TEU Tertiary Update Vol 12 No 41

THREE WEEK STRIKE NOW AFFECTING STUDENT MARKS

It has now been over three weeks since union members at the six North Island polytechnics covered by the ITP MECA resumed industrial action, and a resolution still does not seem imminent. Lecturers and tutors at NorthTec, Unitec, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Waikato Institute of Technology, Whitireia Polytechnic, and Western Institute of Technology are protesting especially at employers’ attempts to negotiate significant cuts to existing employment work conditions.

These include the ability to potentially make the use of the four weeks discretionary leave at the employers’ discretion and increasing the number of annual teaching days from 185 to 204. TEU members at the six polytechnics also are opposed to the pay offer of 2 percent pay over 18 months, with no backdating. (The current agreement expired eight months ago.)

As part of their ongoing industrial action, also, union members at three of the polytechnics – Unitec, Whitireia, and WINTEC – have voted to withhold student marks and not participate in any processing of marks.

"The last thing lecturers want to do is to undermine their students’ learning," said TEU national industrial officer Irena Brorens. “And they certainly don’t want to withhold assessment marks, but the employers have left them with little choice. This action has been taken by our members to impress upon the employers their commitment to rejecting these proposed cuts in conditions."

TEU negotiators are eager to return either to negotiations or mediation as quickly as possible, if it will progress the dispute.

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:

1. Massey leads way with pay and equity review
2. TEC hands out performance bonuses to polytechnics
3. Story time with the minister
4. Academics and students lose right to voice on ITP councils
5. Melbourne University staff vote to withhold marks
6. Two unions become one in South Africa

MASSEY LEADS WAY WITH PAY AND EQUITY REVIEW

Massey University, in partnership with tertiary education sector unions, is to become the first university to undertake a pay and employment equity review to determine the extent to which gender affects women's pay and employment experiences, and to find ways to remove barriers and achieve better outcomes for all staff.

Early next year, Massey staff will be invited to participate in a voluntary, confidential on-line survey about their experiences around pay and employment equity. The survey information will be considered alongside payroll and human resources data that has been analysed on a gendered basis.

A review committee, to be chaired by Professor Sylvia Rumball, is being established to analyse and interpret the information that is gathered, and to understand the extent of any gender-driven differences in pay and employment experiences. Staff members are today being invited to express interest in participating on that committee.

Fifty-six per cent of Massey staff are women and 47 per cent of the academic staff are women, but only 17 per cent of professors and 33 per cent of associate professors are women.

TEU national women’s officer Suzanne McNabb says Massey is the first New Zealand university to undertake a comprehensive review of pay and employment issues for women.

"The Tertiary Education Union has a long history of working towards pay and employment equity and is proud to be working in co-operation with management to conduct this review. Women workers care about pay and employment equity in the workplace – they want to be sure that they have the same opportunities to develop their skills, be promoted, and participate at senior levels of the organisation. Above all women want equitable pay. They want the work they do to be recognised, valued and paid accordingly."

TEC HANDS OUT PERFORMANCE BONUSES TO POLYTECHNICS

The Otago Daily Times reports that Otago Polytechnic has secured an unexpected boost of $1.2 million for next year.

"It's like an early Christmas present," Chief Executive Phil Kerr said.

WINTEC and Eastern Institute of Technology also picked up $1.2 million each in discretionary funding, from the $8 million of discretionary funding allocated to the polytechnics by the Tertiary Education Commission

Tertiary education minister Anne Tolley announced the funding again this week, saying the allocations of money was based on polytechnics’ performance in delivering education and training to students under 25, and students at higher levels of training.

"This represents an important step in delivering this Government's election commitment to introduce a performance-linked funding system," said Mrs Tolley.

TEU National Secretary Sharn Riggs says it is interesting to note that Otago Polytechnic was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the discretionary funding, despite being widely perceived in the sector as one of the institutions to have stood up to the State Services Commission and the government's expectations around employment relations and pay increases.

"It's also relevant that five of the six polytechnics currently engaged in a dispute with their staff picked up money from the discretionary fund. That suggests that TEC thinks that their current operational model is working well, and that there is no need for the new one they currently are trying to impose on staff. It also means that collectively they have now got an extra $3 million to spend next year."

STORY TIME WITH THE MINISTER

Education Minister Anne Tolley appears to have decided that instead of giving speeches to education union members she will adopt a new strategy of reading aloud children's books to them. She is reported as having read 'The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley' to the PPTA national executive meeting earlier this month.

