Bargaining
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Fear, Love and Learning in the Market University - Podcast Now Available
For those of you who were unable to attend the NTEU Public Lecture given by Professor Raewyn Connell at Sydney University on April 24, it is now available online.
You can read the Open Letters that sparked it all, and view the video made by Sydney Uni staff here.
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Compare the pair
Compare the pairThe NTEU has been bargaining now for 10 months. So we produced this leaflet to show the difference between the NTEU's vision for Sydney University and management’s lack of one.
Your Union Claims:
Management Claims:
A commitment from management to finalise bargaining within 30 days.
Bargaining is now entering its 10th month. At the current rate of progress it is unlikely negotiations will be finalised until sometime towards the end of 2013.
Progress is being made, so a commitment to conclude bargaining is unnecessary.
Slow progress saves management money it would otherwise need to spend on new programs and wage increases, remembering the last pay rise was in January 2012. More importantly for management, it buys time for an Abbott government to be elected and place restrictions on union representation of staff.
Recognition of the role of the unions and protection of rights to office space and access to internal systems and services.
The unions are not external organisations without any interest in the quality of education or the University. Union members are all employees of the University. Unions are therefore, a significant part of the University community and should be appropriately recognised and their roles protected in the Agreement.
Agreements should only be between management and staff. Unions are external organisations without an interest in the University.
Management initially tried to exclude unions from the Agreement. They were forced to partially back down following industrial action but are still refusing to provide office space and access to internal systems. Given an Abbott government is expected to significantly limit the right of unions to enter workplaces, not having a permanent presence on campus would potentially restrict the union’s capacity to represent staff. Management says the unions should pay commercial rent like “other tenants”; however, the unions do not exist to make a commercial profit. The Union is the members employed by the University, why should staff pay rent to their employer?
Fair and equitable processes and procedures for managing change, redundancy and review committees.
The NTEU seeks to protect job security and ensure staff are treated fairly and objectively in managing change, redundancy and restructure processes including: (i) that no position will be made redundant unless the work is no longer required to be performed by anyone; (ii) ensuring that a redundancy review committee has an external independent chairperson and that its decisions are final; and (iii) providing general staff the same redundancy entitlements as academics.
Positions aren’t always correctly classified because of the current process and a lack of training for those tasked with classifying positions.
The existing conditions provide a clear framework to ensure position classifications accurately reflect the work being performed. The provisions require that classification assessments be done by suitably qualified people, although management admits this isn’t happening. Management cannot identify a systemic problem with the clauses. Rather, they identify a systemic failing by management to properly train people and thus ensure a “suitably qualified” pool to assess position classifications.
Maintenance of existing conditions ensuring general staff are paid correctly through enforceable position classifications, position descriptions and reassessment procedures.
All staff should have an agreed position description that matches the work they perform. Position classification assessments and reviews need to be independent, timely and not influenced by budgetary considerations.
Positions aren’t always correctly classified because of the current process and a lack of training for those tasked with classifying positions.
The existing conditions provide a clear framework to ensure position classifications accurately reflect the work being performed. The provisions require that classification assessments be done by suitably qualified people, although management admits this isn’t happening. Management cannot identify a systemic problem with the clauses. Rather, they identify a systemic failing by management to properly train people and thus ensure a “suitably qualified” pool to assess position classifications.
Equality of access to 17% superannuation for all staff.
The unions claim seeks to end the absurd discrimination between those staff receiving 17% and those who do not.
Not all staff deserve 17%.
Apart from the absurd claim that not all staff deserve 17%, management want to allow staff to cash out up to 8% of their super entitlement. This would seriously undermine the Commonwealth funding model, which provides universities significant grant which cover the high employer contribution. Further, if contributions fall below 14%, staff will be disqualified from the UniSuper Defined Benefit Scheme.
Improved general staff access to career development through a dedicated General Staff Development Fund and new mobility scheme.
