Minister Kemp sued by NTEU over leaked cabinet document
23 June 2000
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) is taking Federal Education Minister David Kemp to court over his attempts to interfere in enterprise bargaining negotiations between the Union and a number of universities.
The plan to interfere in the bargaining process was revealed in a leaked Cabinet document generated by Minister Kemp in October 1999.
Minister Kemp has offered funding for a two percent salary increase to those universities that implement \"significant workplace reform\" including non-union agreements, Australian Workplace Agreements, staff workload deregulation as well as the abolition of promotion on merit and protections against termination of employment.
The Universities of Sydney and New South Wales and the Queensland University of Technology are among those that have had their applications for the funding rejected.
Maurice Blackburn Cashman lawyers today lodged a test case in the Federal Court alleging that Minister Kemp has contravened his own government\'s Workplace Relations Act.
Section 170NC of the Act makes it an offense for a third party to take any action in order to coerce parties engaging in enterprise bargaining.
NTEU National Secretary, Grahame McCulloch said the government was attempting to bribe university managements into using the process of enterprise bargaining to deunionise campuses.
\"Minister Kemp is trying to use the dire financial plight of universities to force them into driving down conditions of employment,\" Mr McCulloch said.
\"University Managers are now carrying out enterprise bargaining negotiations in an environment poisoned by Minister Kemp. This industrial match fixing is remarkable hypocrisy for a government which decries so called third party intervention in the workplace.\"
Maurice Blackburn Cashman Partner, Josh Bornstein said the court would determine whether the Minister\'s imposition of funding guidelines contravened the Act.