The NTEU UQ Branch Newsletter Issue 21

15/10/2026

This week:

• ALL MEMBERS MEETING TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER 12PM-2PM

• Current Bans

• Bargaining Update

• Conciliation Meeting

• Tri Metro Strike

Tuesday October 20th - Members Meeting

Our Tri Metro Strike on 8 October showed what we can achieve when we stand together. Now we need your input on what comes next.

Join us to hear about the successes of the strike, share your feedback and have your say on the outstanding bargaining claims as we fight for a fair agreement.   

12:00pm - 2:00pm in 64-348 (Physiol Lecture Theater)

Register here to attend!

Bans still in place

While our Members Meeting next week will decide on future actions and whether to increase bans we still have 3 bans still in place.

They are:

• meetings with supervisors, managers and deans;

• a ban on participation in staff appraisal processes (this means your APD);

• interrupting work periodically in order to make statements while working explaining why members of the National Tertiary Education Union are taking industrial action. (That just means that you can pause your work to tell/email/make statements to other staff and/or students about the fact that we’re taking industrial action).

For more information about how to undertake these bans and for templates for how to tell your manager go to our resources page.

Bargaining Update

Our last Enterprise Bargaining meeting with management was on Thursday September 24th. Since then, management have filed a section 240 request for conciliation with the Fair Work Commission, and refused our requests to meet. Instead, bargaining has been reduced to exchanging draft clauses via email, slowing meaningful progress to a crawl.

The bargaining team have been requesting meetings with management every week and we finally made them come back to the table on Thursday October 15th. During this meeting we discussed some of the outstanding claims, including 17% super for all staff, AI, End of Year Closure, Organisational Change and Chronic Illness and Carer’s Leave. Management refused to move on any of their positions, but some small areas of clarity were achieved during discussions. We also proposed to resume meeting regularly, and as soon as possible, but management refused to agree to that, preferring to delay further.

Conciliation Meeting

Today (Friday October 16th) at 10am we had our conciliation conference with Commissioner Durham. The outcome of this meeting was that the unions and management will continue to bargain outside of the commission for at least the next 2 weeks.

It was clear from the discussions that management's main sticking point is 17% superannuation for casuals, which they are flatly refuse to consider, in any form. The cost to bring superannuation for casuals up to the 17% the rest of us enjoy is about $6 million per year in a total salaries annual budget of $1.5 billion.

Tri Metro Strike

As many of you know (as you were there!) on Thursday October 8th QUT more than 500 Griffith and UQ NTEU members came together at Queens Gardens in the CBD for our Tri Metro Strike.

We were joined in solidarity by students, members from other unions and groups, sending a powerful message that our fight for fair pay and conditions is part of a much bigger and widely felt struggle. We are all in the same fight. This is how we make change. It's no coincidence management finally agreed to come back to the table. We will continue to fight at the table, and we will continue to fight on the picket line. 

Media coverage of our union

Our Tri Metro Strike made it on to some workers’ rights publications and social media pages.

Queensland Unions Instagram

Staff at 3 Brisbane universities hold joint stoppage but union limits demands

Qld NTEU members rally against wage cuts

New report - The $12.2 Billion Divide

Australia relies on public universities. They need proper funding.

We support and educate the professionals our communities depend on. We conduct research that saves lives, drives innovation and helps Australia respond to its biggest challenges.

But higher education still isn't being funded the way it should be. Jobs and courses have become vulnerable to unsupportive managements, teaching and research capacity is diminishing, and students are being asked to pay more.

Our new report lays bare a shocking fact: the Commonwealth will spend $20.6 billion on teaching in private schools this year, compared with only $8.4 billion for all 39 public universities.

The report calls for Job-Ready Graduates to be repealed, fair university funding restored and student fees reduced.

Now we need to make sure the government hears us.

Join thousands of students, staff and supporters making their voices heard. Choose a postcard and we’ll send it to Education Minister Jason Clare with a clear message: it’s time to scrap Job-ready Graduates and properly fund our universities.

Australia needs a university funding system that supports students, values education across all disciplines and properly funds our public universities.

L-R: Prof. Andrew Bonnell, Assoc. Prof. Annie Pohlman, Kia Owens, Pierce Wilcox, Matthew Campbell, Asssoc. Prof. Kelly Greenop, Mark Starkey, Morgan Love, Larissa Chapman and Michael McNally, Not Pictured: Vonnie Semple