The NTEU has called a 24 hour strike on Open Day – August 8th. More information on the reasons for the strike can be found here.

If you do not work on Open Day anyway, this strike does not affect you, but the NTEU calls on you to come along to the picket line to show your support.

If you have been rostered on to work on Open Day, then the NTEU calls on you to join the strike and come along to the picket line.

If you have been asked to “volunteer” on Open Day, then the NTEU calls on you not to do so and come along to the picket line instead .

Management may ask you to indicated NOW whether you intend to strike on Open Day.  You are not required to answer and definitely should not do so.

Every individual worker has the right under Australian law to decide whether or not to participate in properly authorised strikes like this one.  You can make up your mind about participating at any time up to and on the day.  Your employer cannot require you to make up your mind, or to declare your intention, before then. You are also entitled to change your mind.  Serious penalties apply against the University and potentially your supervisor if you are disadvantaged in your employment in any way as a result of participating in protected action.

Of course, everyone who goes on strike loses pay for the duration of the strike – if you would normally have been paid for that day’s work, or for some hours of that day, then you will not be paid that amount when you go on strike.  So on or after the strike day, the employer is within their rights to ask you or your supervisor to report whether you worked or not.  This enables them to dock pay.

But there is no requirement for you to tell them in advance.

The purpose of the strike is to place maximum pressure on the University senior management to take a more reasonable position on wages and conditions at the bargaining table.  If they get detailed advance notice of exactly who is and isn’t going on strike, then that undermines the effect of the strike by helping management to make contingency plans.  If you support the Union’s claims, then do not tell VU management in advance whether or not you will be striking on August 8.

If VU management ask you to say whether or not you intend to go on strike, NTEU advises you that you are entitled to simply respond that you have not yet decided.

Please circulate this message widely within your VU networks, and encourage those colleagues who have not yet joined the NTEU to join online.

Richard Gough,
President, NTEU VU Branch

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!

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).