NTEU Media Release: Union to use enterprise bargaining round to call time on growth of casual employment in universities

Posted 18 June 2012 by Andrew Nette (NTEU National Office)

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) will use the upcoming higher education enterprise bargaining round to create 2000 new ongoing jobs for casual academics, better regulate escalating workloads and improve conditions and career advancement for professional staff in universities.

“Over half of academic teaching in universities is now undertaken by people paid by the hour,” said NTEU President, Jeannie Rea. “

“This growth in casualisation is the dirty secret of Australian higher education, which now threatens to undermine the quality of our university system. We intend to use the upcoming enterprise bargaining round to call time on this.”

“A key feature of the log of claims the Union will be serving on all universities is the creation of 2000 new ongoing jobs, to substantially and permanently reducing the unacceptably high level of casual academic employment.”

“That’s approximately 20 per cent of the academic casuals working in universities, based on the government’s own figures. We want to provide opportunities for career advancement for younger academics locked out of the system,

Other major claims agreed to at a two-day meeting of NTEU representatives from universities across Australia, which concluded on the weekend, include:

Improving career progression and classification procedures for professional staff. This is in recognition of the increasing amount and complexity of work faced by professional staff.
Further increases in Indigenous employment based on binding Indigenous employment strategies and targets.
Enforceable regulation of academic and professional staff workloads.
Provision for employees who are dealing with the consequences of domestic violence.
A 7% per annum flat annual salary increase over four years. This is to compensate for cost of living increases, productivity gains and to maintain domestic and international competitiveness.

“Work intensification is a growing problem for academic and professional staff across the sector,” said Rea. “The clearest indication of this has been the growth in the number of students attending university.”

“We understand the financial health of individual institutions differs across the higher education sector.”

“But we believe that not only can universities choose to meet these claims, it is in their interests to do so to ensure their most valuable resource, their staff, get the respect, recognition and reward they deserve.”

For further information and comment:

Jeannie Rea, NTEU President: 0434 609 531

Andrew Nette, NTEU Media Officer: 0431 217 131

Tags: higher education, media release • Related Blogs: ACT Division, NSW Division, NT Division, Vic Division, WA Division, SA Division, Qld Division, Tas Division, Australian Catholic University, University of Adelaide, Australian Defence Force Academy, Australian National University, University of Ballarat, Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, Bond University, University of Canberra, Charles Darwin University, Central Queensland University, Charles Sturt University, Curtin University of Technology, Deakin University, Edith Cowan University, Flinders University, Griffith University, James Cook University, La Trobe University, Macquarie University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, Murdoch University, University of Notre Dame Australia, University of Newcastle, University of New South Wales, Queensland University of Technology, RMIT University, Southern Cross University, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Sydney, University of New England, University of Queensland, University of South Australia, University of the Sunshine Coast, University of Southern Queensland, University of Technology Sydney, University of Western Australia, University of Western Sydney, University of Wollongong

Comments

John Harrison said on 0:16 Monday 22 Oct, 2012
[ 0 ] Twiggy Forrest has rounded up the mining industry, and others like Wesfarmers, Harvey Norman to deliver an national Indigenous employment strategy, and here we are in the NTEU struggling to get universities to commit to employment targets for Indigenous people.

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John O'Brien said on 13:19 Wednesday 4 Jul, 2012
[ +6 ] There is a difference between uniform / identical outcomes and similar outcomes. The executive quite rightly quite rightly considers draft agreements to determine whether they meet settlement points determined by the National Council. It does not follow from this that all agreements are identical. Setting a floor on what is acceptable is not pattern bargaining.
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Andrew said on 14:37 Thursday 21 Jun, 2012
[ +1 ] Thanks John, interesting point though I'm sure it's not black and white as you suggest. Also does that mean outcomes are not sent to the NTEU National Office for approval against desired uniform outcomes this time? That would be a step forward, helping those in individual workplaces save jobs rather contribute to job losses as a result of unsustainable industry-wide wage growth
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John O'Brien said on 16:22 Wednesday 20 Jun, 2012
[ 0 ] Making common claims is quite lawful and has been held to be so by Fair Work Australia. Common outcomes may be held to be evidence of pattern bargaining but the current legislation requires that bargaining take place at each institution and rarely are outcomes identical. The NTEU has followed a similar approach since the enterprise bargaining again. If Mr Matchett in The Australian proposes to pontificate on this issue he ought have his facts right.
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Malcolm said on 12:23 Tuesday 19 Jun, 2012
[ +1 ] I hear Monash College is going into a round of voluntary redundancies. Didn't they do this last year?
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Maryanne said on 9:58 Tuesday 19 Jun, 2012
[ -1 ] 'their academics'(!)
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Maryanne said on 9:57 Tuesday 19 Jun, 2012
[ -2 ] There is a seriously overlooked catch-22 in this... Offering more academics (young and old, new and experienced) contract roles is a worthy ideal. Unfortunately, when institutions are more concerned with financial growth than the professional development of its academics, it is highly likely that these newly-created positions will be short lived. As soon as bean-counters declare the bean pile low (be this imagined or otherwise), they simply put redundancies in place. Anyone who has worked for any of the Group of Eight in the recent past has already seen wide evidence of this.
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Andrew said on 12:17 Monday 18 Jun, 2012
[ +4 ] Isn't pattern bargaining prohibited?
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Branch Contacts

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