In a precedent-setting demand, union members at the University of Melbourne are calling for a four-day week for non-academic staff, “or equivalent reduction in ordinary hours.”
It is a core element of the National Tertiary Education Union branch log of claims for the ninth round of university-system enterprise agreements, now underway.
Other demands include 17 % superannuation for casuals, which other staff have long received and a minimum 30 % of teaching-focused academics’ working time available for non-education activity.
The union also demands a 20 % (flat) pay rise over the life of the agreement for all staff.
The four-day week for professional staff builds on a 2025 ACTU economy-wide proposal but this is the first adoption in a university log of claims.
It extends staff autonomy beyond a working from home right for professional staff which was floated during the last bargaining round. It was written into the University of Sydney 2023 agreement, where remote work “will not be reasonably refused” was adopted
With the NTEU branch at the University of Sydney, the Melbourne branch has long been the most politically and industrially militant.
According to Branch president David Gonzalez the benefits of four day weeks, “productivity holds, absenteeism drops and staff retention approves.
That the claim does not cover academics may reflect the universal convention in higher education that they set their own schedules but it does leave them working longer, 36.25 hour weeks.