MANAGEMENT AND STAFF REACH HEWRR COMPLIANT AGREEMENT AT DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
October 11 2005
Management and staff at Victoria’s Deakin University today reached final agreement on an Enterprise Agreement, which the Department of Education Science and Training has advised is compliant with the Federal Government’s Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs).
Deakin is the second Agreement to be reached between university staff and management since the Federal Government announced the HEWRRs earlier this year. The first, at Western Australia’s Curtin University, has been endorsed by a ballot of staff and will be certified in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission within the next fortnight.
As part of the Deakin Agreement, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has reluctantly agreed to the following HEWRR compliant features:
- Lifting the limits on fixed and casual term employment;
- Australian Workplace Agreements will be offered to all staff and will prevail over the Certified Agreement, but staff will be offered a genuine choice between the AWA and the Certified Agreement;
- Removal of NTEU’s direct representative role in favour of elected staff representatives who will work in conjunction with the Union;
- Substantial streamlining of other provisions.
The Agreement also contains the retention of the following entitlements:
- 22% pay rise by March 2008;
- 26 weeks paid maternity leave;
- Retention of job security and redundancy provisions, classification standards for general staff, and committees of review for unsatisfactory performance and serious misconduct.
“NTEU considers the Deakin Agreement to be a good result in the current circumstances,” said Grahame McCulloch, NTEU General Secretary. “It protects the key employment conditions of Deakin staff at the same time as guaranteeing that the University will qualify for Commonwealth funding under the HEWRRs, worth approximately $20 million over the 2006 to 2008 period.”
“NTEU is very close to reaching Agreements with approximately 10 universities and will be seeking to finalise negotiations with most of these by the end of the week.”
“The Deakin Agreement demonstrates very clearly that the view being propagated by the Australian Higher Education Industry Association (AHEIA – the employer body representing most universities) that NTEU would prevent institutions from reaching compliant Agreements is wrong.”
“I would call on AHEIA to stop undermining the negotiation process being supported by the Union and instead assist universities to reach Agreements based on the approach adopted at Deakin,” said McCulloch.
For information and comment:
Grahame McCulloch, NTEU General Secretary: 03 9254 1910 or 0418 322 620
Ken McAlpine, NTEU Senior Industrial Advisor: 03 9254 1910 or 0418 357 499