The NTEU UQ Branch Newsletter Issue 14

17 August 2026

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

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

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Bargaining Update

BARGAINING UPDATE

Industrial Action Is Working — Turn Up the Heat

Our protected action ballot has changed the bargaining table. Management are clearly worried about industrial action: their first question to the NTEU team was “What can we do to prevent your planned industrial action?”

The answer is simple: start listening to staff.

And the pressure is already producing movement. We’ve won important ground on recognising how medical conditions can affect performance processes. There has been further movement on AI, with one major sticking point remaining: our insistence on meaningful human oversight. And we’re finally seeing movement on our casual claims, including recognition that casual staff must be paid for all hours worked.

We are prosecuting proper pay for casual staff across multiple fronts. But management still says a hard NO to 17% super for casuals (see below). And it remains a hard NO on sabbaticals.

Elsewhere, we’re hitting serious sticking points. On academic workloads, we’re fighting for recognition of intense marking periods and against the permanent removal of HDR supervision from teaching workload calculations. On Teaching Associates/casual conversion, management still wants the ability to advertise TA positions externally—potentially leaving the casuals these provisions are supposed to help stuck exactly where they are.

On professional staff casual conversion, we remain at a stalemate.

Industrial pressure is working—but we need more of it.

Keep the pressure on. Get your red shirt on for RED WEDNESDAY (see below). Show management that members are organised, visible, and ready to fight for a better Agreement.

Not Fair - Management refuse 17% Super for Casual Staff

The NTEU continues to press our claim for 17% superannuation for casual staff, to bring them into line with all other UQ employees at UQ. This is a straightforward claim for fairness and equity. Casual staff – professional and academic - make an enormous contribution to the University, yet they retire at far greater risk of retirement poverty.

This claim is about ensuring all staff have the opportunity to retire with dignity, regardless of their employment status. Bringing casual super up to 17% would remove an unjust two-tier system at UQ.

We’re talking about $6 million dollars, in an annual payroll of $1 billion

$6 million - that’s (roughly) how much it would cost UQ to give casual staff superannuation dignity. That’s the equivalent of a rounding error in an annual staffing budget the size of UQ’s.

When asked on what grounds they refused this claim, management representatives said that the money was better spent expanding Teaching Associate positions. They had no response for professional casual staff, or any principled arguments for their rejection of superannuation equity.

Management's response has distinct whiff of noblesse oblige*: those at the top deciding what should be good enough for everyone else. The thousands of casual staff who keep UQ going are expected to be grateful for the opportunity to work, while being denied the same retirement dignity enjoyed by every other employee at UQ.

Creating Better Protections for Staff with Disability, Chronic Illness and Caring Responsibilities

The NTEU is advancing a comprehensive package of reforms to address the systemic barriers faced by staff with disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence, and caring responsibilities. At its core, the claim establishes a consistent, University-wide Reasonable Adjustment Framework, supported by portable Adjustment Passports and Carer Support Plans, so that agreed supports are documented once and applied consistently across roles, supervisors, and organisational changes.

The package also proposes modernised leave provisions to reflect real working lives and redress common barriers. Proposed new entitlements—such as Health Management Leave—alongside expanded carer leave, aim to support those managing chronic conditions and providing care. These are complemented by the NTEU’s proposals to streamline evidentiary requirements, reducing the need (and financial cost) for repeated medical certification for known circumstances.

Crucially, the claim embeds fairness into core employment processes. NTEU members want workload allocation, performance review, promotion, and organisational change to have required “relative to opportunity” considerations, ensuring staff are not disadvantaged by disability, illness, or caring responsibilities. We are further seeking mandatory training and inclusive recruitment measures that will further support consistent and equitable practice across the University.

Together, these reforms create a coherent, enforceable system that replaces inconsistency and administrative burden with predictable, accessible support—enabling staff not just to remain in the workforce, but to participate fully and equitably.

