VCs attempt eviction of Unions from campus to pander to Nelson
November 22, 2005
Vice Chancellors at three New South Wales Universities have attempted to use Government funding requirements to kick staff unions off university campuses, and adopt discriminatory commercial practices. A letter received by the NTEU today orders NTEU members to vacate the NTEU premises at the University of Newcastle by close of business today. Newcastle management are also refusing to allow unions to commercially lease premises, drawing accusations of discrimination.
Management of Southern Cross University and the University of New England have issued similar eviction notices which become effective at the end of this week.
In April this year the Howard Government announced the Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs) - the vehicle for the Government’s attempt to undermine working conditions and staff unions in the Higher Education sector. The Government is making $260 million contingent on individual universities meeting the HEWRRs which include restricting union involvement, restricting the content of enterprise agreements and forcing staff onto AWAs.
Yet there is nothing in the HEWRRs which state that unions cannot have office space on campus, nor do they preclude the University from entering into a commercial leasing arrangement with whomever it likes.
“This sudden shift of management’s attitude at a minority of Universities has outraged NTEU members” said Chris Game, State Secretary of the NTEU (NSW). “Rather than understandable attempts to secure scarce government funding It appears that these managers now want to proactively use the HEWRRs to attack the Union. This is plainly a ruse. The Government only supplies 40% of the funding to Universities, yet are trying to exert 100% control” she said.
“We will work with University management to secure HEWRRs funding for the University of Newcastle, but will resist management’s attempts to pander to Minister Nelson by adopting a belligerent anti-union approach. In the mean time, we’re not going anywhere”.
“We will also be investigating legal avenues such as trade practices and anti-discrimination legislation, given that the University sees fit to lease out considerable office space to many other organisations and businesses, but not the Union” said Ms Game.
“The NTEU and its predecessor staff associations have had offices located on campuses for decades, which does much to assist the expeditious handling and resolution of disputes between staff and management. Other Universities are having constructive dialogue over office space with the NTEU to ensure all funding requirements are met, and recognise the benefit for both management and staff of having NTEU offices located on campus”
For further information or comment, contact:
Ms Chris Game, Secretary, NTEU NSW, Ph: (02) 9212 5433