University of Sydney staff will strike for 24 hours on Wednesday after failed negotiations between the National Tertiary Education Union and university management over a new enterprise bargaining agreement.
Students and staff have been advised to work and study from home, with most teaching to be conducted online to avoid disruption, a university spokesperson said.
The union's NSW division secretary Vince Caughley said major sticking points for staff in the negotiations included protections against artificial intelligence.
He said there were already concerns about management in the higher education sector after inquiries exposed unaccountable decision-making and university leaders becoming increasingly disconnected from teaching staff and researchers.
"We're not giving that management model a blank cheque to use AI to accelerate the hollowing out of university jobs and education," Mr Caughley said.
The union is demanding protections for staff in cases where AI could result in job losses or significantly change their roles, as well as measures to protect against AI replicating their voice and image.
It also wants protections against AI systems inappropriately using Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural and intellectual property.
Mr Caughley said the university was acting against its own report on AI, which described it as one of the most consequential transformations in the history of higher education.
Management was rushing into AI without evidence, consultation or due diligence, he said.
But a university spokesperson said its adoption of AI was done as safely and ethically as possible, with strong safeguards around its use and significant investment going into training.
The spokesperson said the strike was premature and would not influence how an agreement would be reached.
"However, we support the right of union members to take protected industrial action and we're continuing to engage at the bargaining table, from where our agreement will be driven," they said.
They added that the university's AI policies should be able to be changed as needed, rather than set for the three-year term of the enterprise agreement.
The union is also calling for better conditions around casualisation of staff, job security and disability rights.
"Our members have watched secure jobs disappear through years of restructures, casualisation and cost-cutting," Mr Caughley said.
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