Reasons to stick with the Enterprise Agreement
FOUR BIG REASONS TO STICK WITH THE ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT
1. The AWA is an individual agreement, unlike the enterprise agreement which is negotiated on behalf of all academic staff and all general staff.
There is always strength in numbers and negotiating alone is never a good idea. The enterprise agreement negotiations have resulted in major improvements over the years (pay, leave, superannuation, protections from unfair dismissal, obligations to consult staff about change) which individuals would never be able to achieve alone.
2. The AWA offered at this University is significantly worse than the enterprise agreements (see below)
3. You will miss out on improvements we negotiate for the 2008 Enterprise Agreement.
The AWA being offered has a five year term which means you will not enjoy any of the improvements in pay or conditions we negotiate in the 2008 University Enterprise Agreement. Every round of bargaining we work collectively and sometimes take industrial action to achieve improved outcomes for staff at the University – pay, workload limits, improved leave or other conditions.
4. You can have the best of both worlds with an enterprise agreement.
It is already possible to have all the provisions of the enterprise agreement while also negotiating better provisions on top of the agreement - staff in some areas have negotiated better pay or allowances on top of the agreement. AWAs give management the capacity to offer less than what the agreement provides for.
THE AWA IS FAR WORSE THAN THE ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT:
- Conditions stripped out: As outlined below, the AWAs have stripped out a significant number of conditions – the AWAs are only 14 pages long compared with 45 pages of conditions in the enterprise agreements.
- Pay: the AWA is for 5 years but there are only pay rises outlined until 1 March 2008 with a vague reference to “standard increases granted to academic staff from time to time”.
- Easier to sack you: Unlike in the enterprise agreement, the AWA has no protections against unfair dismissal - there are no detailed processes to protect you from being unfairly dismissed whereas the enterprise agreement has detailed procedures if concerns are raised during probation or for alleged misconduct or unsatisfactory performance or for alleged ill health. The AWA also allows them to suspend you without pay over a discipline issue which the EBA does not.
- Accrued sick leave lost: for existing staff, the AWA makes no provision that your sick leave accrued to date will continue, so you start at zero again.
- General Staff provisions worse off – some provisions specific to general staff are also worse in the AWA such as enabling the University to vary your span of hours without agreement (which means you could be required to work any day and any hours for ordinary time pay).; no higher pay for work on public holidays; no right to paid leave during the Xmas closedown;
- General Staff allowances lost: overtime meal allowances, first aid, travel and meal, higher duties, trades, clothing and safety equipment.
- Other general Staff provisions missing: reclassification appeal process, shift loadings, requirements for rosters, flexible working hours scheme, health and safety provisions and medical examinations paid for, protection of salary for 12 months if redeployed to lower level position
- Annual leave – is weaker wording on taking the leave at the time of the staff member’s choice; no recouping annual leave if you are sick for 5 days or more during leave
- Parental leave: is left to the University to decide under policy. The EBA has an entitlement to 26 weeks maternity/adoption leave and 5 days paid partner leave and 5 days foster parent leave.
- Other leave worse off: the overall carer, bereavement,
emergency and other leave is worse off :
- bereavement leave is capped
- the EBA has broader leave such as funeral preparation, religious and ceremonial, moving residence, emergency, defence force, witness and jury leave.
- Fixed term employment not continuing: Some of the AWAs provide for fixed term employment rather than ongoing employment which is the norm under the enterprise agreement
- No limits on academic workload: The workload under the AWA is as allocated by your supervisor and there are no limits on the academic hours or work, whereas the enterprise agreement has clear limits on workloads including a collegial process for determining workloads under Faculty workload formulae; 780 hours of teaching per annum cap, and also a dispute process for workload issues
- Easier to pay you less: Unlike the enterprise agreement, the AWA has no obligation to raise issues of concern with you if they are considering not awarding you the normal annual incremental pay increase based on satisfactory performance.
- Harder to resign: The AWA requires academics to give 2 months notice of resignation compared with 1-5 weeks in the enterprise agreement.
- Less redundancy pay than in the enterprise agreement.
- Academics are worse off by up to 16 weeks as the cap on the payment is 36 weeks instead of 52 weeks pay and it is up to 26 weeks worse for academics over 40 years of age who have less than 5 years of service.
- General staff package is worse by 8-12 weeks depending on whether you are over 45 years old
- No access to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission over disputes about the agreement – the enterprise agreement allows access to the Commission to help settle disputes, the AWA does not.
- No rights for fixed term staff to be converted to continuing employment
- No protections from being unreasonably required to work in other locations to where you were employed originally
- No right to speak out about issues (academic freedom)