All staff should have access to career development opportunities. However, in a survey conducted by the NTEU, 69% of respondents said they do not have a meaningful career path, 60% said training and development is inadequate.
The need for strict workload regulation is unnecessary because staff can individually negotiate their workload with their supervisor.
Management’s claim effectively removes the 40/40/20 model that protects academic research allocations. It also deletes restrictions on weekly hours (37.5) and annual hours (1725), meaning it would not be unreasonable for managers to demand staff work additional hours. In addition, management’s claim allows that where a staff member is forced to take annual leave they may be required to make up the time with additional duties, e.g. performing make up teaching.
New permanent positions for long-term casual and fixed-term academics.
The NTEU claim addresses the misuse of casual employment to deliver the majority of teaching in Australian universities. All staff deserve secure employment, a career path and the entitlements that flow from them. The NTEU’s Scholarly Teaching Fellow claim will absorb teaching currently done by casuals by creating permanent positions for casual staff already engaged in an Australian university.
Any new positions should only be fixed term in case a person “isn’t any good”.
Management’s claim that Scholarly Teaching Fellows be exclusively fixed term ignores the purpose of the NTEU claim and would create an additional insure fixed term category. Furthermore, comments about wanting to get rid of underperforming staff evidences the deep mistrust management has of staff and confirms the desire to increase performance monitoring and surveillance.
Protection of personal (sick) leave entitlements.
Statistics requested in bargaining by the unions shows that in 2012 the number of staff who took no personal (sick) leave was 41%, 47% took less than 10 days and less than 1%, just 55 staff, took more than 50 days in order to deal with significant health issues. There is no reason for management to attack sick leave; allowing it to do so now will establish a dangerous precedent for the future.
The current personal (sick) leave entitlement is excessive compared to community standards and embarrassing for senior management outside the University.
The embarrassment of senior management is not, in the absence of an identified abuse of the entitlements, sufficient reason to make a concession on this issue. The existing standards have been in place for many, many years.
New protections for staff who are victims of domestic violence.
Nearly 1/3 of Australians experience domestic violence or abuse at some stage of their lives. Of every 100 women experiencing or witnessing domestic violence 65 are in paid employment. In a 2011 survey by the UNSW Domestic Violence Clearing House, 30% of those who experienced domestic violence reported the violence continued at work, primarily through abusive phone calls and emails and/or the partner physically coming to the workplace. For employers the result is lost productivity, high levels of absenteeism and unnecessary staff turnover.
Domestic violence leave can be accommodated through personal (sick) leave.
Around 1 million employees are covered by specific domestic violence clauses in enterprise agreements. By conflating Personal (sick) Leave and Domestic Violence Leave management is undermining the purpose of the unions claim to recognise the unique impacts of domestic violence on staff attendance, performance and job security, which is essential to escaping an abusive partner. The claim requires dedicated leave and resources to support staff to deal with the effects of domestic violence so they can care for children, attend medical appointments, legal proceedings and seek safe housing.
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Open Letters
Sydney University staff, general and academic, have been writing letters to inform management of their reasons for supporting the Enterprise Bargaining campaign and industrial action.
These letters are powerful and eloquent and speak to the anxieties university staff have about the direction management is taking Sydney University, and their hopes for Higher Education and this institution. Please read and share them widely.
Staff at Sydney University have also made a video (Dear Michael - An open letter to the Vice Chancellor) which you can view below.
