NTEU wins nationwide coverage of general staff
15 November 1999
In a landmark ruling, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has granted in full an application by the National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) for union coverage of general staff in all Australian universities.
The NTEU currently has coverage of academic staff throughout higher education, but was until now limited to covering general staff at only half of Australia’s 38 universities.
The Decision, which grants about 30,000 general staff the right to choose to join the NTEU, was strongly opposed by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and Australian Services Union (ASU), which retain some members in the industry.
NTEU General Secretary Grahame McCulloch hailed the outcome as a great victory for university staff.
"This now gives all university staff a real choice about union membership. As one of the few unions in Australia whose membership is growing, we see this as a great opportunity to lift the level of union density in higher education".
This Decision is a setback for Dr Kemp and Mr Reith. Their proposals to weaken union representation and further reduce job security will be all-the-more difficult with general and academic staff united in one industry union.
"Now the NTEU can get on with the job of uniting all university staff to protect higher education and achieve salary justice".
It is now expected that the NTEU will be representing general staff in enterprise bargaining negotiations across the country.
The Decision follows ballots during 1997 and 1998 among general staff at ten universities, where general staff expressed a preference for NTEU membership by a two-to-one margin.
The union expects to have increased its membership by about 2000 in the next fortnight, as a result of an intensive national recruitment campaign.
Senior Deputy President Williams’ 137-page Decision [Print S0688] mostly deals with legal issues arising from the proper interpretation of the Workplace Relations Act 1996.
However, on pages 118-120 of the Decision, he makes the following findings of fact:
"The NTEU is an organisation which represents both academic and general staff. A substantial and significant number of general staff have chosen to be and remain members of that organisation. A significant number of general staff who are presently ineligible for membership have indicated, either through agency agreements or through ballots, a preference for having the NTEU represent their industrial interests
I do not anticipate that the distinction between the roles and functions of academic and general staff will disappear in the near future. However, it is clear from the evidence that, at some levels, there is a continuing trend towards a team based approach to the delivery of tertiary education and a convergence of those roles and functions.
The NTEU has a clearly demonstrated capacity to represent industrially the industrial interests of both academic and general staff. There is no evidence which would justify a conclusion that its past representation of general staff has not been in the interests of such employees…
…The NTEU is a national union operating in a national industry. It is directly focussed upon the concerns of the employees in that industry. It has structures which allow for members to participate directly in decision making that affects members both nationally and at an enterprise level. Such decisions are taken by persons employed in the industry…
…In so far as the convenience of the industrial/workplace relations system established by the WR Act is concerned, the capacity for both academic and general staff to be members of and represented by the same organisation in enterprise bargaining negotiations would facilitate bargaining at an enterprise level. Extending the NTEU’s capacity to represent general staff would also provide employees with a genuine right to choose their industrial representative…
…The NTEU’s demonstrated competence in representing the industrial interests of its existing general staff members, its enterprise based structure, the extent of its expertise and resources and its focus on the tertiary education industry are all factors which convince me that it is an organisation that is capable of effectively and adequately representing the industrial and other interests of all general staff. That capacity is not compromised by the fact that it also represents academic staff. Nor, in reality, does the evidence disclose that NTEU’s representation of academic staff has disadvantaged the interests of its general staff members. Indeed, in my view, the so-called "cultural divide" that is said to exist between academic staff and general staff is essentially a fiction and certainly, on the evidence, without foundation."