Combined University Unions

Combined University Unions

Media Advisory

Attn Education/Industrial Reporter 15 March 2007

Green light for national salary bargaining in universities

Members of the major unions representing staff in New Zealand’s universities have voted overwhelmingly to support the negotiation of national collective employment agreements in the next bargaining round. A ballot, conducted on a university-by-university basis, has endorsed a recommendation by the unions to move from enterprise-based bargaining at each university to the negotiation of one national collective agreement for academic staff and another for general staff. For the first time, academic staff at the AUT University will participate in this bargaining process.

More than 96 percent (1808) of the 1887 academic staff that participated in the ballot voted in support of the proposal, and 96.5 percent (also 1808) of the 1875 general staff also voted to support national bargaining. The result means that bargaining with the universities will be initiated in April and it is expected that formal negotiations will commence in May.

Combined unions’ spokesperson, Helen Kelly, said she was pleased with the result as, following last year’s negotiations, the unions have been engaged in a tripartite process with the Government and vice-chancellors to find solutions to long-standing funding and salary problems facing the university sector. “The high number of union members voting in this ballot, along with the high level of support for national bargaining, has given us a very clear mandate to continue this process with university employers,” she said. “It also shows that university staff appreciate the link between funding and salaries, and support the view that the best means to improve salaries is through a national collective bargaining process.”

Ms Kelly said that the unions’ position would be strengthened by the inclusion of AUT and that she expected university employers to support the decision of union members and recognise that the salary crisis in the sector was an issue that would only be resolved on a national basis, and with the co-operation of university employers, unions and the Government. “We are providing the vice-chancellors with the mechanism of national collective employment agreements to make this happen,” she said.

Unions confirmed to be participating in the process are the Association of University Staff (AUS), the Association of Staff in Tertiary Education (ASTE), the Public Service Association (PSA) and the Tertiary Institutes’ Allied Staff Association (TIASA). A further four unions are expected to join the negotiations.

ENDS

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