Dear Michael - An open letter to the Vice Chancellor
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Open Letter to University Management - Helen Dunstan
We come now to the saddest part: the fact that you, our Vice Chancellor and our Provost, have alienated yourselves from us. Just when unity and cooperation are most needed in the face of ferocious budget cuts, and when our advice on all manner of issues could be of the most value to you, we find that the only manner in which we can realistically engage with you is through adversarial industrial processes. The reality is that the issues go much deeper than those that are at stake in the present round of Enterprise Bargaining, and they require the best efforts of all of us, including some good old-fashioned humility on your parts, if they are to be solved. -
Open Letter to Dr Barry Catchlove, Fellow of Sydney University Senate - Gillian Cowlishaw
At the end of 2011, the Vice-Chancellor made a sudden announcement that a large number of academics were to be made redundant, or moved to “teaching-focusssed positions”, due to their failure to produce an arbitrary, retrospectively defined quantity of research publications. The damage done to staff morale was extreme. This attempt to sack or downgrade staff was subsequently shown to be not only short sighted and clumsy, but based on misleading evidence. Many threats of redundancy were withdrawn, while some academics, valorised by students and peers for their teaching and research contributions, felt so stigmatised and demeaned by this process that they took the voluntary redundancy offer, while others who were not on the original hit list took advantage of the payouts to leave the university on advantageous terms, often leaving colleagues in their departments without adequate staffing, as maintaining academic program integrity was not one of the criteria used in the “change plan” (as the Fair Work Australia ruling against the university subsequently showed). These actions demonstrated to staff across the university that senior management has little respect for academic staff. Further, it demonstrated a certain managerial incompetence, which Senate may not be aware of. While many of us object to the increasing managerialism in the running of the university, when it is accompanied by incompetence and inconsistent messages we must surely object strenuously. A final insult was being subsequently told by senior research management staff that “quality” not “quantity” was needed in our research. Those who had been threatened with redundancy on the basis of an appearance of insufficient quantity, lost any remaining shreds of respect for management at that point.
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A Message from Sydney University Staff - Job Security
Staff from the University of Sydney tell management why job security is important not only to them, but to ensuring quality education.
A Message from Sydney University Staff
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Open Letter to University Management - Bronwyn Winter
I have discussed our reasons for taking action with my students, and many of them have expressed their strong support for me and my colleagues. They realise how dedicated staff at this university are and how hard we work to provide them with quality education. They understand that degradation of our working conditions—whether those of academic staff who teach them, research and professional staff who provide intellectual and material resources for their learning, administrative staff who answer their enquiries and process their enrolments and results, or the many other staff who maintain the university’s IT, library and physical infrastructure—can only result in degradation of their experience and learning, and lower the value of their future degrees. A number of our students have attended pickets and will also no doubt be attending next Tuesday’s rally.
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UPDATED - Talking to Students - Strike Resources for May 14
Here is a power point presentation and other resources including letters for both Casual and Ongoing staff, to assist in talking to students about upcoming industrial action.
Other
(143 KB) - PPTXUSYD: Strike Resource for May 14 - Talking to Students - Power Point
Published: 08 May, 2013
Tags: EB6, bargaining, students, USYD, Syd, Sydney, powerpoint, Strike, resources,
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Strike And Picket - May 14
On Wednesday April 30, NTEU Members voted to take further Industrial Action on Tuesday May 14.
Members will be on Strike for 24 Hours and will be picketing the University of Sydney from 7 am.
You can download the flier below which includes information about why members elected to take strike action again. You can also view our Compare the Pair information which lays out the difference between the NTEU's vision for Sydney University and management's lack of one.
Other
(195 KB) - PDFUSYD: Strike and Picket Poster - 14 May
Published: 07 May, 2013
Tags: EB6, Strike, poster, Sydney, USYD, Syd, bargaining
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YOGACTION - Sydney Uni Casuals Demonstrate what Flexibility Really Looks Like
On Monday May 06, the Sydney University Casuals Network held a Yogaction outside the meeting of the University Senate. The action highlighted what managements' claims about "flexibility" mean in reality.
Yogaction!
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Flexibility?
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Bending Over Backwards
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Tied Up in Knots
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Finding Balance
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Management's Own Flexibility
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Table Pose - Be Your Own Office
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Heads Down in Downward Facing Dog
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Keep it All Inside in Child's Pose
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Learn to Play Dead with Savasana
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Standing on Our Heads
You can also read an article in New Matilda written by Sharni Chan, Janin Bredehoft and Claire Parfitt, three of our casual activists.
