TEU Tertiary Update, volume 12, number 31

ITP STRIKES CONTINUE ACROSS NORTH ISLAND

An all-day strike occurred yesterday at the six polytechnics where TEU members voted last week to take industrial action unless their employers came back with an improved offer. When the employees – at NorthTec, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Waikato Institute of Technology, Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki, Whitireia Polytechnic, and Unitec – didn’t receive what they sought, industrial action became inevitable.

The industrial action is a response to employer attempts to increase teaching days for academic staff from 185 to 204 per year. Employers also are offering a mere one percent salary increase, with no back-dating, over a 24 month term from the date of signing. By contrast, at some sites non-union staff have received between 4 and 6 percent, backdated to January 2009.

“Our members are doing all they can for their polytechnics,” said Irena Brorens, TEU national industrial officer. “Enrolments are up and these tutors and lecturers are crucial in the current economic environment, giving job skills to people who need them. But their employers are telling them that they are not working hard enough, and effectively that they should be paid less. It’s simply not fair.”

Media coverage of the strike and photos from pickets around the North Island are available on the TEU website.

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:

1. Council Chair says WITT’s hands are tied
2. Strike looms at Nelson Marlborough Institute
3. Staff-student relationships post-Weatherston
4. Law change needed to address Undie 500 riots
5. More tertiary education opportunities in Solomons
6. Australian university staff strike out for 4 -6% rise

COUNCIL CHAIR SAYS WITT’S HANDS ARE TIED

Late last week WITT council chair Mary Bourke told the Taranaki Daily Times there was an expectation, which was not coming from the polytechnic sector, that there would be no pay increases for employees. “Fundamentally, our hands as an employer are sort of tied,” she said.

This public comment adds weight to TEU’s concerns that the State Services Commission and/or the government may be interfering unreasonably in good faith bargaining at polytechnics.

“The State Services Commission and the government are giving the impression that they actively dislike polytechnics and their staff,” said TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs. “They cut their funding, savage their councils, and undermine their credibility. And now they appear to be striving to suppress the pay and working conditions of hard working polytechnic staff.”

STRIKE LOOMS AT NELSON MARLBOROUGH INSTITUTE

Teaching staff who are union members at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) have voted by a 96 percent majority to take industrial action in protest at a zero percent pay offer from their employer. TEU members have not yet decided when the industrial action will take place, but are saying that it is very likely to include a strike.

The issues that led the tutors and lecturers to strike are a zero percent pay offer from their employer, and proposed changes to their professional development entitlement. Currently they each have an individual entitlement to professional development funding of about $800 per year. Their employer wants to replace that with a central pool of funding that staff would need to apply to. NMIT has not said in its offer to the the staff how much money would be in that pool.

TEU organiser Phil Dyhrberg says that union members were very reluctant to strike. “They have already considerably amended their pay claim down and have very few other issues they want addressed. We believe we have made a claim that is fair for both NMIT and their employees and their families.”

STAFF-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS POST-WEATHERSTON

In the wake of the sentencing of ex-tutor Dr Clayton Weatherston to at least 18 years in prison for the brutal murder of his former student, Sophie Elliot, TEU president Tom Ryan has called on all people working in tertiary education to “reflect thoughtfully” on the wider issue of staff-student relationships.

“While Weatherston was never a member of our union”, Ryan notes, “it is appropriate that the TEU, as the main voice of all staff in the tertiary education sector, responds constructively to recent public demands for increased regulation of such relationships”.

The traditional rule governing staff-student relationships in New Zealand universities and other tertiary institutions has been that a staff member involved in a sexual relationship with a student should never assess the academic work of that student. In the recent court case it emerged that this guideline was properly followed at Otago University, after Weatherston informed his head of department of the relationship.

Dr Ryan suggests that calls in our media for New Zealand to follow some United States universities and colleges in totally banning staff-student relations may be missing the point.

“One suspects that moral fundamentalism and fear of law suits,, rather than higher ethical standards, is what drives such extreme regulation. Also it’s a fact that some staff-student relationships occur between individuals of similar circumstance, or who operate in quite different academic spheres. In practice there are often ‘grey’ areas in the mix.”

Nevertheless, the Code of Ethics adopted by ASTE in 2003, and which is now official TEU policy, strongly encourages union members to avoid developing close personal relationships with students:

“A sexual or other close personal relationship with a student is likely to involve serious difficulties arising from the power imbalance inherent in the staff-student relationship. In general, these relationships should be avoided. Students have the right to expect that close interaction with staff can occur without fear of demands for sexual favours. An abuse of trust occurs when this relationship is destroyed through actions or requests for actions of a non-professional nature.”

