Government Discussion Paper Fails the Test on Real Workplace Issues
14 August 2002
The NTEU believes the Education Minister’s discussion paper on governance and workplace relations released today completely fails the test of identifying the real workplace issues of concern to academic and general staff working in Australia’s higher education sector.
“The paper views workplace reform at universities through a rigid ideological framework, completely ignoring the fact that the higher education sector is already one of the most flexible industries in Australia, with over one-third of all staff being casually employed and a fifth on fixed-term contracts,” said Mr Grahame McCulloch, NTEU General Secretary.
“The real limitations on staff performance are issues such as increasing workloads, with some academics working more than 11 hours a day, increasing staff to student ratios, attacks on intellectual freedom, mounting job insecurity and casualisation, and lack of trust in senior management,” said Mr McCulloch.
According to information released by the Australian Vice Chancellors Committee, student to staff ratios have increased by 38.6% in the last 8 years, climbing from 14.3 to 1 in 1993 to 19.9 to 1 in 2001.
A national survey of occupational stress in Australian universities conducted by the NTEU and a number of academic researchers released earlier this year, revealed approximately 50 per cent of university staff are at risk of psychological illness from their work, compared with only 19 per cent of the Australian population overall.
“The Government’s paper ignores all these problems in favour of floating a narrow definition that would tie staff performance to their ability to generate revenue and measures to further increase casual and contract employment.”
“Added to this, there is no recognition in the Government’s paper that additional public funding to universities is required if improvements in quality and flexibility are to be introduced into the system.”
“With a new round of enterprise bargaining about to begin, many of the suggestions contained in the Government’s paper are a potential recipe for division and conflict in the sector.”
For information and comment
Grahame McCulloch, NTEU General Secretary
Mob: 0419 549 762
Ken McAlpine, NTEU Industrial Coordinator
Mob: 0418 357 499