ACTU President Sharan Burrow joins Uni of Ballarat staff in IR fight
August 31
Staff at the University of Ballarat, who will today meet with ACTU President Sharan Burrow, fear Federal Government changes to workplace laws and the refusal of University management to finalise an enterprise agreement could harm the University’s ability to attract and retain the best staff.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow, who will address a major protest meeting of University staff in Ballarat, today said:
“The Federal Government has imposed a range of unnecessary industrial relations changes on universities, including a requirement in Ballarat’s case to finalise a new enterprise agreement by 30 November, or lose over $1.4 million in funding.
In its obsessive pursuit of its industrial relations agenda, the Federal Government is holding the staff, management and students of the University of Ballarat to ransom.
We already know the Government’s workplace laws will be bad for workers and families, what we are seeing here at the University of Ballarat is that the Government’s industrial relations laws will also be bad for higher education students, staff and communities in regional areas.”
Under the Government’s laws University staff are being asked to accept wages and conditions which are significantly lower than those available to staff at other universities, including regional universities.
University of Ballarat staff are worried that setting salaries and job conditions that are lower than elsewhere will make it difficult to attract and retain high quality staff and will also threaten the standard of education provided to the local community.
It is wrong for the Howard Government to use education funding as a stick to force the University to implement harsh industrial relations changes.
There are more than 1,200 people employed at the University. This includes teaching staff as well as administration and support staff such as cleaners, gardeners and technicians.
Lower wages and reduced job security for university staff will harm their living standards and will also hurt the whole community as university staff will have less to spend in local businesses.
But the worst aspect of the Government’s changes are that the quality of education the University provides will suffer, and this means fewer education opportunities for young people and students in the Ballarat region.”
Speaking at the meeting today, President of the National Tertiary Education Union, Dr Carolyn Allport said:
“Staff at the University of Ballarat overwhelmingly feel that academic standards will be lowered and the University will struggle to attract and retain high quality staff if it does not offer salary increases and employment conditions comparable to other universities.”
Dr Allport was commenting on the outcomes of a recent survey of all staff employed in all areas of the University, conducted by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), the Liquor Hospitality & Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) and the Australian Workers Union (AWU).
“81% of respondents agreed that the quality of education provided by the University will decline if lower salaries and conditions are the outcome of the current enterprise bargaining process,” Dr Allport said. “Similarly, 67% of respondents believe that the University’s current salary offer is inadequate to attract and retain quality staff.”
“Staff have also strongly endorsed the unions’ approach to the process (70%), and are critical of University management’s refusal to negotiate a new agreement with staff and their representatives (74%).”
Dr Allport said that the University management should seriously take note of staff’s views arising from the survey, or risk jeopardising Ballarat’s status as a leading regional university.
“This is especially sensitive at a time when there is a real crisis developing in regional educational opportunities in Victoria. Other Victorian institutions are downgrading their commitment to regional Victoria – the University of Melbourne is withdrawing from its regional campuses; La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus has been downgraded and integrated into its parent campus at Bundoora; Monash’s Gippsland campus has had its Engineering course subsumed into the Melbourne campus.”
Over 30% of University staff responded to the survey. Half the respondents are not union members. Copies of the survey’s results, including an executive summary, will be available to the media at the media conference at 12 noon.
MEDIA ALERT – 12 noon Wednesday 31 August
Media Conference at the University of Ballarat
Bistro Area, Union Building, Mt Helen campus
· ACTU President Sharan Burrow
· NTEU President Dr Carolyn Allport
· University staff
Media Contact: Susannah Greenleaf (ACTU) 0418 479 455
Michael Evans (NTEU) 0418 241 664