FOOTSCRAY Victoria University employees have accused the tertiary institution of standing them down after they were replaced by other staff members during an industrial dispute.

In an ongoing campaign for better pay and conditions, seven striking employees, who are also members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), refused to publish the exam results of hundreds of Faculty of Business and Law students.

Victoria University’s deputy vice-chancellor, Jon Hickman, said when semester two started this week, other employees would replace the seven striking staff.

“Where necessary, others are stepping in to undertake the teaching and unit management roles of the staff members who are not available,” he said.

“The staff involved will not be paid until these results are transmitted and are thus unable to participate in semester two teaching and unit management roles.”

The university’s NTEU branch committee member, Paul Adams, said this meant the university was “fairly clearly standing down” staff.

Mr Adams said the staff have been asking for better pay for months, as well as improved teacher-to-student ratios, but university management did not seem serious about solving the pay dispute.

“We’re really frustrated by university management who aren’t serious about this,” Mr Adams said.

He said the NTEU met with university representatives last week to begin the enterprise bargaining process.

“We put to them that we were willing to end bans and negotiate a solution, but they said they couldn’t because they didn’t know what they wanted,” Mr Adams said.

Striking staff member Helen Madden-Hallett said she was worried about how students would be affected by the university’s approach.

“They gave us a document saying we needed to communicate in a timely manner, yet we gave them our list three months ago to which they haven’t replied in any shape or form,” she said.

“We’re ready to work when they give us a pay rise and stop treating us appallingly.”

Mr Hickman said there was no reason to believe Victoria University staff were among the lowest paid in the country, as negotiations would result in salary increases. As the strike continued last week, Victoria University lodged an application with Fair Work Australia to suspend the results ban for students who have failed.

However, the university withdrew the application when the NTEU and staff agreed to submit the results for students who failed semester one units, which were prerequisites for semester two subjects, as well as all offshore students who failed a first semester unit.