PROGRESS MADE AT COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

The NTEU is pleased to advise that progress was achieved in some key areas at yesterday’s Collective Bargaining meeting.

In particular, the University has agreed to the principle of separate payment for marking by casual academic staff and withdrawn its proposal to limit the right of general staff members to seek reclassification.

All parties agreed that it was important to finalise negotiations. As a result, a draft Agreement will form the basis for the next negotiating meeting scheduled for late March.

Members should be aware however that there are still some critical matters to be resolved including restoration of ALL pre-HEWRR staff rights prior to the Agreement being finalised.

As a result of this positive development, a meeting of members will not be convened at this time.

WHAT ABOUT SALARY?

The University indicated that salary would be last item they would be prepared to negotiate.

Unfortunately, despite the recent 3.4% pay increase, Flinders still remains amongst the lowest paying universities in this country.

Our March Branch Newsletter will provide members with detailed information about this issue.

On Tuesday 19 January 2010 NTEU representatives had a full day EB meeting with University representatives, which was conducted in a generally positive and constructive manner.

While progress was made in resolving some outstanding clauses there are still a significant number of matters that are not close to resolution. A brief summary of the topics discussed follows: 

Senior Staff Contracts

The management proposal to extend Senior Staff Contracts down to Heads of Schools and Branch Heads was extensively discussed and remains an area of significant disagreement, though the discussion did clarify the respective points of difference between each side, notably the philosophical and industrial issues as to whether Heads of School are simply line managers.

Disputes/Reviews and Staff Complaints

There was a useful combined discussion on Disputes/Reviews and Staff Complaints and there is now agreement in principle (subject to drafting) to retain Review Committees separately for matters such as promotion/reclassification, unsatisfactory performance/misconduct, staff complaints, redundancy and redeployment.  The disputes clause requires further negotiation.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) Employment

After considerable discussion we appear to be closer to agreement on a strategy for increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment and on the establishment of a representative monitoring committee.

PDR

A considerable amount of time was spent on this topic as the NTEU is strongly opposed to linking PDR with unsatisfactory performance. Considerable progress was made and our respective positions were clarified. We believe we are close to agreement about removing management’s proposed link between PDR and unsatisfactory performance.  The NTEU is to propose a definition of what constitutes unsatisfactory performance.

The drafting group will continue to work on detailed clauses and we have proposed a further full day bargaining meeting near the end of February 2010.

FLINDERS NOW A LOWEST PAYING UNIVERSITY

Despite the recently announced administrative increase which Flinders staff will receive on 26 February 2010, Flinders has become and will remain one the lowest paying Australian Universities.

Flinders now groups itself as a bottom payer with Central Queensland University, University of Southern Queensland and Charles Darwin University.

This is a significant decline from the mid-range salary position that Flinders occupied for many years

Such a decline does not accord with the Vice-Chancellor’s statements to staff in his recent Town Hall meeting, that Flinders was in a “reasonably healthy position” and “revenue would be up in 2010.”

Such a decline also does not accord with the 2007 Shanghai Jiao-Tong University Academic Ranking of World Universities where Flinders was ranked in the top:
10 universities in Australia; 64 universities in the Asia- Pacific region; 400 universities in the world.

GENERAL STAFF SHOULD HAVE A RIGHT TO SEEK A RECLASSIFICATION REVIEW

The University is currently seeking to limit the right of general staff to seek a review of their classification level in a way that would effectively mean that it was no longer available to staff.

The NTEU’s position is that such a fundamental work place right is not to be traded off.

No other University in this round of bargaining has made such a demand of its general staff.

C2R2 – PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE IMPLEMENTING THIS BAN

Thank you to members who have advised us that they are implementing the ban on any extra work associated with the C2R2 process.

The significant extra work that has been generated for both academic and general staff members has not been recognised by the University in collective bargaining negotiations.

We therefore ask members to seriously consider participating in this ban and letting us know if you are doing so.

BAN ON EXAM RESULTS

The NTEU is currently reviewing the ban on transmission to the University of assessment and exam results and we will advise members as soon as possible if there is any change.

ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Please contact us by return email or by phoning ext 12656 if you have any questions or comments about this advice.