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NTEU Sydney News - April 2013 Edition
The latest edition of NTEU News is out now. This edition includes excerpts from the fantastic open letters and information about the elections for Staff Elected Senate Fellows and a bargaining
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Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor and University - Sue Woolf
"... I looked up from my research and teaching, and realized that the educational institution I’d joined so joyfully had become a severely hierarchical corporation that I hadn’t a hope of approaching in a democratic way. The style of management of our university – management defined, it seems to me, solely as the managing of systems, structures, finances and building, never people - has robbed the colleagues I’ve been proud to be amongst, colleagues chosen for their brilliant scholarship and eagerness to share it, of any hope of democratic governance, even of the courage to speak out."
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Casualisation and the Academic Workforce
Here is Kurt Iveson talking about casualiation and why the NTEU's academic workforce claims in the current round of Enterprise Bargaining are so important. He talks about how those claims will address the explosion of precarious and casual teaching in the University and invest in the next generations of academics. High quality education relies on high quality working conditions for staff.
Casualisation and the Academic Workforce
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NTEU Members Meeting: Motions
University of Sydney NTEU members voted today to take further industrial action if management does not move on core Union claims.
The motions passed at today's NTEU Members' meeting are
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Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor - Robert van Krieken
"For me a central question that we all at this university need to answer, in a way that is persuasive to a reasonable proportion of those working at the coal-face, is: what does it mean to be a university, and not a brewery? What kinds of relationships and lines of communication should we have, especially horizontally, but also vertically? What does it actually mean for managers to ‘respect’ the staff they manage, what rules should they be abiding by? There are many people in senior management positions at this University who are acutely aware of the importance of these questions, and have arrived at a considered approach to how they should be answered. In my view these are the ‘best practice’ managers at the University. This round of Enterprise Agreement negotiations, including the industrial action, will have achieved an enormously positive effect if it generates an impetus towards not only answering these questions, but developing the policies, practices and institutional forms that give those answers a firm shape in the real world of university
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Sydney University is international news.
The Enterprise Bargaining Campaign at Sydney University and the Industrial Action that members took in March has made the Times Higher Education Supplement this week.
Nick Reimer from the Branch Committee is quoted in the article talking about the campaign. "Describing the agreement as “an unapologetic charter for a new era of managerial radicalism”, [Reimer] said that the dispute was not principally about pay and conditions but rather “core intellectual and educational values”. It had “taken on the contours of an all-out ideological battle between different visions of the university and its relation to other parts of society, particularly the economy.”
Raewyn Connell's open letter is also
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Love, Fear, and Learning in the Market University - NTEU Public Lecture
Many of you will have read Professor Raewyn Connell's powerful letter to Dr Michael Spence the Vice Chancellor at the University of Sydney, or will have seen the video made by Sydney University Staff. Together these are an eloquent call for a more collegial approach to running our institutions of Higher Education and a reminder of the critical place these institutions have in Australian society and so the necessity to protect them.
Professor Connell will be presenting a lecture entitled "Love, Fear, and Learning in the Market University" on Wednesday April 24 at 6:30 in the Eastern Avenue Auditorium at the University of Sydney.
We encourage everyone to attend.
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Strikes force University of Sydney to negotiate
NTEU members at the University of Sydney held a very successful strike on March 7 but it took a further two-day strike on March 26-27 to force university management to negotiate seriously on a ...
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Message of solidarity to University of Sydney staff from NTEU La Trobe Branch Committee
NTEU La Trobe Branch Committee sends a message of solidarity and support to University of Sydney staff who have conducted a 24 hour strike and have just now completed a successful 48 hour strike.
We ...
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The video university management won’t want you to see
It is the day after the 48-hour strike at Sydney University and I’m reflecting on the strength and passion of NTEU members.
