By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A LAST ditch meeting between Deakin University staff and management next week will decide whether industrial action goes ahead, according to National Tertiary Education Union.
Division secretary Dr Colin Long said the union would lodge an application to begin protected industrial action unless the meeting made “serious progress”.
“I’m not confident we’ll get an outcome. Deakin management has offered nothing in terms of a pay rise,” he said.
“Deakin management also wants to increase academic staff workloads despite already being substantially overloaded.
“We know from our members that they’re complaining about being overworked, doing 50-to-60-hour weeks regularly.
“We can’t accept any further increase in workloads.”
The Independent reported in August that the university faced an insurance bill of more than $1.5 million for mental stress, according to an internal occupational health and safety committee report. Deakin later said its stress-related costs were “substantially less than $500,000”.
