A threatened strike over enterprise bargaining at James Cook University was called off today.

“Management have agreed to a package of fair pay increases”, said JCU’s National Tertiary Education Union branch president Jan Wegner. “We are particularly pleased that they are doing something to make up the pay gap between JCU and other Universities in the State. They have also agreed to reverse the employee-unfriendly provisions forced on JCU under the previous Federal government”.

The strike was called after 12 months of negotiations stalled over pay and conditions. The last minute agreement makes JCU one of only a handful of Universities not taking industrial action.

“We are also pleased that management are improving the pay and conditions of casual staff. They have also indicated they are prepared to discuss the problem of huge and ever-increasing workloads, though this might be contentious in future negotiations”, said Dr Wegner, a Cairns Campus academic.

The NTEU has blamed escalating workloads on the Howard government’s refusal to index University funding properly. “Universities have been grossly underfunded”, said Dr Wegner. “The staff have been carrying the shortfall since 1996 and the workloads have just become unsustainable”.

Contact: Jan Wegner, NTEU ph. 40421100
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Even at this late stage, JCU is hesitating to finalise negotiations. The union has been meeting with management and arguing the case for our log of claims since August 2008. We have had 17 meetings each lasting more than 5 hours, and twice management has promised to come to the next meeting with their response to our log of claims.

On Monday this week (7/9/09) they finally came and told us that they would offer a 4% payrise for each of the next 3 years, but that the first year would be a mix of allowances rolled into base salary and a payrise. They also refused to agree on the return of a couple of the staff rights which were stripped out under HEWRRs.

A lunchtime meeting of members on that day were very unimpressed by this response. The meeting voted to send the bargaining team back with the message that members wanted a clear and unequivocal offer which included a pay increase addressing the lack of pay parity with other Queensland universities.

Members gave JCU management until COB Monday 14 September to make a better offer and sign a heads of agreement on these matters. Failing that they voted to take strike action on Wednesday 16th.

This message was duly relayed to management and in the discussions which followed, the responses from management were much more positive. However there is no document signed yet, which commits JCU to the things they have offered, and members will not know before Monday 14th if they have signed.

So the call has gone out for members to join the picket at the entrance gates to both the Townsville and Cairns campuses. Union members will be there from 5.30am when the cleaning staff start work, and we intend to stay for most of the morning and then have a BBQ lunch together.

If JCU signs the heads of agreement document on Monday, the JCU Branch Committee has been directed by the membership to call off the strike action and have a celebration at lunchtime on Wednesday instead.

A message will go out to all members on Tuesday morning explaining which of these actions we will take.

University staff across Australia are reporting a lack of respect and sometimes even contempt shown by management for the work done at all levels of the university.

Staff are now demanding more respect for the vital role they play in ensuring a quality output by the university community. Respect at work means:

• Respectable workloads.
• Respectable work/life balance.
• A respectable pay rise.
• Respectable job security for all staff.

Collective Agreements have expired at all universities and the former Howard Government’s WorkChoices laws have been repealed. However, most universities are yet to finalise new Fair Work Agreements and are still clinging to the discredited industrial regime that John Howard imposed.

Bargaining – the state of play

This situation draws into sharp focus the inadequacies of the now expired Agreements on job security, workload controls, dispute resolution processes and the use (and abuse) of casual and fixed-term employment.

These provisions, amongst others, were required to be removed or weakened by the Howard Government’s Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs).

The only reason NTEU agreed to these provisions being diluted or removed was to enable universities to receive their share of the $500 million in additional grants that the Howard Government made conditional on the HEWRRs being met.

With the HEWRRs having been abolished 12 months ago, there is no reason or justification for any university not to re-instate the pre-HEWRRs standards in new and improved Collective Agreements.

However, despite negotiations occurring for many months at some universities, managements have stalled finalising new Agreements, and in some instances have refused to consider some of the key claims aimed at redressing the existing inadequacies.

Time for action

It is now time to break these deadlocks. Over the next few weeks NTEU members across the country will be voting in secret ballots on authorising action to put pressure on university managements to reach settlements on new Agreements.

Your colleagues need you to join our campaign to achieve fair and manageable workloads, a pay rise which will fairly acknowledge the hard work of all staff, and to achieve respect at work for all.

If you’re not currently a Union member, join online. To vote on and participate in action to be taken in the campaign, you need to join the Union today.

If you are already an NTEU member, contact your local office to see how you can help. You can do as much or as little as you like. Every helping hand will help us win the conditions YOU and your university deserve.