Staff at RMIT University held a 24-hour stopwork for a new Enterprise Agreement on November 20.
Organised by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), the strike was called to reject a substandard agreement that offersÌýa 3% pay rise with no improvements to conditions.Ìý
RMIT management wants to leave many vital entitlements in "policy" rather than the EnterpriseÌýAgreement because this gives them the "flexibility" to alter them at their discretion.
The management offer would leave Early Career Development Fellowships unfunded for casualÌýacademics and mean that rosteredÌýdays off are not protected.
RMIT breached its own "policy on policies"Ìýwhen it removed RDOs from policy without even notifying those affected.
There would also be no upper limit on academic workloads and no definition of teaching and teaching related duties.
RMIT has the worst academic workloads clause in the country. The only protection offered in the current agreementÌýis a "nominal" 14 weeks of research, scholarship and professional activities. Excessive teaching and teaching-related duties have eroded this nominal 14 weeks. It also means RMIT can load up staff during semester with someÌýlecturers doing more than 20 hours face-to-face teaching a week.
The NTEU is demanding a clear and unequivocalÌýstatement that ensures an upper limit on teaching and teaching-related duties.
Ìý
For 15 months, RMIT has pretended to listen to staff concerns while having no intention of reaching a compromise.ÌýIt is time staff received their due protections.
Ìý
For more info on the ongoing campaign visitÌýnteu.org.au/rmit.