Sydney University 2.1% staff pay rise ‘well under inflation’

By ERIN MODARO

The University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott told university staff that they will receive a 2.1% pay increase and a one-off $1000 payment. The pay rise comes at the end of Sydney University’s enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA), and has been described as an interim measure while a new EBA is negotiated.

The University of Sydney came under fire by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) earlier in the year in a protest organised by the union to demand improved working standards for staff, including a wage increase and an “end to job insecurity and exploitative casual work.”

After the protest, a 2021 annual report revealed that Sydney University raked in a $1 billion surplus for the year, marking a significant rise from $106.6 million made in 2020.

President of the NTEU Sydney University Branch Nick Riemer said in a statement to City Hub that the pay rise is “well under inflation.”

“With an enormous surplus of $1.04 billion, there’s simply no excuse for university management to be denying their staff a real pay rise.”

.@Sydney_Uni will have to do a lot better than 2.1% if they don’t want staff to go backwards. This pay offer follows 3 days of strikes. @NTEUnion members are determined to continue their campaign till we get the results we need – on pay & everything else. https://t.co/YnBwvknxZj

— Nick Riemer (@NickRiemer1) May 30, 2022

Other members of the university community are calling the pay increase out for falling behind inflation, as the annual CPI inflation rose to 5.1% in the March quarter. A USyd NTEU community group wrote in a Facebook post “2.1% pay rise= insult”, and stated that “we need to keep fighting.”

President of Sydney University SRC Lauren Lancaster confirms student concerns over staff wages, saying to City Hub “particularly because of this $1 billion surplus…the revelation of that shows the university that has been crying poor all of COVID just can’t push that fiction on students or staff any longer.”

Pay rise dubbed a ‘cut’ in light of inflation

Lancaster called the increase a “pay cut”, and said that it was not in line with inflation.

“I think that it’s probably more appropriate to call this a real pay cut because with inflation rising so rapidly, and the cost of living in Sydney skyrocketing, there is no silver lining to this 2.1%.”

She stated that students at Sydney University are negatively affected by low staff wages, because “the people who we interact with, low level tutors, academics, student coordinators- they’re not the ones who are raking in impressive salaries.”

“If you pay your workers correctly, and properly, and enough, then the standard of work and their capabilities are going to be much better.”

Lancaster added that unfair pay “creates a really bad working environment for them, which of course would impact your emotional relationship with your students as well.”

2021 was marked by hundreds of redundancies at not only the University of Sydney, but tertiary education across NSW, as well as a shift towards casual employment, with full-time employment in the higher education sector plummeting.

Riemer said that “the university’s senior managers are all grossly overpaid, while ordinary staff are grossly overworked.”

“Instead of forcing us to strike, management should be setting a figure that recognises the huge contribution we make to the university.”