CPSU NSW Monthly e-News
September 2017
The ACTU recently has launched their “Change the Rules” campaign,
with ACTU Secretary Sally McManus calling on unions to demand the Government
fix the “broken rules” that are encouraging wage theft by employers and forcing
Australians into insecure employment and poverty.
In her opening address at
the ACTU NextGen 2017 Conference, Sally said ““The rules that were meant to
protect our rights are now not strong enough. They need to be rewritten. When
profits are you 40% but wages have grown less than 2% we need to talk”.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED?
The CPSU NSW is alarmed that the Fair Work
Commission approved the termination of Murdoch University’s Enterprise
Agreement, leaving hundreds of employees with an uncertain future. While the
unjust and broken laws which allow this action to be approved are challenged
through collective union action, there are a few other strategies that CPSU NSW
members can implement to ensure their protections are maintained.
For Murdoch university, the primary driving factor
in the Fair Work Commission’s decision to approve the termination of their
agreement, related to Murdoch’s claims that they wanted “to improve … performance, to increase … productivity and
efficiency” [284].
While not seeking to reduce the entitlements for
employees, it was the onerous processes, committees, and review committees that
were the major barrier and driving cause for the application. These lengthy
processes were set out in Misconduct, Managing Organisational Change, Grievance
Resolution (in addition to Dispute Settling), and overly complex Managing
Change, and Redundancy and Redeployment
For example, the Vice Chancellor is involved a
minimum of 2-3 times in Misconduct and Unsatisfactory Performance respectively,
along with review committees, referrals to the HR Director, separate
investigator and detailed preliminary requirements. For Redundancy and
Redeployment, Murdoch argued these were time consuming, involved multiple
referrals to the Vice Chancellor during the process and appeal panel
committees.
It is important to have strong processes to protect
Professional Staff interests. However, where these processes become overly
bureaucratic and can take months and even years to go through it provides the
ammunition for other Universities to follow Murdoch’s example. It is more than
possible to have strong protections for Professional Staff while having a
streamlined and efficient process.
A common thread in the concerns raised by Murdoch
University seems to be how often the Vice Chancellor is required to get
involved in the direct management of employees. Where there are multiple senior
managers overseeing levels of middle management and supervisors, the
involvement of the VC and senior management seems to have caused enough of a
nuisance to push the University into terminating their Agreement.
A key aspect of why the Commission seemed to agree
to the application to terminate the Agreement comes from a wide range of
commitments and negotiating positions Murdoch University took. The
Commissioners says at paragraph [283] that “it
is relevant to bear in mind the context is that Murdoch has not been seeking to
reduce the salaries or monetary allowances in the Agreement nor has it sought
to reduce entitlements such as leave, overtime payments or severance payments.
Rather Murdoch has offered a limited increase in salaries for all employees and
has sought to change the clauses it views as interfering with or limiting how
it manages the workplace …”.
Murdoch University was offering 1% a year for 3
years. [262] The NTEU had countered with 1.25% a year for 2 years followed by
2% a year for 2 years. The Commissioner also pointedly discarded events
occurring at other Universities as being “of
no relevance to the situation here”. [282]
The application was also made after 27 meetings,
ongoing industrial action, social media campaigns, applications to the
Commission and to the Courts including Murdoch successfully claiming the NTEU “had, on 27 April 2016, not met the good
faith bargaining requirements” due to “the
Enterprise Bargaining Update [that] was misleading”. [256]
The CPSU NSW does not consider that all of these
procedures are unnecessary, or a waste of time and resources. However, there is
a strong argument that onerous procedures with committee after committee can
cause more distress for Professional Staff who often just want it over and done
with.
For many CPSU NSW members, it is the respect
provided by management that has a key impact on how these processes are
accepted by employees. For misconduct/performance related issues, knowing where
one stands without the stress of ongoing uncertainty is important. If
management are really doing the wrong thing, then this can be addressed both
during and after the process through unfair dismissal. The CPSU NSW has been
successful in getting employees reinstated into other areas in the university as
a large employer.
For your Professional Staff enterprise agreement,
members do not want to give up everything and move to the basic Modern Award
provisions. But holding tightly onto overly detailed, resource intensive, time
consuming and drawn out processes would give the employer great ammunition to
have the grounds to make similar applications.
Why have a separate
enterprise agreement?
There are fundamental differences between Professional Staff and
academics. In NSW academics are ‘members’ of the university and their
membership is what forms the organisation itself along with students and graduates.
Professionally Staff are employed to support them.
Professional Staff are paid by the hour, with Overtime, Penalty
Rates for evenings and weekend, shift penalties for rostered work and must be
in attendance when working. For ongoing academics, they are paid yearly (with
nominal weekly hours), have no overtime, no penalty rates, no weekend or
evening shift allowances and can work where-ever and whenever for the same
rate.
Having separate enterprise
agreements means Professional Staff negotiating for themselves and their
colleagues regarding conditions that are relevant for them. It also means only
Professional Staff are voting on the conditions for Professional Staff and not
having others who are not impacted by many of these conditions, having a say on
what Professional Staff receive.
Can Professional Staff and academics support each other while
negotiating separate Agreements? Most definitely yes! Both in the workplace
and in negotiations the CPSU NSW has seen both groups supporting each other
while negotiating pay, conditions and the relegation of employment specific for
their respective needs. CPSU NSW members, Professional Staff, have placed bans
on doing academics’ work while academics go on strike; have signed petitions
supporting academics; and attended rallies and lunch time protests in support
of academics and students. All while having their own enterprise agreement,
negotiated for and by Professional Staff.