These changes won't happen unless members stand behind them.

Start a conversation with your colleagues about why this package matters and why now is the time to build a university where no one is disadvantaged because of disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence, or caring responsibilities. Together, we can show management that creating a fairer, more inclusive workplace is a priority for UQ staff.

To find out more, go to: https://www.uqsolidarity.com/issues-groups-blog/carers-chronic-illness

Reminder: RED WEDNESDAY and Industrial Action

Following the successful Protected Action Ballot Order (PABO) vote and endorsement of our campaign plan by members, we are commencing protected industrial action on Wednesday 19 August, RED WEDNESDAY!

What should NTEU members do on Red Wednesday?

• Wear your red NTEU t-shirt! (or just wear red 😊)

• Put up a poster on your door

• Put up a campaign poster in your local work area

• Talk with colleagues about the campaign and upcoming actions

• Come out to one of the stalls that members will be running on campus.

• From 12noon to 1pm, enact the one-hour BAN on the use of communication systems Outlook, Teams and CRM systems.

To download posters, zoom/teams backgrounds, email notifications, and automatic replies, go HERE (https://www.uqsolidarity.com/protected-industrial-action-resources)

FROM Red Wednesday, here’s some other (ongoing) actions:

From  9am, Wednesday, 19 August, all NTEU members can start 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 😊)

From 12noon, Wednesday, 19 August, all NTEU members can also begin the WORK BAN on meetings with supervisors, managers and deans (members participating in this action can download example communications to notify managers and explain their participation from the resources link). These bans will be ongoing until further notice.

Subject to progress at the bargaining table, further UQ-wide industrial actions (and further work bans) will be notified – watch this space!

However, if your work area wants to enact your own (local) industrial action, you are very welcome to do so! (E.g., maybe you and your fellow workers don’t want to use Workday for a week 😊)  If that’s the case, please contact the Branch Committee (uq@nteu.org.au) so we can confirm the details, provide advice, and ensure members are appropriately protected.

Got questions? Get in touch! uqactivists@nteu.org.au or uq@nteu.org.au

Industrial action resources

Need a red NTEU t-shirt? If you’re at St Lucia, come on down to the NTEU office (Prentice building, room 217) and grab one! (If you’re on another campus, write to Kate - uq@nteu.org.au - and she can send you one via internal mail.)

Need a poster? An example of an email footer, text to write to your supervisor, a zoom background, a PPT for teaching, or an automatic response?

Check out our great collection of resources for members: https://www.uqsolidarity.com/protected-industrial-action-resources

Got a cool idea for a resource? Let us know! uqactivists@nteu.org.au

Academic Freedom, Not Surveillance: Take Action Now

The Group of Eight’s Expert Advisory Committee on Combatting Antisemitism (EACCA) has proposed changes that could fundamentally reshape university life—and every UQ staff member should know what is being proposed.

A new joint UQU–NTEU analysis warns that the recommendations go far beyond combating antisemitism. If implemented, they could expand executive powers to monitor staff and students, scrutinise social media activity, regulate protest and political expression, and intervene in curriculum and teaching. They also threaten to move aside existing protections for academic freedom under the French Model Code, while offering few corresponding safeguards for transparency, accountability and independent scrutiny.

Of particular concern is the creation of an infrastructure for ongoing surveillance. Once powers to monitor staff and student social media become embedded in university policy, they could remain available to management long after the immediate controversy used to justify them has passed.

We’re asking members to do three things: (1) read the short summary, (2) read the full UQU–NTEU analysis, and then (3) take action. Go HERE to download the papers.

Write to Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry and tell her not to implement the EACCA recommendations at UQ. Ask her instead to lead the sector by standing up for academic freedom, civil liberties, transparent and accountable governance—and our right to teach, research, speak and organise without being subjected to a new regime of institutional surveillance.

Read. Share. Write to the VC. Tell UQ: academic freedom, not surveillance.

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