We care deeply about the future of the higher education sector. This is why addressing insecure employment is a key claim for NTEU members in this round of bargaining.
It is also why the decision to take industrial action is never made lightly. Only after careful consideration—and following very poor response from management—do we take action.
I want to share with you an inspiring video made by Sydney University staff, so you can hear first hand why they decided to take action to protect the university.Dear Michael - An open letter to the Vice Chancellor
This campaign is not just about Sydney University—these are issues we are facing right across the sector.
Because of this, I’m asking you to share this video with your friends, colleagues and networks. Help us distribute this very clear message: As staff, we are the people building universities for the 21st century—in practice as well as in imagination.
You can view this video, and the open letters they are based on, on our Sydney University Branch website. -
Support for Sydney Uni Staff: NSW Nurses and Midwives' Assocation
Support has been coming in from around the country for Sydney University staff in their campaign to stop significant rollbacks to conditions and to advance claims designed to address important issues facing many of us in the sector, including reducing casualisation and improving job security.From the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Assocation:
Dear Genevieve,
The New South Wales Nurses and Midwives' Association sends its support to your members at Sydney University in their struggle for a just and fair bargaining outcome.
As Nurses and Midwives, our members understand that without the highest quality education we cannot deliver the world class health services that Australians deserve.
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Support for Sydney Uni Staff: NSW Teachers Federation
Support has been coming in from around the country for Sydney University staff in their campaign to stop significant rollbacks to conditions and to advance claims designed to address important issues facing many of us in the sector, including reducing casualisation and improving job security.
From the New South Wales Teachers Federation:
Greetings of solidarity from the NSW Teachers Federation.
We stand with you in your struggle for salary justice. We support your campaign for fair and decent salaries and condition.
We condemn the University management’s continued delay in the bargaining process, and call on management to negotiate in good faith to secure a fair enterprise agreement.
We congratulate the members for your strong and united action.
Jenny Diamond
General Secretary
NSW Teachers Federation -
Open Letter to the Provost - Laleen Jayamanne
"The history of reason speaks to its continual power to generate life that is creative rather than deadening, joyous rather than fearful, critical rather than obedient. It provides us with a keen understanding of how reason may be perverted in the name of an instrumentalised model of thought and action. For example: recently we were told by senior research and management staff that what was needed NOW was “quality” not “quantity”. This comes within months of all academic members of staff being threatened with redundancy if they did not meet an arbitraryand retrospective quantity of research, with little or no consideration of quality. This kind of double talk, unaccountable capricious rhetoric to which we are ceaselessly subjected, makes me feel that I am a minor player in a very badly scripted absurdist play, perhaps Ionesco. It also creates fear, not conducive to thought and good health."• -
Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor - Nour Dados
"I can tell you that our lives offer us no such flexibility – rent still has to be paid, bills still have to be paid, and food has to be put on the table. No-one I know has a casual life, nor do they have a casual attitude to their work. Giving those of my generation no choice other than to accept precarious work conditions in order to have work at all marginalises and devalues our contribution to the collective knowledge that all of us benefit from."
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Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor - Mark Johnston
"Rather than taking pride in what we’ve accomplished together, the management has tried to embarrass us by cherry picking some of our conditions like sick leave in their statements to the media. Managment representatives have also neglected to discuss or even acknowledge the host of other basic conditions they are trying to roll back, like the right to be represented by our unions in negotiations, the right to be consulted in a change management process – also sound organisational practice – and the right to have our job reclassified if our responsibilities and workload substantially exceed our original terms of employment. It is indicative of the management’s attitude to staff that in their silence on these issues they have not fairly represented what is at stake in this dispute."
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Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor - Raewyn Connell.
"To management, this looks like flexibility. To many of my younger colleagues, it looks like a life of precarious labour, scrabbling for short-term, part-time and totally insecure appointments. These are poor conditions for building an intellectual workforce. From an educational point of view, it means a mass of teaching done by staff who can’t build up the experience, depth of knowledge, or confident relationship with students that are needed for the very best teaching."
