Union members at the Australian National University will strike for the first time in 24 years after receiving a revised pay offer of 18.5 per cent over five years.
National Tertiary Education Union ANU branch president Millan Pintos-Lopez said members voted to go ahead with a half-day strike on July 27 because they wanted a cap on the proportion of casual staff employed at the university.
The branch is also planning a 48-hour strike on August 7 and 8.
"We made it very clear to management that we were grateful they submitted a new salary offer, however, it means nothing without to decrease casualisation and a commitment to improve job security for staff at the ANU," Mr Millan Pintos-Lopez.
"Every day I hear about casuals who are struggling to make ends meet. The cost of living in Canberra is phenomenal.
"Rents are soaring and people are struggling to live day by day. It's never been harder to be casual than now."
The university's chief people officer Kate Witenden wrote to staff on Thursday with a revised pay offer of 2.5 per cent increase in December followed by a 2.5 per cent increase twice a year until June 2026.
Staff already received a pay increase of 3.5 per cent in February this year.
"Our revised offer demonstrates the university's commitment to providing competitive salaries to staff and places ANU in a strong position relative to our peers in the sector," Ms Witenden said.
"In addition, we have achieved considerable progress on improved opportunities for our First Nations staff, flexible work arrangements, gender affirmation leave, personal leave and workloads.
"We are continuing to make progress on enhanced entitlements for casual employees, including discussions around pathways to secure employment and amended definitions of casual sessional academic activities."
Mr Pintos-Lopez said the university had not been able to provide accurate data on the number of casual staff employed at the university and had not made any commitment to a cap on the number of casual employed as a percentage of the total full-time equivalent employees.
"One of the issues and the frustrations that we're having is the university has struggled to provide us the numbers that we need to to effectively discuss what those caps will be for months. And we're frustrated. We're fed up with it."
Ms Witenden said the university respected the union's right to take industrial action.
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