New Zealand : Uni staff vote on strike action
The Tertiary Education Union is pushing for the university to discontinue its performance-based pay scheme – a system they claim only sees around nine per cent of workers to progress through the pay structure.
However, the organisation – which also wants to guarantee a living wage for everyone university employee – says the fundamental issue is actually the university’s “steadfast refusal to genuinely negotiate.”
“This employer constantly tells us that they are unable to talk to us about pay until after they set their budgets in October,” says TEU advocate Enzo Giodani. “By then it’s too late as important funding decisions have already been made.
“Workers expect to be in the mix when money is being allocated by the university, not after the fact,” he continued. “All we want as workers is to negotiate a salary increase. We are not asking for anything outrageous here, just to be afforded the respect of a genuine negotiation.”
The strike ballot opened on Monday 5 September and will close on Friday 9 September.
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