University Employment Agreements Ratified

University employment agreements ratified

New collective employment agreements have been ratified for academic and general staff at the eight New Zealand universities.

Provisional figures show that more than 97 percent of those participating in ratification ballots voted in favour of settlements at Auckland, Waikato, Massey, Victoria, Canterbury, Lincoln, Otago and AUT Universities. The ratification will see salary increases for academic staff of between 5.2 and 6.2 percent and between 3.73 and 4.73 percent for general staff over the course of the year.

The settlements comprise a salary component funded by each university and another from a new government funding package of $20 million, allocated through the Universities Tripartite Forum this year to explore and create opportunities to increase the competitiveness of New Zealand universities through recruitment and retention strategies.

The spokesperson for the combined university unions, Nanette Cormack, said that the unions representing university staff had successfully engaged with vice-chancellors and the Government over the past two years through the tripartite process and are making satisfactory gains towards addressing funding and salary problems in the university sector.

According to Ms Cormack, the settlements illustrate what can be achieved when unions, vice-chancellors and the Government work together. "We know that the tripartite process has been successful in achieving consensus and providing results for university staff," she said.

Ms Cormack said that, while the salary increases varied among universities and between academics and general staff, she believed that union members saw the settlements as a positive step towards resolving long-term salary problems. "Union members know that the government money, which funded a proportion of the increases, was a direct result of efforts made over the past three years," she said.

"The ballot result shows strong support for the national approach to bargaining and gives us confidence to continue with that process."

ENDS

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