why UWS staff should VOTE ‘NO’
On Thursday 17 December 2009, voting will take place on a new General Staff Agreement at UWS. This management offer is not endorsed by the National Tertiary Education Union and we urge you to VOTE NO.
Unlike past Agreements at UWS, management have made a deliberate decision to drive a wedge between the General Staff and Academic staff by offering an inferior Agreement to General Staff. The offer of a $1000 sign on bonus to General Staff just before Christmas comes at a heavy price.
NTEU asks that, before you vote on the offer, you consider these issues carefully:
Why UWS General Staff should VOTE ‘NO’ (Academic Staff click here)
On Thursday 17 December 2009, voting will take place on a new General Staff Agreement at UWS. This management offer is not endorsed by the National Tertiary Education Union and we urge you to VOTE NO.
Unlike past Agreements at UWS, management have made a deliberate decision to drive a wedge between the General Staff and Academic staff by offering an inferior Agreement to General Staff. The offer of a $1000 sign on bonus to General Staff just before Christmas comes at a heavy price.
NTEU asks that, before you vote on the offer, you consider these issues carefully:
EXISTING RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS THAT WILL BE LOST
There are a number of very important conditions that are contained in the current Agreement that have been removed from the management offer:
- Appeal rights for demotion have been abolished.
- Management can now direct an employee to take annual leave after 30 days have been accrued. The current Agreement is after 40 days.
- The period of review for unsatisfactory performance has been significantly reduced. The notice that must be given to an employee where the University wants to proceed with termination of employment on the grounds of ill health has been reduced from two months to one month.
- The exclusion of certain staff from coverage of the Agreement. The management offer seeks to exclude the additional category of ‘Director or equivalent’. The lack of a definition for ‘or equivalent’ raises very real concerns about what other categories Management will seek to exclude by stealth over the life of the Agreement.
THE DANGERS OF BEING TIED TO A LONG AGREEMENT
The proposed Agreement will end on 31 December 2012. No other Agreement negotiated by NTEU ends beyond 30 June 2012, with the Sydney University Agreement ending in May 2012.
NTEU urges staff to think about the consequences of agreeing to a longer Agreement. UWS General Staff will have less valuable pay rises the longer the Agreement runs.
- The bargaining position of UWS General staff will be weakened as we will be locked into an Agreement whilst all other universities in the country will be negotiating new Agreements with further pay increases
- By pushing ahead with a General Staff Agreement before Christmas and offering the lure of a $1000 signing on payment, UWS management are seeking to fracture the staff and weaken the bargaining power of all.
- Once UWS General Staff are bargaining separately and to a different timeline to the UWS Academic Staff, they will be vulnerable to lower pay offers and further differences in conditions. In unity is strength!
NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO ENTRENCH WORKCHOICES STYLE ARRANGEMENTS
Not only does the management offer cut existing conditions from the current Agreement, it continues to entrench some of the conditions of employment imposed by the Howard Government’s WorkChoices regime and Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs), which linked millions of dollars of university funding to the removal of employment conditions. Staff at UWS gave up these conditions in order to ensure that the University did not have its funding cut.
Now that there has been a change of Government, NTEU has been seeking to restore important rights that were lost under the previous Howard Government. These provisions deal with:
- Job Security and Outsourcing of Work. Everyone at UWS is aware of the constant state of change and the number of redundancies that have been experienced. This is on a scale that is not currently experienced by any other university in NSW. The latest example includes employees in Print Services who are currently losing their jobs with services being outsourced to UWSConnect. NTEU has been fighting hard all year to include strong restrictions against outsourcing. The measures included in the proposed Agreement are minimal and will do nothing to stop future outsourcing proposals going ahead.
- Important Protections for Fixed Term Contract Staff. One of the main rights attacked by the Howard Government under the HEWRRs was the complete removal of protections for fixed term staff. NTEU has sought to restore the protections against management terminating these contracts and to abolish the unfettered ability of management to offer work on a fixed term basis, where that work should be offered on a continuing basis.
For more information, contact NTEU UWS Branch: Cat Coghlan, Branch Organiser. Ph: 02 9685 9928, Email: uws@nsw.nteu.org.au
Related posts (automatically generated):
December 15th, 2009 at 9:56 am
To all NTEU members at UWS,
The EB Team at Southern Cross University (SCU) strongly supports your negotiating team’s recommendation to vote no to an ‘offer’ that reflects managements unilateral decision to ‘walk away from the table.’
If management’s ‘offer’ is accepted it will mean an inferior settlement will apply at UWS when compared to at least a dozen other university settlements obtained by the NTEU around Australia throughout 2009 and may lead to similar tactics being adopted by other universities still at the negotiating table.
Send management a message that WorkChoices is dead and buried. Vote No.
In unity,
Dr Grant Cairncross
NTEU Lead Negotiator – SCU.
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December 15th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Dear David
On behalf of our Wollongong Branch and especially our EB negotiating team, I wanted to let you, your bargainers and the Branch in general know that you have our full support in your fight against this tawdry act of bastardry on the part of the UWS managers. Please know that we are ready to assist in whatever way possible over the next few days. Just tell us what you need. I know that our branch exec officer, Anne Maguire is already assisting.
Please pass on our best wishes to your team and Branch.
Give ‘em hell, David.
Regards
Ron Perrin
Lead Bargainer, NTEU Academic
UOW
December 16th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Dear Colleagues
The University of Sydney NTEU Branch wishes you all the best in your campaign for a good Enterprise Agreement. It seems some university managements and their friends believe John Howard and his anti-union attitudes and practices are still the way to go when you are dealing with employment relations. At Sydney University we have a new Enterprise Agreement that includes the provisions your management want to avoid. Our Agreement covers all staff who work at the University, has good workloads provision for academic staff and reclassification provisions for general staff. There are limits on the numbers of academic casuals – this means more ongoing positions. We have restored the job security provisions lost under Howard and enhanced annual leave entitlements. Our campaign was hard and well supported. We wish you all the best. University managements are isolated and removed form the university community – they need to show respect to those of us at the coal face.
If we can do anything to assist you please let the Branch know.
Regards
Michael Thomson
President
University of Sydney NTEU Branch
December 16th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Dear Professional Staff Colleagues and Campaigners at UWS,
The QUT Branch wishes you good luck and bon courage in your campaign to resist the dastardly UWS management offer.
EB negotiations here have not been easy, but with the practised skills and perseverence of NTEU negotiator, Cathy Grant, we are progressing towards an acceptable agreement. In praise of QUT management, they have not stooped to the depths of your UWS management’s dirty tricks.
Please let us know if we can help you.
Best regards,
Evan Jones
President
QUT NTEU Branch