NTEU forces ANU to respect rights of Music staff under Enterprise Agreement
Staff in the ANU School of Music received an email yesterday from the Head of Human Resources, Ron Watts, regarding the failure of the university to respect its obligations under the Enterprise Agreement in its previously issued Managing Change proposal.
NTEU officials met Human Resources staff last Friday to discuss a dispute which the Union had formally notified about the University's announcement that all staff positions in the School of Music would be spilled, and staff invited to reapply for jobs in the School, in a new staffing structure.
Although ANU management continues to claim that rights were 'implied' in the School of Music Change Management document this is certainly not the NTEU's interpretation: in fact the relevant Enterprise Agreement provisions were actually excluded.
The NTEU is pleased with an outcome of this meeting which was that ANU conceded that it did not have the right to notify staff that their jobs were redundant before undertaking a Managing Change consultation process as laid down by the Australian National University Enterprise Agreement.
Indeed, the University claimed that it had never intended to, though anyone who has watched DV-C Marnie Hughes-Warrington's announcement of the changes would have seen it included a clear announcement of - indeed a firm commitment to - the jobs spill.
We have also forced ANU to recognise the rights provided by the ANU Enterprise Agreement directly in the re-issued proposal. This is a significant victory amongst this management-incited turmoil. However, the NTEU continues to dispute a claim by ANU in their email that they retain the right to 'seek expressions of interest for a proposed new staffing profile.' This is incorrect, as under the Enterprise Agreement the university must demonstrate any redundancies are legitimate before removing existing roles, and must seek to redeploy any redundant staff into any new positions being created. This false claim again raises questions as to whether ANU is in fact intending to follow the provisions of the Agreement.
This demonstrates a continuing disregard for the staff of the School of Music that the NTEU will continue to challenge.
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Branch Contacts
Branch Office
Australian Catholic University
acunsw@nteu.org.au
http://www.nteu.org.au/acu
John Sinclair
Branch President
jsinclair@nteu.org.au
Barb Williams
Division Organiser
bwilliams@nteu.org.au
Kobie Howe
Division Industrial Officer
khowe@nteu.org.au
Athan McCaw
Branch Industrial Organiser
atmccaw@nteu.org.au
Jane Maze
Communications Officer/Organiser
jmaze@nteu.org.au
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