Staff at Federation University, regional Victoria’s biggest university, have walked off the job in a 24-hour strike over pay and conditions, the ABC reported. The action follows eight months of failed enterprise agreement negotiations and an announcement on arts subjects that the university later walked back.
The National Tertiary Education Union’s Federation University branch said the strike ran from 12:01pm on Monday, 9 November, to 11:59am on Tuesday, with rallies planned at Mt Helen and Churchill. The union said members had been bargaining with the university since March and that “Fed Uni have yet to table a pay offer”.
Staff told the ABC they were striking for a better pay offer, job security, fair workloads and a voice in future decisions at the university. About 50 staff joined branch president Dr Mathew Abbott on strike in Ballarat on Monday, the ABC reported.
The dispute has been sharpened by events two weeks ago. Staff in arts and criminal justice were called into a snap meeting with 10 minutes’ notice and told 87 per cent of the university’s arts subjects would be cut, along with the Bachelor of Criminal Justice at every campus except Berwick, according to the ABC. In a media release on 26 October, the union said the plan would “hit regional communities like a sledgehammer”.
“We were given just hours to make submissions regarding why our units and courses shouldn’t be cut,” Dr Abbott, a senior lecturer in humanities, told the ABC. He said the union lodged a formal complaint, after which the announcement was backtracked and labelled a “miscommunication”.
In a statement, Federation University confirmed it was not cutting 87 per cent of arts subjects. A spokesperson said it was reviewing courses and units with low student numbers. “Humanities, social work and visual arts matter to our students and our communities, and they remain important parts of Federation’s teaching offering,” the spokesperson said.
The university told Star News that a figure cited at the meeting was based on outdated information, including unit performance data from 2025. “We understand why staff were concerned, and have been clear in correcting the information and apologising for how it was communicated,” the spokesperson said. Star News noted it was the second time in four years the university had announced cuts to its arts program, only for the plans to be scrapped.
The university also pointed to federal policy. “The Commonwealth’s Job-ready Graduates policy has substantially increased student contributions for many humanities disciplines in an explicit attempt to influence students towards other areas of study,” the spokesperson told the ABC.
Dr Abbott said staff had lived through repeated restructures and job losses. Rachael Fernald, who teaches social work and human services at the university, told the ABC: “Our workplace conditions are really reflective of our students’ learning conditions.”
The dispute is not over. Staff told the ABC they would take three work stoppages next week, which would disrupt students receiving their grades. The union has also announced bans on the university’s ServiceNow system until 22 November and on Microsoft Teams from 16 November. Federation University has campuses in Ballarat, Berwick, Gippsland, Melbourne and the Wimmera.
