Other universities will carry out industrial action when Victoria University staff in Wellington go on strike today over a breakdown in pay talks.
Association of University Staff (AUS) members, who make up about a third of Victoria's academic and technical staff, plan to strike for 24 hours from 1pm.
AUS general secretary Rob Crozier said last night that staff at Waikato, Massey and Lincoln Universities planned other action.
Waikato, where pay negotiations are under way, will attend stopwork meetings today to discuss the talks and consider action.
Massey University and AUS members have been having mediated negotiations. Mr Crozier said members would discuss a new offer today.
As a gesture of goodwill - before the second round of mediated talks to be held tomorrow - members had postponed a vote to decide on further action for two weeks.
Lincoln staff will attend an AUS members' meeting today, at which vice-chancellor Frank Wood and human resources manager Luke Southorn will explain why their offer has not been increased. Members will then decide what action to take, Mr Crozier said.
Tony Quinn, AUS co-president at Victoria University, had earlier said AUS wanted an 8 per cent increase for academic staff and 6 per cent for general staff at all universities, but would settle for "anything the members thought reasonable".
Victoria University vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon yesterday denied claims by Mr Quinn that the university was not interested in resolving the row.
The university had increased its offers on pay rates and the term of the contract, he said.
One sticking point is the date from which the new contract should begin. The previous agreement finished at the end of last August and the university had originally proposed to start the new agreement from ratification.
The union wanted it backdated to September 1. Members have rejected a university proposal to backdate it to December 1.
- NZPA
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