Last week marked our 11th bargaining meeting since starting in March. With everyone's claims being tabled the meeting was focused on providing an overview of the claims, the important issues, and progressing closer to an agreement that addresses those issues. This was a mammoth 5-hour meeting in which we took stocktake of all the claims made so far by all members to see where we currently stand. Each party indicated what was important and where there was potentially common ground to come to an agreement on different claims. This was a highly productive meeting, and your bargaining team were clear in what’s required for a realistic agreement that improves work conditions for all QUT staff. This will hopefully be our roadmap to a strong agreement that provides real change for the next four years. Importantly, a number of claims are still on the table for negotiating, so now is the time to make sure that our voices are heard and taken seriously as we advance the negotiation.
On Tuesday 14 July at 12pm, we will be holding an all staff hybrid meeting to collectively determine our options for progressing our claims towards material improvements of pay and work conditions for all of us. We strongly encourage you to attend this meeting, and to encourage as many of your colleagues as possible to attend.
Register for the meeting here.
Some of the important live issues include:
- Academic workloads: especially in terms of total allocatable hours, maximum teaching delivery caps, and improvements to the definition of unreasonable workload.
- Improvements to overtime and TOIL: especially in terms of overtime and TOIL being paid out at the higher rate where appropriate (e.g. if received while temporarily working at a higher pay level), and in terms of acknowledging circumstances may exist when prior approval before undertaking overtime is not possible.
We’re confident in the progress made last week, and it shows the impact of everyone’s efforts coming together in an energised campaign for real change at QUT. However, it’s critical that management continue to take these claims seriously and keeping the volume up will make sure we get the best possible outcome.
More concerning, there remain a number of our key claims still on the table that are necessary for improving QUT work conditions that demand real progress. We’re still pushing for:
- Tangible improvements to Professional staff workloads and job security
- More robust flexible and hybrid work arrangements for Professional Staff
- Generative AI protections that address job security and moral rights
- Improved and more equitable leave entitlements including reproductive health leave and kinship leave, as well as improvements to the current gender affirmation leave entitlement.
- Management’s insufficient counter-offer here remains at just one extra day of Additional Personal Leave.
- Improved Union Delegate rights, and workload allocation for Union Branch Committee members to represent QUT workers better.
Further, wages claims are outstanding and we’ve yet to see any counter-proposal to our claim for a 20% pay rise over the life of the Agreement.
There is still much work to do to convince management that they must listen to staff if we are to secure better working conditions for everyone at QUT.
Management’s priorities are financial stability, organisational flexibility, and reduced administrative burden. We say that ‘staff wellbeing’ should be top of the list. We insist that staff wellbeing and work conditions must be the number one priority and indeed fundamental for QUT to excel – better working conditions mean that we can continue to deliver excellence as part of QUT.
At this stage, we must all work together to make sure we see real outcomes that address our key claims. We must help them see that there can be no agreement that does not meaningfully address the workloads crisis and poor conditions facing ALL QUT staff, academics and professionals.
Your bargaining team will continue to negotiate for all QUT staff at the bargaining table, but we need your help to stand with us and convince Management to work with us.
To this end, you can help by:
In solidarity,
Your Bargaining Team
📧 [email protected]
💻nteu.info/qut-eb-2026
L-R: Associate Professor David Nielsen, Ms Julie Gallant, Dr Naomi Blacklock, Associate Professor Brendan Keogh, Dr Prithi Yadav, Associate, Professor Charles Robb, Professor David Lovell, Ms Julieanne Mahony, Dr Rebecca Langdon, Ms Jennie Briese, Mr Jack Kimberley, Ms Stacey Lowe, Mr Kai Fitzsimmons & Associate Professor Alberto Bellocchi. Not Pictured: Mr Mitchell Perry