Key Claims Letter
Professor Paul Greenfield
Vice-Chancellor
The University of Queensland
Brisbane
Queensland 4072
4 August 2009
Dear Professor Greenfield
In May 2008, the UQ Branch of the NTEU served you with a log of claims seeking a new collective agreement with the University of Queensland. University Management subsequently delayed commencement of bargaining for almost 12 months. Further, Management has been unable or unwilling to meet more often than on a fortnightly basis, and even then for sessions of only two hours. Despite our requests for more frequent and/or longer sessions, we have had only six meetings. At those meetings Management has refused to discuss our key claims in any depth.
Members of the Branch are extremely dissatisfied with Management’s obstructive approach to bargaining and are of the view that it represents a fundamental lack of professional respect for University staff. They have voted to apply to Fair Work Australia for a ballot of Branch members on the question of whether they approve taking protected industrial action to further the claims they have made. That application will be heard by early next week. The Branch has every confidence that the ballot result will overwhelmingly favour taking protected industrial action, as has been the experience at all NTEU Branches where such ballots have been held this year. We expect to be in a position to provide you with notice of our intention to take protected action by early September.
We will recommend to members that they take protected industrial action unless Management reaches a final agreement with the NTEU or has made unambiguous commitments to settle the substance of our key claims. At a minimum, we would require a clear, written and signed understanding on each of the headline issues in the form of an appropriate Memorandum or Heads of Agreement. Those issues are:
Workloads: School-based workload policies agreed by academic staff; annual cap of hours to be included in agreement (currently in guidelines); workload policies to be calculable in hours, as far as teaching component is concerned; enforceable through dispute procedure.
Job security: the restoration in the body of the agreement of the HECE Award and of the procedures and rights removed pursuant to the HEWRRs. You will recall that the NTEU agreed to their removal in good faith in order to enable UQ to obtain the linked funding on the understanding that they would be restored when the HEWRRs were repealed in the future. The legislation establishing the HEWRRs was repealed by the Rudd Government in February 2009, as a matter of the highest priority.
Casual academic staff: an increase in the casual loading to 25%, separate marking payments, limits on casual staff numbers and more secure jobs for casual academic staff.
Research staff: more secure jobs for contract research staff.
Salary: a minimum increase of 18% flat by no later than June 2012.
General Staff classifications: a fair and enforceable re-classification procedure incorporated in the agreement.
Indigenous employment: inclusion in the agreement of a target 2.6% for indigenous employment, and the establishment of a committee to monitor the university’s employment strategy.
Expiry date: no later than June 2012.
Achieving agreement on all these matters requires a clear commitment that a programme of intensive and genuine negotiations. For our part, NTEU negotiators have provided such a commitment, and would welcome a commitment in similar terms from you.
We hope that this letter provides a clear statement of our present position, and look forward to the speedy and successful conclusion of negotiations.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Bonnell Margaret Lee
UQ Branch President State Secretary