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Enterprise Bargaining Update from Sarah Gregson, President NTEU UNSW
Dear members,
The NTEU has lodged a dispute with management under the Managing Change provisions of both the professional and academic agreements and, until further notice, it is not necessary to comply with management directions to submit partial marks. The dispute resolution procedures are taking place at the moment and we will be in touch soon with further advice about the results of these discussions.
I am also very pleased to advise that there has been considerable movement in bargaining in recent weeks and that the NTEU and Management teams have scheduled two days of intensive bargaining on Thursday 16th June and Friday 17th June. Both parties have indicated that their intention is to finalise a draft agreement out of these meetings that can be put to a vote of members.
We are hopeful that this can be achieved because management has FINALLY agreed to accept clauses that regulate the use of fixed-term contracts and we view this as a significant step towards settlement of what has been a protracted and costly dispute.
That we have been able to achieve this outcome is a testament to members' resilience and commitment to the campaign for decent employment conditions at UNSW, through strikes, bans and protests. We have never wavered in our belief that unregulated use of contingent employment contracts would have disastrous consequences for members' work/life balance, workforce renewal, education quality and academic freedom.
A number of outstanding issues remain to be resolved this week. From the outset of bargaining, the Vice Chancellor threatened that to give into the union’s ‘greedy’ claim would mean job cuts. Clearly, however, parsimoniousness does not cut both ways in his mind. UNSW’s 2010 Annual Report reveals that remuneration paid to the eight UNSW executives earning more than $100,000 increased by 11.7%. Professor Hilmer’s own salary went from $805,000 to $995,000, an annual increase of 23.6%!
On every financial measure, UNSW is a wealthy institution. While many schools struggle to deal with tight budgets, the NSW Auditor-General's Report into NSW universities reveals that UNSW generated a surplus of $145.2 million last year, nearly $50 million more than the University itself budgeted to receive in its 2009 Annual Report. The UNSW surplus comprised 24 per cent of the total operating surplus generated by all NSW universities.
Despite this, the NTEU has faced considerable resistance from management about properly rewarding the staff who create these great outcomes. The NSW Auditor-General compared UNSW with other Australian universities and found that UNSW staff have the second lowest ratio of employee benefits and on-costs, expressed as a percentage of revenue.
Professor Hilmer’s dire pronouncements about declining overseas student enrollments are also not substantiated by the Auditor-General's report. In fact, there has been a 32.9 per cent increase! The VC claims that job insecurity is an inescapable feature of tertiary employment because of uncertainty in the overseas market, but his argument is clearly untenable. Coupled with planned increases in local student numbers through the Federal Government's social inclusion agenda, all the signs point to significant expansion, not crisis, in the next few years.
In the face of this overwhelming evidence, it is only fair that UNSW employees are protected by enterprise agreements that deliver job security, maintain comparative wage justice and regulate reasonable workloads, so that a decent workplace and learning environment is assured for both staff and students.
In union,
Sarah Gregson
UNSW NTEU Branch President
Comments
[ -2 ] Honestly, why do you look into other peoples' pockets? Why do you further instill a sense of entitlement in these poor, easily-manipulated, idealistic, propaganda-influenced academics?
Like • Dislike •UNSW is known as a prestigious university, not a generous one. UNSW is a business.
When you go to the supermarket, do you waltz in and threaten to hurt the innocent shoppers, simply because your desired item's price was raised? Further, if you were an employee of a supermarket, would you take out your boss not paying you enough on the customers who pay your wages?
If you answered no, which the vast majority of the few reading this would, you would then come to understand that what you're doing is exactly the same thing.
University students, especially internationals - actually PAY your wages.
Now with your careful "analysis" (I'm sure you actually inflated and skewed a lot of the figures you stated anyway, but either way...), with your careful analysis, did you enjoy conducting it?
Do you now intend to conduct an analysis on Coles and Woolworths balance sheets and then demand that they lower the prices on your groceries because they will undoubtedly also be in surplus?
Did you take into consideration how much it costs to operate this university?
Did you take into consideration what kind of outcome you're actually creating from your actions, on the students who you are affecting?
Last but not least - why should we have sympathy?
The bottom line is: IF YOU DON'T LIKE UNSW, DON'T WORK HERE. IF YOU CAN'T GET A BETTER-PAYING JOB WITH YOUR QUALIFICATIONS, INSTEAD OF DEMANDING MORE MONEY AND SALIVATING OVER YOUR EMPLOYER'S PROFITS, GET MORE QUALIFICATIONS OR GO TO ANOTHER UNIVERSITY AND WORK THERE IF THEY WANT YOU.
University staff are replaceable, sorry to burst your bubble. LOTS of people want to work at this prestigious university.
PPS - If you want to see what the socialist nature of your blackmail can actually cause, go to Cuba or China and stop wasting the resources on this NTEU garbage. Get your pay rises by working harder, smarter and better.
[ 0 ] First NTEU members and now they are targeting the smokers. Fred.... ITS LEGAL to Smoke. What a joke this university is becoming. They are still stuffing us around and now trying to stop people smoking. Nanny State this University is becoming
Like • Dislike •[ +3 ] I can't understand why the NTEU is still going on about how Rich the University is and how the drying up of Internationals will actually make our Uni more secure as a workplace. I was talking to one of your members today and they said they even understood that money is going to be going sooner rather than later.
Like • Dislike •I support your issue for a pay rise and the Casual issue is a joke but please don't undersell the importance of the international students.
Also will be interesting to see how the management here actually go with the draft. Will they put one up that will force your union to strike? I wouldn't be surprised.