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FAQs for Strike Day - March 26 and March 27
Frequently Asked Questions1. Why is the strike taking place?
The NTEU website below contains information on why members are taking industrial action.
http://www.nteu.org.au/sydney/article/This-is-Why-Members-are-Taking-a-Stand-13970
Further information, and resources for your use, can be found at:
2. When is the strike?
Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 March 2013
3. Who is taking part in the strike?
Members of the NTEU and CPSU, students, Unions NSW and other unions, community organisations and politicians will take part in the strike.
4. Do I stay home on strike day?
No, the strike is not a “day off”, it is an important opportunity to show management that University staff are united in our fight for an enterprise agreement that is fair for staff, students and the University community.
5. What should I do on 26 and 27 March?
Come to the main campus and join us at the City Road entrance at Eastern Avenue.
Pickets will commence from 7am and run through the day. Look for the picket co-ordinator in the yellow vest if you have any questions or require assistance.
6. What is the picket?
The picket line is the physical sign of support for the Union, staff and their conditions, students and the quality of their education. The purpose of the pickets is to inform staff, students, passers-by and visitors of the existence of an industrial dispute. Picketers will seek to persuade staff, students and visitors that they should not cross the picket line. At our 7 March strike this was very successful with many drivers, staff and students turning around and not entering the University. It also resulted in people joining the pickets.
In all cases, picketers should act in a peaceful and orderly manner. More information can be found in the Picket Line Protocol at http://www.nteu.org.au/sydney.
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Donate to the University of Sydney Fighting Fund
Staff at the University of Sydney are involved in a protracted industrial campaign over a new Enterprise Agreement. We are working together to stop significant rollbacks to conditions previously ...
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Industrial Action Hardship Fund
Hardship Funds Available for Casual and Part-Time NTEU Members who participate in the strike
The NTEU is determined to address the growth of casual and precarious labour at the University. This is a core element of our Enterprise Bargaining campaign.The Branch has been collecting money for members who suffer severe hardship by participating in the strikes. Casuals and part-time staff who are NTEU members who lose a full weeks pay by participating in the strike action either on Thursday March 07, or Tuesday March 26 and Wednesday March 27 should apply for support.
We will need proof of loss of income, NTEU membership (you must also have been a member prior to taking strike action), and a letter of request. Other members who suffer severe hardship will be dealt with on a case by case basis. Members who participate on the picket line will be given preference.• -
Strike And Picket - March 26 and 27
NTEU members at the University of Sydney voted on Thursday to take further Industrial Action as part of their Enterprise Bargaining Campaign. This is in part because the last Strike saw management make some movement in Enterprise Bargaining negotiations.
Members voted for 48 Hour Strike Action on Tuesday March 26 and Wednesday March 27.
Pickets will be on all main entrances on both days beginning at 7 am.
Here is a file you can download and use either as a leaflet or a poster to advertise the upcoming action.
Other
(228 KB) - PDFUSYD: Strike and Picket Poster - 26 and 27 March
Published: 20 Mar, 2013
Tags: EB6, USYD, Sydney, Syd, bargaining, Strike, poster
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Sydney University Industrial Action - 7 March
Staff at Sydney University went on strike Thursday 7 March for the first time in a decade. They were working together to stop significant rollbacks to conditions previously fought for and won, and to ...
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Strike Resources for March 26 and 27.
As for the industrial action on March 07, we have prepared some resources you can use to talk to students about the upcoming forty-eight hour strike action at the University of Sydney.
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Lunchtime Meeting
After last week’s successful industrial action, come along to a lunchtime Members' Meeting from 1 pm - 2 pm on Thursday, 14 March to get an update on Bargaining and to determine our next ...
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Sydney Uni Staff Strike
University of Sydney staff went on strike last Thursday — for the first time in a decade.
