Not a day to celebrate: Wollongong university staff given option to work on Australia Day holiday

The University of Wollongong (UOW) is giving staff the option to work through the 26 January holiday, making it the latest employer to offer the policy in a show of solidarity with First Nations people.

The university announced on Monday that it would offer all fixed-term and permanent employees the flexibility to work rather than taking the day as a public holiday, citing the painful associations it may have for Indigenous communities.

“For our First Nations colleagues, it’s clearly a day they don’t want to recognise as a celebration … they see it as an Invasion Day,” UOW vice-chancellor Prof Patricia Davidson said. “Let’s be clear about what we’re celebrating.”

Employees who choose to work can instead take leave on 27 January or 30 January.

The announcement – which follows consultation with staff unions – comes after some major businesses introduced similar policies.

Telecommunications company Telstra and oil and gas company Woodside introduced a new policy this year allowing staff to either take the public holiday or take the leave on another day of their choosing.

A spokesperson for Telstra said the flexibility was built into the company’s enterprise agreements which were voted on by its employees earlier this year.

Consulting heavyweights Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young already had policies in place allowing staff some flexibility around public holidays – as did mining giant BHP and super fund Australian Ethical.

Davidson said she wasn’t aware of other universities who had signed up to the initiative, but didn’t expect it UOW would be the last.

“A lot of people are talking about it, I wouldn’t be surprised if more come out of gate,” she said.

Davidson said she hoped the shift would generate greater support for recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and changing the date of Australia Day.

“For many, the 26 January marks invasion, the beginning of colonisation and atrocities,” she said. “We want to cast a spotlight on the reality of our history.”

National president of the National Tertiary Education Union, Dr Alison Barnes, said all universities should follow suit and give staff the option to have an alternative day off.

“We support giving workers the right to choose whether to work on January 26,” she said.

“Invasion Day is a deeply distressing day for so many First Nations people, including members of our union.

“Allowing a choice of whether to work or not acknowledges that many in our community don’t want to mark the anniversary of genocide, dispossession and suffering with a public holiday.”

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A spokesperson for the University of New South Wales said while staff weren’t allowed to substitute a day for the public holiday, flexibility and choice was an option under review as the university established a new enterprise agreement.

Similarly the University of Melbourne is “considering an alternative arrangement” to the fixed Australia Day holiday as part of its enterprise bargaining process.

The University of Sydney and the University of Queensland told Guardian Australia 26 January was recognised as a public holiday at their respective institutions.

It follows the federal government’s decision to allow councils to hold citizenship ceremonies for three days before and after 26 January, undoing restrictions introduced by the Coalition in 2017.

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe said the nuanced approach to the date displayed “growing momentum” to change how Australia celebrated its national identity.

“In 1938, Yorta Yorta man William Cooper called for January 26 to be acknowledged as a Day of Mourning,” she said.

“First Nations people have rallied on that date ever since. This is a longer history than the Australia Day public holiday, which only started in 1994.”