UNIONS REFER FEDERAL GOVERNMENT UNIVERSITY WORKPLACE RELATIONS REQUIREMENTS TO THE ILO
Wed 15 Oct 2003
Unions taking part in tomorrow's national strike at higher education institutions have referred the Federal Governments university workplace relations requirements to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Seven trade unions covering university staff throughout Australia will take part in national strike action on Thursday to pursue bargaining claims and to protest the Federal Government's proposal to tie $404 million in education funding to hard-line industrial reform.
"The Federal Government is forcing universities to take away the rights of university staff to collectively bargain and have freedom of association," said ACTU President Sharan Burrow.
The unions have referred the matter to the ILO's Committee of Experts as a breach of Article 4 of ILO Convention 98 on freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively. This requires the Australian Government to promote collective bargaining with unions as the legitimate representatives of employees.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) President Dr Carolyn Allport said institutions and unions had a right to continue enterprise bargaining without unwarranted intervention by the Federal Government.
"This action is against all international standards of the institutional autonomy for universities and will involve significant compliance costs for institutions," she said.
"Stripping back standards on redundancy, termination and workplace consultation will do nothing to improve the quality of education provided by our universities and is inconsistent with the principles of academic freedom and collegial decision-making," said Dr Allport.
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) Federal Secretary David Carey said the requirements, on top of declining amounts of funding, would make it increasingly difficult for universities to operate.
"The Federal Government's requirements also do nothing to address the concerns Australian families have that they are finding it increasingly difficult to be able to afford to send their children to university," said Mr Carey.
For interviews phone:
ACTU: Jeremy Vermeesch 0408 513 849
CPSU: David Carey 0418 233 923
NTEU: Andrew Nette 0438 026 277
For details and to arrange interviews during Thursday's action phone:
CPSU Bernadette Keeffe 0419 268 502 or 02-9299 5655
NTEU: Andrew Nette 0438 026 277