The code of ethics also warns TEU members that “Some relationships disrupt the teaching and learning environment for other students and colleagues. For example, a staff member may show favouritism to a student due to an ongoing relationship, or hostility due to a previous relationship. This is unacceptable in either case.”

“Of course”, Dr Ryan says, “it is up to our tertiary institutions themselves, in consultation with their staff and students, to determine their own policies on such relationships. TEU is always willing to help out. Our policy may provide a useful discussion point.”

“To our members, meanwhile, our strong advice always will be ‘Don’t get involved in close relationships with students’!”

LAW CHANGE NEEDED TO ADDRESS UNDIE 500 RIOTS

The now infamous Undie 500 riot on Dunedin’s Castle Street has left University of Otago vice-chancellor Professor Sir David Skegg promising the university will come down hard on students who threatened the university's reputation.

Sixty-seven people are appearing in the Dunedin District Court this week facing Undie 500-related charges, including breaching the liquor ban, disorderly behaviour, obstruction, and wilfully setting fire to property.

Ambulance staff took 15 people to hospital with injuries from being hit by "missiles" or cuts from the broken glass left on the road, he said.

Professor Skegg told the New Zealand Herald that "the university takes whatever action is appropriate under its code of student conduct, irrespective of whether a student is appearing before the courts. These are quite separate processes."

However, Alcohol Healthwatch director Rebecca Williams says that while the offending students should be held to account, it is equally important that underlying factors leading to this type of unwanted behaviour.

Ms Williams believes that law change is needed to address the risk factors related to hazardous drinking by tertiary students. Factors such as an over-abundance of liquor outlets, poorly managed licensed premises, availability of cheap alcohol, and alcohol marketing targeted at the student population.

“Alcohol Healthwatch supports an evidence-based response to these factors, such as returning the legal purchase age to 20 years, restricting the advertising of alcohol, increasing the price of alcohol, and reducing the number of outlets and the hours they are permitted to sell alcohol,” said Ms Williams.

See also the Law Commission paper “Alcohol in our Lives” at www.lawcom.govt.nz.

MORE TERTIARY EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES IN SOLOMONS

Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Dr Derek Sikua, has announced a new government policy on tertiary education that aims at opening up opportunities for young Solomon Islanders to have better access to higher education.

The new policy will upgrade the status of the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education (SICHE), improve support for the local University of the South Pacific campus in the country, and establish a proposed National University.

Dr Sikua made the announcement during the 25th Anniversary of Waimapuru National Secondary School in Makira Ulawa province last Friday.

"This policy will cater for secondary school students such as those at Waimapuru [who] will be given the opportunity to further their education, [to gain] skilled expertise in specialized fields of study," Dr Sikua explained.

Since taking office in December 2007, Dr Sikua’s government has made education its major policy priority. ‘Education for All’ is one of the government’s Millennium Development Goals, and fee-free basic education is being implemented
"For us, this simply means an opportunity for access to formal schooling, so that eventually education for young people may become a right rather than a privilege," Dr Sikua said.

From the Solomon Times

AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY STAFF STRIKE FOR 4-6% RISES

Almost half the university sector in Australia was affected by national strike action yesterday as the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) ramped up its campaign to secure wage rises of 4 per cent to 6 per cent a year and improved conditions.

The NTEU wants to see other universities follow the University of Sydney, where staff recently won a five percent pay rise. NTEU hopes this agreement will create leverage on the likes of the University of NSW and Macquarie to agree to comparable deals.

"It sets a clear market standard for the Sydney metropolitan and outer metropolitan area," NTEU general secretary Grahame McCulloch said.

In all, 16 universities that haven not yet signed deals were affected by strikes yesterday. James Cook University avoided action by reaching a deal on Monday.

NTEU staff at the universities of Canberra and Newcastle, and the Sydney University of Technology, are set to vote for strike action in early October.

But the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association, which represents about 30 universities, said the strike action was unlikely to make any difference to bargaining.

"A single-day stoppage isn't likely to be highly disruptive," AHEIA executive director Ian Argall said.

In Victoria, most universities have already agreed on deals. Last month Monash University agreed to a 4.2 per cent annual increase out to 2012. However, the University of Melbourne and RMIT have yet to agree to deals and will be hit by strikes.

Staff at Melbourne are already in dispute with management over plans to cull 220 positions, of which 100 are voluntary redundancies. Areas such as land and environment, engineering and medicine, and the Victorian College of the Arts and Music, have flagged that they are looking for cuts.

From Andrew Trounson at the Australian

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TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. You can subscribe to Tertiary Update by email or feed reader. Back issues are available on the TEU website. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day, email: stephen.day@teu.ac.nz

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