Uni staff to strike for a week as pay fight escalates

The National Tertiary Education Union confirmed its members would launch industrial action from Monday after the university refused to engage with the union's claims.

All of the university's union members will stop work from midday on Monday for a half-day strike, national president Alison Barnes said.

Union members in the Faculty of Arts, Melbourne Law School, the VCA School of Art, student services, stagecraft and library will strike for five to seven days.

The university needed to do better on issues of job security, pay, workloads and flexible working arrangements, Dr Barnes said.

"The University of Melbourne has engaged in industrial scale wage theft, giving it the shameful title of Australia's worst underpayment university," she said.

"Even after repaying $45 million in lost wages, university management is trying to deny staff the fair pay increase they deserve."

Melbourne University branch president David Gonzalez called on Vice Chancellor Duncan Maskell to engage constructively with members.

"For this negotiation to be making little progress after a year tells you everything you need to know about the way management has behaved," he said.

"Staff don't take any strike action lightly, especially not for an entire working week.

"We have been left with no choice."

A University of Melbourne spokesman said it has been negotiating in good faith.

"We are shortly entering into a phase of intensified negotiations in order to resolve the sticking points, having already reached in-principle agreement on a number of matters," he said.

"As experienced across the entire sector, regrettably bargaining has typically been protracted."

The university pointed to two pay rises outside of bargaining over the past two years as recognition of work by staff.

Students will to be told of alternative arrangements as soon as possible and should contact subject co-ordinators about how they might be affected.

Australian Associated Press