The NTEU members took the action over stalled enterprise agreement negotiations.
“We’d ...
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FAQs for Strike Day
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why is the strike taking place?
The NTEU website below contains information on why members are taking industrial action. http://www.nteu.org.au/sydney/article/This-is-Why-Members-are-Taking-a-Stand-13970
Further information, and resources for your use, can be found at:http://www.nteu.org.au/sydney2. When is the strike?
Thursday 7 March 2013
3. Who is taking part in the strike?
Members of the NTEU and CPSU, students, Unions NSW and other unions, community organisations and politicians will take part in the strike.
4. Do I stay home on strike day?
No, the strike is not a “day off”, it is an important opportunity to show management that University staff are united in our fight for an enterprise agreement that is fair for staff, students and the University
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Strike Resources
Here are some resources that you can use to talk about the strike with students. These include a powerpoint presentation, a letter for ongoing staff and a letter for casual staff (both editable and PDF versions).
We have also provided a suggested Out of Office autoreply that you might wish to use on strike day.
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Strike - Members are Standing Together
Following the success of our protected industrial action ballot, members met to vote on taking industrial action. On Wednesday, February 27, Sydney University NTEU members passed a motion to strike for twenty-four hours on Thursday March 07.
This is the motion that was passed:
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Members Meeting: Vote on Industrial Action!
This is a reminder that there is a Members' Meeting TOMORROW, Wednesday February 27, at 1 pm in Carslaw 159. Members voted YES overwhelmingly in the protected industrial action ballot, and now it is a chance for members to vote on whether we take industrial action in week 1 of semester.
Member's Meeting - Vote for Industrial Action.
When: TOMORROW - Wednesday, February 27
Where: Carslaw 159
Time: 1
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Media Release: NTEU members vote for industrial action at the University of Sydney
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members at the University of Sydney have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action over their claims for a new Enterprise Agreement.
The ...
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Ballot Success!
The ballot for protected industrial action was counted and declared on Friday afternoon. It was a great result.
Over a 1,000 members voted. More than 90% voted in support of one and twenty four hour stoppages. Almost 80% of members voted for indefinite stoppages.
This result allows the Branch to take the next step in our industrial campaign. At our members' meeting on Wednesday 27 February we will be deciding what industrial action we will be taking and when we take it.• -
Managing Change
Only a year after the No Job Cuts campaign and management's attempts to make academics across the University redundant, management is now proposing to water down the Managing Change provisions in the Current Enterprise Agreement. They are hoping to make it easier for them to get rid of staff.
Michael Thomson, President of the NTEU talks about why management's proposed changes to the Managing Change Provisions in the Enterprise Agreement are not good for staff.
Managing Change Claim
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Why a Ballot?
In this video, Michael Thomson, University of Sydney Branch President, outlines why he is encouraging members to Vote Yes in the Protected Industrial Action Ballot.
Why a Protected Industrial Action Ballot
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The Ballot is Open!
The NTEU Sydney University Protected Industrial Action Ballot opened on Friday, February 01. Ballot papers have been mailed out to members' home addresses and you should receive yours on Monday or Tuesday this week.
Don't forget to Vote! If you need a reason, here are 10 of them.
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Members voting on industrial action at USyd & UNE over enterprise bargaining
Ballots for protected industrial action over enterprise bargaining opened last Friday for staff at the University of Sydney, closing 10am Friday 15 February, and last Wednesday at the University of ...
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This is Why Members are Taking a Stand
While NTEU Members are working towards achieving an Enterprise Agreement that is fair and good for staff, students and the University community, management appears to have quite a different agenda. Below are some of their proposed changes, which include significant rollbacks to conditions we have already fought for and won.
1. MANAGING CHANGE
• Reduction in the obligations for managers to consult with staff about workplace change.
• Removal of processes that require managers to produce formal change documents.
2. REVIEWS COMMITTEES
• Abolition of ALL review committees from the Enterprise Agreement including those that deal with unsatisfactory performance, misconduct and redundancy.
