The Australian National University chancellor Julie Bishop has defended the vice-chancellor's salary as union members say the senior management lied about consulting with them on a proposal to give up their next pay rise.
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Vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell surprised staff on Tuesday by telling them by email she would be taking a 10 per cent pay cut and was urging all staff to forgo the 2.5 per cent pay rise due in December.
Even with the pay cut, the vice-chancellor would take home an annual salary of about $1 million.
In a statement, chancellor Julie Bishop and pro-chancellor Alison Kitchen said the university council did not ask Professor Bell to reduce her salary as part of its resolution to slash recurring costs by $250 million by 2026.
"Professor Bell is making a personal sacrifice and leading by example as we implement the changes necessary to return ANU to financial sustainability by 2026," the statement said.
"The vice-chancellor is the right person to position the university to continue delivering distinctive and excellent education and research in alignment with our national mission."
They said Professor Bell's salary was offered to her by the council based on guidance from the remuneration tribunal and the salaries of other university vice-chancellors and government corporate entity leaders.
National Tertiary Education Union members held a rally on campus on Wednesday in opposition to the job cuts and request to give up their pay rise.
ANU branch president Millan Pintos-Lopez said the union committee was caught off-guard yesterday when they received the all-staff email from Professor Bell.
"I think that there's been some lies spread by university management that we were consulted on the proposal to cut the pay rise," Mr Pintos-Lopez said.
"We had no idea that that was coming. It was a surprise to us."
A university spokesman told The Canberra Times on Tuesday the union had been notified prior to the vice-chancellor's email.
However, on Wednesday the university's media office would not say what time the NTEU was notified.
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Mr Pintos-Lopez said staff indicated they were intending to vote no in the upcoming poll on whether they should give up the 2.5 per cent pay rise and the union would also be campaigning for a no vote.
"I felt like we'd been lied to by the university. You know, we signed the enterprise agreement in good faith, and we hope that they signed the agreement in good faith," he said.
"But I think when it comes to less than a year later and they're asking to rescind on their promise of the 2.5 per cent pay rise, particularly in December leading up to Christmas, it's incredibly disappointing, incredibly disheartening."
He said senior managers on performance based employment contracts, who have also been asked to forgo their 2.5 per cent pay boost in December, piggybacked off the pay increases secured through the enterprise bargaining process.
"When hardworking workers on the ground fight for a pay rise, all the staff members on exorbitant salaries piggyback off that win, and they get the pay rises equitable to what we get, which is unfair."
People are placed on performance based employment contracts if they are a member of the executive, a college dean or general manager, a service division director or are in another senior position with a salary at or above $170,000 for professionals or $211,000 for academics.
The council has instructed the university to find $250 million in ongoing savings, made up of $100 million in salary costs and $150 in non-salary expenses.
It was revealed the university was expecting a deficit of $60 million this year but this has blown out to up to $200 million.
Fifty jobs are being cut by dismantling the College of Health and Medicine and merging it with the College of Science, but many more positions are expected to go to meet the savings targets.