The story is about a rat called Riley who is happy with the simple things in life, like eating slugs. It seems the minister was unaware that union members might perceive the book's theme as being "you should be happy with what you have got instead of asking for more."

"I was saying to them 'look this is a really good book'", said Mrs Tolley. "There was no underlying message, I was trying to share with them a book I had come across in a visit to a school and I thought they might be interested in it."

Tertiary Update's Beehive correspondent Paki Taunuhia reports that Mrs. Tolley intends to read a range of other books to union members in her attempt to bridge a perceived communication divide. Books she will be sharing include Mary Poppins (for advice on how to provide tertiary education), The Borrowers (for direction on how to fund a tertiary education institute), and The Owl and Pussy Cat (for an explanation of government policy).

ACADEMICS AND STUDENTS LOSE RIGHT TO VOICE ON ITP COUNCILS

On Friday last week, parliament's education and science select committee reported back on the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill and surprised many with the changes it contained. The original bill, before it went to select committee, had already reduced the number of council members to 8 rather than the current 12 to 20, and gave the minister the right to appoint four of the 8, gave ministerial appointees longer periods on the council than their community appointed peers, and the right of veto over important decisions like electing the chair. However students and academic staff retained the right to a minority voice on those councils.

The select committee has removed that right and wants councils to have four ministerial-appointed members and other four representatives to be chosen by the council. If passed into law, there might be no as-of right places on council for student, staff, iwi, union and industry representatives. Institution chief executives would also not be guaranteed a place.

The minister of education Anne Tolley welcomed the amended bill saying it will give each polytechnic the freedom to decide the composition of the four non-Ministerial appointed members, based on the needs of their communities and local iwi, and the issues they face.

"I am confident that these changes will help us achieve our goal, which is to have highly skilled people with governance experience putting their names forward to be part of the Council of their local polytechnic."
The Select Committee has also recommended that the appointment of new councils take place between 1 March 2010 and 1 May 2010.

MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY STAFF VOTE TO WITHHOLD MARKS

After 16 months of stalling by the University of Melbourne senior management, staff have voted overwhelmingly to implement bans in transmitting students' end of year results. They join NTEU members at RMIT, Curtin University, the University of South Australia, Flinders University, and the University of Queensland in taking such action.

"Bans on transmission of results will commence from 5pm today (19 November), and will continue until significant concessions are made by University management on restoration of lost rights and conditions," said Ted Clark, NTEU Melbourne University branch president.

The meeting also resolved to continue industrial action, including strikes, over the holiday period and the start of the first semester next year.

"The University Vice Chancellor has been treating staff at Melbourne with disrespect by delaying negotiations," Mr Clark added.

The current pay offer from the University is the lowest in Victoria. Mr Clark says the low pay offer combines with the continued erosion of working conditions and the recent staff losses.

The University of Melbourne Student Union, representing 42,000 university students, and University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association, representing 15,000 graduate students, expressed their support for the staff industrial action.

Carla Drakeford, President of the University of Melbourne Student Union, said: "Issues affecting University academics and staff are those which trickle down and affect students. Teaching quality, over-crowded class rooms and tutor availability outside of class times are all serious issues that can be fixed by a decision of the University to increase staff wages and create a more positive working environment, free from redundancies."

TWO UNIONS BECOME ONE IN SOUTH AFRICA

The two major South African university unions representing academic and administrative general staff have agreed to amalgamate forming a new union in the university and further education sector.
The new union to be called the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) was formed at a joint congressional meeting of The National Tertiary Education Staff Union (NTESU) and National Union of Tertiary Employees of South Africa (NUTESA) bringing 5000 union members within the higher education industry together.

The amalgamation responds to Government’s re-engineering of the sector which has highlighted the need for a single voice to represent workers in the tertiary education sector and bring the resources and experience bases of the old university and technicon sector unions together.

Newly elected NTEU National President, Norman Kemp, noted:

"This amalgamation forms a bigger union in the higher education sector and allows us now to work towards drawing other smaller unions in the sector to grow to a more significant size. Numbers count in unionism and a bigger union will have a far greater impact. For the universities it means dealing with fewer unions which makes it easier all round.”

The two unions were the largest tertiary education unions in South Africa and have similar histories. NTESU was the successor to the Union of Democratic University Staff Associations (UDUSA) an organisation used to comment and respond locally and internationally during the Apartheid era of South Africa. NUTESA grew within the old Technikon vocational sector which has now been incorporated into the single higher education system of universities, comprehensives and universities of technology.

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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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