Respect at work: Campaigning for a better workplace for staff at UNSW
Staff at UNSW /ADFA have been treated with contempt by university management who continue to oppose changes in our Collective Agreement that would bring it up to date with Fair Work Australia legislation.
The NTEU has been calling on university management to respect the rights of staff at UNSW and to recognise these in the new Collective Agreement. The previous Agreement has expired and respect for staff must be the foundation stone of any new agreement.
OUR CLAIMS
The NTEU has been bargaining with UNSW management to :.
• Improve the regulation of workloads of all staff.
• Achieve a fair pay outcome.
• Achieve better work/life balance through greater access to leave, flexible work arrangements and improvements to parental leave.
• Secure a reasonable, competitive pay increase for all staff.
• Increase job security for all staff, including casuals, fixed term and contract research staff.
• Build on superannuation benefits for casuals and fixed term contract staff.
• Commit to environmental sustainability, improving indigenous employment and intellectual freedom for all staff.
• Restore the employment rights lost through Work Choices and HEWRRs legislation under the Howard Government.
NTEU UNSW members lodged their Log of Claims with UNSW management over a year ago. University management refused to meet with the union bargainers until March 09 when the agreement had nearly expired. Under industrial laws they now have to come to the table but have ignored requests from NTEU bargaining teams for intensive negotiations to speedily resolve key bargaining claims.
The initial meetings between joint union bargaining teams and university management revealed significant areas of difference. The key areas of NTEU UNSW members’ claims for better working conditions have been raised with management. UNSW Management’s response was to propose a ‘rollover’ of the entire existing ‘Work Choices’ agreements for the next three years. A members’ meeting resolution of the 24th June, unanimously rejected the University’s proposal to roll-over the 2006 enterprise agreements and this was communicated to management.
Workload is shaping up as a key concern for UNSW staff. NTEU members meetings and recent UNSW all staff survey results show UNSW staff are concerned about excessive workloads, working outside ordinary hours, and the effects of workload on quality of work and personal life. On the academic front, bargainers have been arguing for better regulation of academic performance, professional development and workload issues. For General/ Technical & Professional staff bargaining the NTEU is pursuing clauses that aim to monitor and regulate workload issues for healthy balance between work and quality of life.
Through bargaining the NTEU is seeking improvements in these and other employment areas for all UNSW staff. Management has so far been rejecting most claims and clause proposals as unnecessary. The NTEU remains committed to pursuing its claims for better pay and conditions at UNSW through an improved collective agreement.
In short, UNSW employees deserve an agreement that better reflects the realities of the new Fair Work industrial regime; that restores key employment rights and provides a blueprint for a better workplace at UNSW.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
We need you to join our campaign, to achieve fair and manageable workloads, a pay rise which will fairly acknowledge the hard work of UNSW staff, and to achieve respect at work for all. Every helping hand will help us win the kind of pay and conditions YOU deserve!
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