AUT strike over salary offer

AUT strike over salary offer

People at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) are on strike this week to achieve an improved salary offer from the university.

Pay at AUT and at all New Zealand universities is falling behind comparable private sector salary increases, says TEU’s national industrial officer Irena Brorens.

“AUT is in a financial position where it can afford better pay for the people who work for its students.”

TEU members are seeking a relatively modest pay rise of 2.5 percent for each of the next two years.

Brorens says the nature of the strike is to not release student or course marks to AUT for inputting into its database ARION.

"People working at universities are always very reluctant to take any action that affects our students. It is entirely possible for the university to settle this agreement before any student is affected. This is what we want to achieve."

The strike notice is valid for a week, until Sunday 22 November, but TEU members may decide on further actions.

“Our collective agreement expired in June and we have been negotiating for fairer paywith AUT since then. We need to resolve this quickly,” says John Prince, TEU branch president at AUT.

Brorens says the union believes that AUT can solve this dispute quickly and easily.

TEU members are meeting with AUT negotiators on Thursday.

ENDS

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