BARGAINING
AT UTS
Your next Enterprise Agreement has been won by union members!
It's been months of hard and dedicated work by NTEU UTS members. We're proud of the outcome: we believe the new Agreement serves to safeguard and strengthen workplace rights for all staff at UTS.
Bargaining commenced with a management team whose original proposal would have stripped away existing staff rights. NTEU members have pushed hard to ensure there are no diminutions in our next Union Collective Agreement.
Our new Staff Agreement has been approved by the Fair Work Commission and will operate from September 25th. You can access the new Staff Agreement here.
The improvements to conditions were won by members and we should all be proud!
What we were able to gain for all staff is a direct result of member action...
...of workplace conversations, stalls, get-togethers, forums, critical industrial action like stop-works and strikes, and negotiation in the bargaining room.
NTEU members have done the hard work, now we can all celebrate the wins with a picnic on campus. RSVP using the form on this page.
Don't thank your NTEU colleagues, join us!
Here's what we were able to gain for all UTS staff
- A 3.5% per annum pay increase, front-loaded in 2026
- Stronger change management protections
- An increase to paid Cultural Leave for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff
- An enforceable commitment to reduce casual academic employment to 20% of the academic workforce and a conversion clause for academic and professional staff
- AI protections
- Strengthened limitations on fixed-term employment and a sector leading conversion clause
- Entitlements to workplace adjustments to accommodate reproductive health needs
What we really want staff at UTS to know is that these improvements don't just happen – we made them happen.
Our new and improved Agreement has been won by the work of NTEU members.
These wins happen because NTEU members, regular staff just like you, joined together to demand more - it's a collective effort! Your workplace rights are hard-won by your NTEU colleagues and our overwhelming message is: don't thank us, join us!
Collective action works
University staff across Australia have been horrified by the treatment of UTS staff at the hands of the current Vice-Chancellor. But in equal parts they’re heartened by what NTEU members have been able to achieve by standing together and pushing for what they believe in.
Just last year, staff voted overwhelmingly to declare they had no confidence in Vice-Chancellor Andrew Parfitt, with 95% of voters supporting the motion. In this historic vote, open to all UTS staff members, more than 1500 UTS staff participated.
The extraordinary rebuke followed months of key failures of the VC’s leadership team and the ‘Operational Sustainability Initiative’, which proposed cutting hundreds of jobs and suspending enrolments in over 120 courses.
Between the vote of no confidence, strong participation in the union’s protected action ballot, and members’ powerful strike action (one of which coincided with backtracking on some of the worst aspects VC’s Academic Change Proposal!) NTEU members have demonstrated that when we take action together, Management is forced to make change.
The work of members led to UTS' feature in the Four Corners expose Campus Chaos and has been pivotal in the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the University Sector.