Help protect Professional
Staff pay and conditions. Ensure that employment regulation is negotiated by
Professional Staff, for Professional Staff. JOIN the CPSU NSW and demand a separate
Enterprise Agreement at your University.
Universities in NSW are
regulated by the NSW Government and report annually on their financial
performance. The NSW Government requires departments, agencies, state owned
corporations and universities to report the annual salaries for the key leaders
in each organisation. For Universities the rise of Vice Chancellor salaries
continues to grow along with their Deputy VCs, Assistant VCs and other senior
managers.
|
University
|
VC
income for 2015
|
VC
income for 2016
|
1 year Pay
Rise*
|
Notes
|
|
ACU
|
$1.23-$1.24 million
|
$1.24-$1.25 million
|
0.8%
|
For 2015 there was also a $0.1 million bonus
|
|
UNSW
|
|
$1.2 million
|
|
2015 unknown
|
|
USYD
|
$1.057 million
|
$1.08 million
|
2.1%
|
|
|
UTS
|
$720,000-$730,000
|
$985,000
|
25.9% to
36.8%
|
2014 was $1.02 - $1.03 million
|
|
UOW
|
$910,000-$919,000
|
$900,000-$909,999
|
-1% to
-2.3%
|
|
|
MQU
|
$880,000
|
$890,000
|
1.1%
|
|
|
UON
|
$765,455
|
$842,839
|
9.2%
|
|
|
CSU
|
$720,000
|
$745,032
|
3.4%
|
2016 Includes $76,886 bonus, and
allowances/super $130,760
|
|
SCU
|
$669,300
|
$713,700
|
6.2%
|
|
|
UNE
|
$720,000-$730,000
|
$522.500 +
|
Unknown
|
Reported as above Band 4, actual income
unknown
|
|
WSU
|
$830,000-$840,000
|
$870,000-$880,000
|
4.5% to
4.8%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TAFE NSW
|
$305,401-$430,450
|
$313,051-$441,200
|
2.5%
|
Increase capped by the NSW Government Wages
Policy
|
* rounded to nearest decimal
The NSW Government pays its Senior
Executives based on Band 1 to Band 4. The pay rises are capped by the
government’s Wages Policy at 2.5%. With TAFE NSW being the largest provider of
post-secondary education in the state, the Managing Director is also the lowest
paid.
TAFE NSW has by far more students and more staff than any NSW
University. It also has a footprint across the whole State with a remit to
ensure its regional presence is maintained. The Senior Executive remunerations
are set by an evaluation system that measures each position against Work Level
Standards and they are paid accordingly.
Unlike the rest of the community and public services regulated by
the NSW Government, Vice Chancellors remuneration is unregulated, increases
uncapped and seemingly out of control.
Negotiations are currently underway at several Universities in
NSW, including the University of Sydney; Western Sydney University; University
of Technology Sydney; University of New England; University of Newcastle.
Australia wide, only Deakin University and the University of
Western Australia have reached agreement in this bargaining round.
Deakin University – key outcomes
Pay rise of 2% a year for 4 years,
plus $1,000 sign on bonus
University of Western Australia Professional and General Staff
– Key Outcomes
Combination of flat and percentage pay
rises as follows: $1,100 January 2018; 1.25% January 2019; $1,100 + 0.75%
January 2020; 2.6% January 2021
New South Wales Bargaining Updates
University of Sydney
·
Key outcomes so far are Paid Parental Leave for
primary carer’s regardless of gender;
·
Pay offer of 2.1% a year for 4 years plus $500
increase for employees up to and including HEO6
·
Redeployment for Professional Staff extended to
9 months for the next two years to address the university wide restructures
about to commence
·
Primary carer leave of 22 weeks for the
non-birth parent, with Maternity Leave remaining at 26 & 36 weeks.
·
Agency staff employed by Sydney Talent
(affiliated recruitment operation primarily for students) to be paid the same
as University staff. CPSU NSW was alone in raising this issue and it’s a major
win for Professional Staff who have others working along side them, doing the
same job, on much lower pay and conditions.
·
A range of other improvements including casual
and fixed term conversion, ongoing employment for Professional Staff employed
on regular externally funded research grants,
Western Sydney
University
The University is offering 2% a year for the life of the
Agreement. They have also agreed to increased trade union training leave;
increased paid partner leave to 6 weeks (for newborns or adoption); 10 days
dedicated paid leave for domestic violence situations.
University of
Technology, Sydney
•
Maternity
leave will become Parental Leave, available to the primary carer by choice
•
5 days
of paid leave for NAIDOC week for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
employees
•
dedicated
paid domestic violence leave without strict evidence, however only 5 days
provided
•
students on
internships will now be paid and covered by the agreement
Charles Sturt
University
There haven’t been any formal agreements made as yet however CSU
has indicated they are willing to have some dedicated paid Domestic Violence
Leave, is open to extending 17% superannuation to all fixed term employees. CSU
is looking to expand the Span of Hours to 7am-10pm, which cuts penalty rates
for working early or late.
University of New
England
Bargaining has only recently commenced, so there is no new
improvements agreed to be reported at this stage.
University of Newcastle
Bargaining has only recently commenced, so there is no new
improvements agreed to be reported at this stage.
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