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February 11, 2026 — 5:00am
Hundreds of lecturers at Perth’s biggest university have pledged to stay off campus as semester one begins over claims of unsustainable workloads, unfair pay and “draconian limitations” on work-from-home opportunities.
Curtin University staff are planning the industrial action for the first two weeks of the semester, planning to stay home on certain days of the week and running lectures, tutorials and labs to students online.
The plans have not been set in stone, with the National Tertiary Education Union WA yet to officially notify the university’s senior management.
Union senior state organiser Francis Russell said management could then also choose to refuse to pay staff participating in the industrial action by working from home – a situation that could see tutorials and lectures cancelled.
Russell said the university had taken that step before, and further delays to negotiations could see strike action later in the semester.
The union claims there had been “no meaningful progress” on a new enterprise bargaining agreement since July, when discussions began, despite fortnightly meetings involving a “small army”.
“Academics at Curtin struggle with enormous workloads, and they fear that the unsustainable volumes of work they face will ultimately damage the quality of education we provide to students,” Russell said.
“Professional staff have reported draconian limitations on the ability to work from home even a day a week, and at a time when staff and students consistently complain there is nowhere to park on campus due to a lack of space.
“All staff are feeling the pinch with the cost of living, whether that is staff trying to get into the housing market, struggling with supporting their children or ageing parents, or staff worrying about whether they can retire.
“These are the bread-and-butter issues our members need to see resolved at the bargaining table so that they can return to focusing on the teaching, research, and supporting our students.”
No set policy on AI usage, and a push to employ more Indigenous Australians are other issues on the negotiating table.
Human resources management lecturer Dr Sandra Martain has agreed to take part in the industrial action, should it go ahead.
Martain, who is also a representative at the bargaining table, said she was lucky to have a full-time contract, but the university relied heavily on casuals who had no job security.
“Some have been employed for five, eight, 10 years with no guarantees they’ll have work from semester to semester,” she said.
“When the vice chancellor earns over $1 million a year, and we have staff worrying about paying their bills – that’s very concerning.”
Martain said students were also concerned, and the Student Guild was backing staff.
“They understand that good teaching conditions make for good learning conditions,” she said.
“One of the best parts about teaching is getting to share your knowledge in the classroom but that ability to teach is severely impacted in the face of the challenging conditions teachers are facing.”
Russell said the national conversation around the poor governance of universities, and the state-level conversation about the potential need to merge WA universities, made the situation even worse.
“Our members have been appalled to see such an unwillingness to work meaningfully with the union’s negotiators,” he said.
“Workload, job insecurity, work flexibility, and pay are all basic issue that shouldn’t require industrial action to resolve.
“Our members are angry, and staff and students deserve better.”
A Curtin University spokesperson said the union had to provide three days’ notice of any action and, once that had been received, the university would “respond appropriately”.
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