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UniSA Bargaining Bulletin 10/08/09

Posted 10 August 2009 by Juliet Fuller (SA Division)

URGENT
NTEU report from enterprise bargaining meeting held today
BALLOT NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER



Seven months after the expiry date of the current Collective Agreement 2006, management today tabled its proposed bargaining framework and salary offer (the Framework) and you will by now have received this.

The Framework is an attempt to limit the scope of bargaining and retain and extend the high degree of management prerogative provided under the Collective Agreement 2006. Please be assured that your bargaining team will not accept this.



Under the Framework, any NTEU claim to restore employment conditions lost or diminished under the Howard regime will be costed solely by senior management (note: cost only – no commitment to recognition of productivity).

The “envelope” identified by the management group as available for the NTEU claims is limited to 0.37% of current salaries budget (a sum that appears to have been plucked out of thin air and articulated as $1 million per annum in the Framework). This is despite the millions of dollars in surplus generated through the collective efforts of staff.

The Framework further identifies the broad management claim as being based on the deficient Collective Agreement 2006, which was negotiated under the industrial constraints imposed by the Howard Government.

When questioned by the Unions about the capacity of today’s offer to attract and retain quality staff, the management response was that discretionary funding would be used to attract, presumably, “high flyers”.

Some of the consequences arising from the proposed Framework might be (depending on what fits in the proposed financial “envelope”):

• A salary outcome that is not even remotely competitive against the numerous university agreements reached to date around the country. The 2% administrative increase provided this month will apparently suffice until September 2010 (3.5% 30/9/10, 3.5% 30/9/11, 3.5% 30/9/12)

• Reduced job security arising from the making of fixed-term contracts for any purpose (and the consequential impacts on intellectual freedom).

• No limitations on escalating casual staff numbers.

• No improvements in workload regulation.

• Maintenance of the current inadequate and opaque professional staff classification processes.

• A continued requirement that staff take their own disputes rather than having these pursued through the NTEU without direct involvement by the individual.

Be quite clear that what is on offer here is a very poor, much delayed salary increase. In return we are being asked to abandon any but cosmetic  changes to the existing 2006 agreement. The additional million dollars offered on top of the percentage increases must pay for any return of conditions lost under the Howard Government industrial regime.

The NTEU is being asked to rank all the proposed changes to the 2006 agreement in order of priority, and the management will decide completely on its own terms how much they cost. If, for example, we put job security at the top of our list, and management costs that claim at over $1 million, it couldn’t be done. The management framework is a quite transparent attempt to limit the number and scope of any union claims. In reality it is just an extension of the terms and conditions of the old inequitable agreement.

Watch out for the industrial action ballot papers, to be mailed to your work address by the Australian Electoral Commission within the next week.



Your “yes” vote is now more important than ever.



Please forward this email to your non-member colleagues so they become aware of the problematic nature of management’s framework.

Regards,
Margaret Chandler
NTEU Lead Negotiator