTEU UQ Branch Newsletter Issue 5

24 April 2026

ALL STAFF BARGAINING UPDATE MEETING

WEDNESDAY 6TH MAY 12 NOON

All UQ Staff are invited to an Enterprise Bargaining Update from the NTEU Bargaining Team. Come along and hear the claims we’ve put forward, and where we are heading to next. Find out how our claims are being received and what we plan to do with issues such as accelerating inflation and our wage claim. It’s time to get active and involved so we can advance our negotiations as quickly and effectively as possible.

Come along and bring a friend!

Date: Wednesday 6 May 12 noon

In person: 05:213 (Richards Building Lecture Theatre)

Online: Register here

At this meeting we will:

Meet your Bargaining Team
We will introduce all members of the Bargaining Team, who have been appointed through a representative process. Team members were nominated and endorsed through branch structures to ensure they reflect the breadth of our membership and are accountable to you.

Bargaining update and emerging issues
We will provide a detailed update on progress to date, key claims, and the University’s position. This will include discussion of emerging issues, areas of contention, and the escalation of campaign activities and member involvement required to secure a fair outcome.

Member questions and discussion
There will be dedicated time for questions, feedback, and open discussion. Your input is critical in shaping our bargaining strategy and ensuring we are advancing the priorities of members.

If you are unable to attend but would like to raise a question or issue in advance, please feel free to send it through via uqbranchcommittee@nteu.org.au.

Join us!

To find out more, visit our website: www.uqsolidarity.com

Email us your story: uqactivists@nteu.org.au

To join your union: nteu.au/join

Bargaining Update Thursday 23rd April 2026

Today your union’s bargaining team met with management to go through further issues from our Log of Claims.

So…what happened this week?

Carers and Chronic Illness issues

At bargaining today (Thursday 23rd April), your union bargaining team put forward our comprehensive package to address the systemic barriers faced by staff with chronic illness and caring responsibilities. This package will fundamentally transform working conditions by replacing inconsistency and repeated barriers with a coherent, enforceable system that delivers stable, predictable, and genuinely accessible support for staff with disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence, and caring responsibilities. Management acknowledged the issues raised and indicated they were receptive to the concerns, noting the impact these challenges have on staff. However, they declined to respond substantively to the proposed measures at this stage, stating that they wish to consider these claims alongside the broader suite of leave provisions before forming a position. We will continue to press for meaningful engagement and concrete outcomes that deliver consistent, fair, and enforceable support for affected members across the University.

Teaching Associates/ Casual Academic Conversion 

Your Union also put forward clear, evidence-based proposals to strengthen Clause 16 (Teaching Associate conversions) and deliver a genuine pathway to secure employment for casual academic staff. Despite the weight of findings already emerging from the joint review—including clear evidence of unmet demand, refusal of eligible applicants, and widespread non-engagement due to structural barriers—management declined to respond, indicating they would wait for the final review outcome at some future point. This response represents yet another delay in addressing a well-documented problem. Staff experiencing ongoing insecurity cannot afford indefinite deferral; meaningful reform is both necessary and overdue.

Overall progress? Not yet… 

In fact, to date, management has yet to put any of their own claims on the table, leaving key issues unresolved despite repeated discussion. This lack of engagement is increasingly frustrating and creates a sense that bargaining is proceeding without meaningful progress. While the Union has advanced clear, evidence-based proposals, management’s position remains largely undeveloped. The NTEU will continue to bargain in good faith and to press for concrete responses to our Log of Claims and for genuine movement at the bargaining table.

What is Industrial Action?

We hear the term industrial action thrown around a lot. But what does it actually mean?

Is it striking like a coal miner in Thatcher’s Britain? Building a barricade Les Mis-style? Refusing to write scripts like the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike that stopped Hollywood?

In Australia, industrial action is governed by the Fair Work Act. In simple terms, it means workers taking collective action by withholding some or all of their labour in order to put pressure on an employer during bargaining.

That can include:

• stopping work completely — a strike

• stopping work for a short period — for example, one hour or half a day

• refusing particular tasks — such as attending management meetings or responding to certain types of emails

• working to rule — doing only the work required by your role, and no longer absorbing extra unpaid labour through goodwill

At UQ, industrial action can only be taken safely and lawfully when it has been authorised through the proper process. This usually means the NTEU applies to the Fair Work Commission for a Protected Action Ballot Order — or PABO. Members then vote on the proposed industrial actions. If the ballot is successful, only the authorised actions covered by the ballot and notified to the employer can be taken as protected industrial action.

That word protected matters. It means the action is lawful, and members cannot lawfully be disciplined or victimised simply for taking authorised protected action. But the rules are strict, which is why it is so important that members follow union advice about what action is authorised, when it starts, and who is covered.

Industrial action has historically been necessary to make UQ Senior Management take bargaining seriously. The stronger, more visible and more collective the action, the more leverage members have to win better pay, workloads and conditions.

A PABO takes time. It is a properly conducted democratic vote, overseen through the Fair Work Commission process. That means we need to start thinking now about what forms of action members may be willing to take in this bargaining round.

Stopping work is one option. But there are many others. Across Australia, workers have used bans on unpaid overtime, bans on particular administrative tasks, bans on meetings, taking full breaks, and refusing duties that rely on goodwill rather than proper staffing.

So what industrial action is on the cards at UQ?

That is up to NTEU members. We will be asking for your ideas and preferences soon, so that we are ready to act collectively when the time comes.

The message is simple: industrial action works when members act together. To win a better agreement, we need more UQ staff in the union, and more members ready to take action.

Learn more about industrial action and how it works.

Australian Universities are in the headlines…for all the wrong reasons.

Recent reporting by Four Corners and The Saturday Paper has exposed serious governance controversies across the sector. At ANU, former vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell has reportedly been accused of “serious misconduct” over allegations relating to the promotion of a close colleague — allegations that should be treated as allegations unless finally determined.

At UTS, reporting has raised major concerns about a KPMG-produced list of “underperforming” researchers connected to a $100 million cost-cutting drive, with The Saturday Paper reporting that UTS vice-chancellor Andrew Parfitt knew of the list even while his office denied it existed.

Meanwhile, Four Corners reported that Australian universities spent $1.8 billion on consultants and contractors in 2024 — even as universities across the country were cutting jobs, courses and staff conditions. The Senate inquiry into university governance has also raised concerns about vice-chancellor pay, weak transparency, poor accountability, and the need for stronger staff and student voices in university decision-making.

These stories may be about ANU, UTS and other institutions — but they are not “over there” problems.

UQ staff know the same sector-wide pattern: decisions made from above, restructures justified by opaque numbers, workloads pushed down onto staff, consultation treated as a box-ticking exercise, and public institutions increasingly run like private corporations.

Governance is not abstract. It affects your workload, job security, rights, students, research, and the future of the university.

The solution is not just better manners from senior management. It is organised staff power.

Joining the NTEU, participating in bargaining, speaking up collectively, and taking action when needed are all part of rebuilding universities as democratic public institutions.

Read our longer explainer on why university governance is a workplace issue — and why UQ staff have a stake in fixing it.