3. ANTI-DISCRIMINATION
• Abolition of ALL commitments to prevent and eliminate discriminatory employment practices.
4. INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM
• Abolition of ALL Intellectual Freedom protections from the Enterprise Agreement including staff rights to participate in and criticise the governance of the University free from harassment, vilification and
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Enterprise Bargaining: Campaign Update - Industrial Action
As a result of University Management failing to engage with the NTEU at the bargaining table, members voted to take the first steps towards Industrial Action. Following your decision at the last meetings, the NTEU made an application in Fair Work Australia to hold an Industrial Action ballot. Fair Work Australia has approved the NTEU's application for a protected Industrial Action ballot. The ballot is organised by the Australian Electoral Commission and ballot papers will be sent to members at home. This will give us the option to take industrial action as teaching starts. Members' meetings will determine any action we take. The ballot will open this Friday, February 01 and close at 10 am on Friday, February 15.
If the AEC does not receive your paper by the close of the election, it will not count. So make sure you vote early. We need more than 50% of members to vote in the ballot.
It is important you vote and that you encourage all NTEU members to vote.• -
Members' Meeting - Industrial Action Ballot: Getting the Vote Out!
The next NTEU Members' Meeting is on Wednesday, January 30, in Carslaw 175, at 1 pm.
Members' Meeting - Industrial Action Ballot: Getting the Vote Out!
When: Wednesday, January 30
Where: Carslaw 175
Time: 1 pm
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Update from the Bargaining Table
At the bargaining meeting on 23 January 2013, the NTEU bargaining team advanced your claims for greater respect at work through the inclusion of enforceable bullying and harassment clauses in the EA, your claims for general staff career development opportunities, short term secondments, job exchange and rights for internal applicants for jobs and your claims for the creation of greater job security through Early Career Development Fellowship and Scholarly Teaching Fellow
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Industrial action on agenda at the University of Sydney and the University of New England over enterprise bargaining
Staff at the University of Sydney and the University of New England will vote in the next month over industrial action on enterprise bargaining, following successful applications to Fair Work ...
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Members' Meeting - Enterprise Bargaining
The next NTEU Members' Meeting will be on Wednesday, January 16, at 1 pm in Carslaw 173.
Member’s Meeting
When: Wednesday, January 16Where: Carslaw 173Time: 1 pm
The University Management are not engaging with the NTEU at the bargaining table. This means that Members' Meetings are especially important as we need to decide how we are going to tell management they cannot treat our claims disrespectfully. We have begun planning for industrial action. Please come along to these important meetings and please encourage your work mates to attend too.
Members who have items for the agenda of this meeting please let the Branch Office know. You can email us on nteu@nteu.org.au or call us on 9351 2827.• -
Members Make a Splash at Christmas Party and Info Day
Thanks to all members who came along to the Staff Christmas party. As the NTEU Sydney Branch Choir sang 'Management is Coming to Town' we gave out around 320 "presents" which were little parcels of lollies with one of our claims from this round of Enterprise Bargaining. The presents were a real talking point and it was a great way to get our message across to staff about our intention to secure a fair agreement that is good for staff, good for students and good for the University.
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Round Six of university enterprise bargaining is underway
Round Six of university enterprise bargaining is underway following a successful meeting of approximately eighty delegates from across NTEU’s university branches to debate key strategies and ...
Further Information
Branch Contacts
Branch Office
Room 214 Transient Bdg Camperdown/DarlingtonCampus
University of Sydney
Phone: 02 9351 2827
Fax: 02 9351 7573
nteu@nteu.usyd.edu.au
http://www.nteu.org.au/sydney
Michael Thomson
Branch President
mthomson@mail.usyd.edu.au
Katherine Barnsley
Branch Organiser
kbarnsley@nteu.org.au
Shane Reside
Branch Organiser
sreside@nteu.org.au
