Yesterday’s members meeting unanimously voted to call for the Vice Chancellor to step down, and for all NTEU members to strike on Open Day, August 8.  This regrettable step has been taken because;

1/  Management committed to pay rises in 2010 in a written agreement with the union
2/  Management have reneged on this written commitment
3/  VU staff are among the lowest paid in the University sector

The for 4 motionspassed unanimously at yesterday’s meetingare as follows:

1. That this General Meeting of the VU NTEU Branch reiterates its condemnation of:

• Management’s reneging on commitments made last year, in the Heads of Agreement that lead to the 2009 Agreement, to pay salary rises in 2010, which leaves VU staff among the worst paid in the sector;
• Management’s refusal to seriously discuss ways to resolve the dispute and to bargain in good faith for a new Agreement; and
• Management’s continuing and escalating aggressive response to the union industrial action.

2. That this meeting further calls on University management to

• bargain in good faith with the NTEU;
• provide an immediate pay rise comparable with industry standards so that VU staff do not become the worst paid staff out of 42 universities in Australia; and
• immediately and unconditionally reinstate payment of wages for those staff participating in the current results bans.

3. Further, that this meeting endorses an escalation of industrial action and community protest action to protest against Management’s failure to bargain in good faith and attempts to massively increase workloads of general staff and academic staff. This action will include:

• A strike on Open Day, Sunday 8 August;
• Rolling strike action to begin after Open Day, on dates to be determined by the Branch Committee;
• Escalation of the community and media campaign; and

4. Due to the ineffectual and duplicitous manner in which this situation has been handled by the Vice Chancellor, that this meeting calls on VU Council to immediately stand down the Vice Chancellor.

As you will see above in bold, one of the motions calls for a strike on Open Day, Sunday 8 August. We are therefore calling on all members to support the Strike on Open Day to send a clear message to VU senior management that their failure to bargain in good faith, including their inaction in genuinely negotiating a payrise for all general and academic staff, will not be tolerated any longer. We don’t take this action lightly, but enough is enough; the Union demands that VU senior management begin treating VU staff with respect!

Dear DVC Hickman

You claim in your recent communication with staff that you wish to find an acceptable compromise to the current dispute which has involved a ban on transmission of results.

But at the last meeting to discuss Enterprise Bargaining, you and Elizabeth Harman’s management team rejected the solution put forward by the President of the VU NTEU Branch Richard Gough and  the State Secretary of the NTEU, Mathew McGowan..

The NTEU agreed to withdraw all industrial action if VU management agreed to an increase in pay comparable to other universities in 2010, in line with what had been agreed n the Heads of Agreement signed by VU Management and the NTEU last year.

It was put to your management team that it was unreasonable for you not to give this pay rise given that every other University in Victoria will give an increase of at least 4% this year. Moreover the NTEU explained to you if the University did not provide a pay rise this year it would seriously damage the reputation of the University because staff at VU would become the lowest payed in the country.

The NTEU said it was serious about resolving the current dispute and wanted to negotiate a solution.

Your lead negotiators told the NTEU that, despite previous commitments given on salaries, the University would not discuss salaries until other matters were dealt with.  However, they could not discuss what other things needed to be dealt with because they had not considered our proposals and had not finalised their own “agenda” for bargaining.

Not surprisingly, NTEU said you were not treating the current dispute seriously if you had not even got your act together– despite taking more than six months to prepare for the meeting.

After the wreckage and pain which has been meted out against VU staff over the last six years since the beginning of this Vice Chancellor’s tenure, indeed your response showed great contempt for the general and academic staff of the University who you seem to think should now be the lowest paid in the  entire sector as well having some of the worst workloads.

The NTEU gave you a log of claims and a full draft agreement three months ago, in April.

You say you wish to reach a compromise with the NTEU: you will reinstate the staff who have been stood down if the NTEU agrees to release all fail results.  This is no compromise at all.  In effect, you are asking for the bans to be lifted, because once all fail results have been identified, then by simple logic, all remaining students will be known to have passed.  If the bans were lifted, then of course you would be required by law to reinstate the staff who have been stood down.  You are, in effect, offering to obey the law if the Union lifts the bans.

Not only is your offer disingenuous but you are continuing to deny VU staff wage justice and a fair deal. You seem unable to treat VU staff with the same degree of fairness as any other University worker in the sector.

It is the Union that has offered a real compromise.  We will lift the bans if the University honours its 2009 signed commitment to pay a wage rise in 2010.  The University should embrace this compromise and, in the words of our would-be Prime Minister, “move forward”.

The NTEU remains ready to settle this dispute at any time.  It is waiting for VU management to come to the table with a genuine willingness to compromise.

Yours Sincerely
VU NTEU Branch

Victoria University management to stand down VU staff without pay

From Monday Victoria University management will begin unprecedented action to stand down staff who are NTEU members without pay. The stand downs are in response to legally protected industrial bans placed by NTEU members on the transmission of results.

VU NTEU Branch President, Richard Gough said the response by the University was extreme.

‘No University management in Victoria has taken this kind of action for at least 10 years,’ said Mr Gough.

Mr Gough said staff at the University had taken industrial action as a last resort because of the failure of the University to progress collective bargaining.  ‘Management has not even met with the NTEU despite us approaching them repeatedly since January,’ he said.

‘Belatedly they have agreed to bargain 6 months later but are now saying there is no budget to pay for bargaining claims in 2010, despite having an operating surplus of $20.6 million.’

Mr Gough said, however: ‘Victoria University’s budget has been in surplus for two years and they can afford a collective agreement.’

Mr Gough said ‘staff were bargaining for improvements in student/staff ratio, improved workloads, reduced casualisation and a wage rise.’

‘Pay rates for Victoria University staff are amongst the worst in Australia in the university sector. Yet management of the University are happy for this situation to continue indefinitely.’

‘What University management need to do is sit down with staff to work out a fair solution rather than continue to delay,’ he said

== End of Media Release ==

Members not enforcing the bans are strongly urged to get behind the ‘NTEU Legends’ (those members in strategic roles who will continue the bans indefinitely and expose themselves to extended loss of pay) by pledging $50 per fortnight (depending on circumstances and with a reduced donation of $20 per fortnight for sessional members).

Pledges will be paid into the VU Strike Fund which will be managed by the National level of NTEU. The direct debit request form is now available for download. Please return the completed Request to the VU Branch office, Footscray Park Campus.

Download the direct debit request form here (pdf).