Staff members at The University of Newcastle (UoN) have stopped work today as part of industrial action organised by the Newcastle Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).
The stop-work commenced at 10:45am and will continue until 12:15pm with union members protesting to secure improved staff working conditions.
Today's action follows UoN's refusal to provide paid domestic violence leave and equitable superannuation for all staff and establish more secure career pathways for casual and contract staff.
Newcastle branch NTEU President, Tom Griffiths says the action is in response to prior negotiations between the NTEU and the University which have been unsuccessful in implementing these aims.
"We will be recommending a few areas that we want to see progress in the next couple of weeks, if that's not the case then we'll be recommending an escalation of Industrial action, which may include a whole day strike in the future."
Mr Griffiths also states that the union action is in response to UoN's plans to strip-back existing protections for staff and to highlight that this won't be accepted.
"The university is putting forward claims to dramatically strip back existing staff protections and procedures," he said.
Mr Griffiths says that the NTEU will not hesitate to continue in undertaking further strike action strike if no progress is made on these issues.
