Staff will vote this week on a management pay and conditions offer
The offer is an 18.2 per cent pay rise (including a June’22 increase) through to June ‘26. Plus a $2000 signing bonus. It’s the biggest increase in the present round of negotiations at universities across the country and will set the benchmark for other universities still, or not seriously started, negotiating.
The offer is backed by campus unions, although the National Tertiary Education Union did an admirable interpretation of the Fourth International arguing with the International Committee of the Fourth International, before agreeing to recommend it to all staff.
It compares to the 2.9 per cent per annum over five years in the last agreement (CMM October 2 2013) – and 2.1 per cent pa in 2017 (CMM September 2017) of course back then inflation was but a memory.
So how real is the protection of people’s pay?
Your guess is as good as the Reserve Bank’s which had two bob each way in its May statement.
Consumer price Inflation has peaked and “is expected to decline to around the top of the 2–3 per cent target range over coming years,” the RBA announces.
Unless it doesn’t, “inflation could turn out to be more persistent,” the Bank adds.
Overall the RBA estimates (“guess” is such unkind word) the CPI increase will be 3.5 per cent in the year to the June quarter in ’24, compared to 6.75 per cent June Q this year. The bank anticipates it will be 3 per cent in June ’25.
Which puts Uni Sydney staff ahead over the life of the offer – but they will need to be modest in the choice of celebratory champaign.
