Dear Colleagues, All staff at Deakin deserve a secure, well-paid job. When our Vice Chancellor, Ian Martin, announced the intention to decasualise our workforce in 2025, we were excited for a future where teaching expertise was rewarded with the security that comes with more secure stable employment. Unfortunately, Deakin University management has taken a very different path. As you may be aware, many staff have been engaged on short-term contracts that cut pay and increase workloads. Our En ...Continue Reading

Dear Colleagues, [1]14,000 jobs — that’s how many are projected to be lost nationwide due to the federal government’s new international student caps, expected to pass through parliament soon. The impact is already being felt. In recent weeks, over 1,000 job cuts have been announced across Australia. Here in Victoria, [2]Fed Uni, [3]La Trobe and Swinburne have announced redundancies, while Monash and Melbourne have signalled no funding for sessional staff in 2025. [4]ANU has even ...Continue Reading

Noticed your 4% pay rise??? Dear Colleague, You should now have your 4% pay rise as of June 30 in your most recent pay. The pay rise is part of the improvement in working conditions which NTEU members worked together to achieve at Deakin University in our Enterprise Agreement. It shows that when we stand together, we can make a real difference. This 4% is the second instalment of a total of 12% pay rise over the life of our Enterprise Agreement secured by NTEU members. And the g ...Continue Reading

Dear colleague, The NTEU's [1]third periodic report into university wage theft, released today, makes for sickening reading. Wage theft at our public universities is now on track to exceed $382 million. This appalling figure shows the contempt highly paid vice-chancellors and their senior executives show towards staff. Union members banding together have recovered millions of dollars in backpay. In fact, the total amount recovered or in the process of being repaid is now more than ...Continue Reading

Dear Colleagues, Is your faculty's new WAM good to go, at risk, or a bad idea? For the last five months, NTEU representatives have worked with the university to negotiate new workload models, informed by feedback we received from you in February. The resulting workloads, [1]which are linked here, represent the hard work of the committees and local area organizing to support these outcomes. Before providing feedback to the university, we strongly encourage you to do three things: ...Continue Reading

NTEU Wins: Deakin finally fesses up to wage theft Today, Vice-Chancellor Iain Martin confessed that Deakin University has stolen the wages of casual staff, and as a result, will report themselves to the Fair Work Ombudsman. This follows a two-year effort, led by NTEU and brave members, who have worked to expose the systemic underpayment of sessional academic staff at the university. They have appeared before the Fair Work Commission, been interviewed by Deakin’s lawyers, and rallied at Burwo ...Continue Reading

Dear Colleagues, As you are probably aware, in November 2022, the NTEU filed a dispute in the Fair Work Commission alleging that Deakin University had failed to pay sessional staff for all hours worked. The NTEU’s position is that for many years Deakin University has paid sessional academics for marking per a piece rate, frequently on the basis of 1 hour’s pay per 4000 words marked, in circumstances when it normally took significantly longer than this to perform the required work. We are prov ...Continue Reading

Dear Colleagues In the coming weeks, Deakin will commence its major review of the existing academic workload allocation models (WAMS), as agreed under the 2023 Enterprise Agreement. As part of this process, the university will consult academic staff subject to the models to determine how the model can be redesigned to ensure all staff have sufficient and reasonable time to perform their work. Your input is essential in helping us to redesign models that work for everyone. The Deakin ...Continue Reading

Dear Colleagues, This morning, the Vice Chancellor, Iain Martin, wrote to staff to communicate that the new enterprise agreement has been endorsed by staff. The improvements in this agreement were won by NTEU members, who negotiated with management to secure considerable improvements to your pay, job security and workloads in this agreement. Iain Martin has communicated that the first 4% pay increase will take effect in the first full pay period in October. The Melbourne Cup Public Holid ...Continue Reading

Dear Colleagues, Voting opened this morning for a new enterprise agreement. This agreement, won by the hard work of NTEU members, offers a range of improvements in pay and conditions for all staff. The vote closes at 5 pm tomorrow, so we encourage you to vote yes when the email from Deakin’s ballot provider, CorpVote, arrives in your inbox. Want to learn more? See our website: [1]https://nteu-deakin.org/deakinea-2023/ So what are the core improvements in the agreement? * A 17. ...Continue Reading