TEU Tertiary Update Vol 12 No 43

HOSTILE ITP MECA EMPLOYERS REJECT ZERO PERCENT CLAIM

The negotiation team for union members covered by the fraught ITP multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) met with the employers for two further days of mediation this week to try again to settle the agreement which expired almost nine months ago.

Members at the six polytechnics have been taking industrial action to protect their working conditions for several months now, but to no avail.

This week the TEU team amended its position in order to try to find a path to settlement. They offered the employers a rollover until 1 May 2010, with zero percent increases at NorthTec, Whitireia, Wintec and WITT, and a four percent backdated increase at Unitec and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic to address the inequity of non-members at those two institutions having been given that increase by the employers.

The team also offered to settle either within the current MECA framework or to look at other options such as a smaller MECA or SECAs (single employer collective agreements).

Unbelievably, despite being offered this wide range of concessions, including what is effectively a pay cut for members in four of the institutions, the employers still said no.

TEU national industrial officer Irena Brorens labelled this "an extremely hostile employer position".

"It makes a nonsense of one of the key planks of the employers’ argument, which consistently has been that the State Services Commission is demanding zero percent increases unless there are specified productivity gains. We have now put to four of these employers a zero percent rollover, with offers of different collective settlements to the current MECA, and they are refusing those offers."

The employers have agreed to consider further options and respond to the union team by 17 December. However, the bargaining team will be making plans for sustained industrial action for the start of the academic year. Irena Brorens said that she hopes the employers will reconsider their latest position, which is seen as being very antagonistic by their employees.

"The best possible outcome for students, our members, and for these employers is that we can go into 2010 with settled collectives. Otherwise we face further action in the new year, and employment relationships which will take years to heal."

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:

1. University of Canterbury's change process for general staff
2. Polytechnic librarians face widening pay gap
3. Two more universities settle collective agreements
4. Minister celebrates international students increase
5. China warns students to avoid Aussie PTEs
6. Postgrad student resigns to protest teaching for free
7. Farewell to 2009

UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY'S CHANGE PROCESS FOR GENERAL STAFF

The University of Canterbury is currently undertaking an unprecedented review of general staff across all colleges and service units. The review is being referred to as Project STAR (Supporting Teaching and Research), and was initiated in June this year starting with a full review of the university’s organisational structure.

Alongside the structural reorganisation, the university also has been considering a proposal from the University of Canterbury Students’ Association (UCSA) that the provision of several general staff services be outsourced to them. Persuaded by strong submissions from TEU, staff, and other stakeholders, the university has rejected most of the UCSA proposal. But it is still considering outsourcing some student services functions to UCSA, and the TEU is continuing to support members opposing this.

The next phase of Project STAR is due to be rolled out on Monday and Tuesday, with the release of numerous change proposals relating to several general staff service units. These proposals are likely to range from minor changes to proposals that will result in redundancies or redeployment. More change proposals are expected in the New Year.

TEU branch president Megan Clayton has advised members that TEU and university lawyers met last week to discuss the university’s redeployment obligations as per our Collective Agreements and the Employment Relations Act, and in particular the ways in which the State Sector Act affects these obligations.

"These changes may well have a significant impact on the level of service which students and academic colleagues can expect from general staff," says general staff vice-president Helen Kissell. "General staff members have so far been heartened by the level of support which they have received from their academic colleagues during this process, and we continue to stand together as union members as these changes unfold."

POLYTECHNIC LIBRARIANS FACE WIDENING PAY GAP

Polytechnic librarians saw the pay gap with their university peers widen this year, according to a recent remuneration survey.

LIANZA, the professional organisation for the New Zealand library and information services sector, has released the results of its remuneration survey of librarians.

The survey shows that librarians in the university sector receive a mean total remuneration of $54,980 while librarians in institutes of technology and polytechnics receive just $47,978. The total mean remuneration for a university librarian in the 90th percentile is $80,000 whereas it is $66,000 for a polytechnic librarian in the equivalent bracket.

TEU general staff vice-president Helen Kissell said of the survey:

"The disparity between polytechnic and university librarian remuneration levels highlights the need for strong general staff collective agreements within the ITP sector."

The survey identified a significant gender pay gap amongst librarians, with males paid on average 5 percent ($2600) more than their female peers.

LIANZA also noted an increase in the number of part-time librarians, up from 32 percent in 2007 to 46 percent this year. That compares an average of 11 percent nationally for all workers.

TWO MORE UNIVERSITIES SETTLE COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS

The University of Canterbury and AUT have both reached a agreements with their respective combined unions' negotiation teams, which now will put those proposed agreements out to ratification votes. They join the universities of Auckland, Waikato, Victoria and Otago where agreements also have been reached.

The Auckland University of Technology has agreed to a two percent pay increase and a one year term, as well as to some movement around the unions' claims to write workers' statutory union rights into the collective agreement.

The University of Canterbury has agreed to pay increases of two percent in the first year of its collective employment agreement, then increases at the rate of CPI (inflation) in the second and third years of a three year term. It also has agreed to a gender equity review during the term of the agreement, a working party to look at the unions' coverage claims, and to cooperate with the unions to reduce the working week for those currently employed for 40 hours down to 37.5 hours.

Both AUT and the University of Canterbury have agreed to a different introduction date for pay increases to be introduced for union members and non union members. This will see union members getting their pay rises earlier than non union staff, reflecting the role and the resources that union members contribute to achieving collective agreements.

Massey and Lincoln universities are now the only two universities not to have reached a settlement with the combined unions. Massey has offered a 1.25 percent pay increase but will not put this on the printed rates for general staff. Negotiations will resume there on Friday. Lincoln also has offered 1.25 percent. Currently there is no date set for further negotiations at Lincoln University.

MINISTER CELEBRATES INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS INCREASE

Education Minister Anne Tolley is pleased that the number of international students coming to New Zealand is increasing:

"There was a steady decline in the number of international students in New Zealand from 2003 to 2008. These latest figures show we have reversed this trend," said Mrs Tolley.

This year there were 76,562 fee-paying international students in New Zealand compared with 72,540 last year - an increase of more than 4,000 students.

"Education is one of our top three service exports. Last year it contributed $2.1 billion to our economy, supported more than 32,000 jobs, and provided our education institutions with nearly $600 million in fees", the minister noted.

The statistics, which come from the Ministry of Education, show that the vast majority (3,397) of those 4,000 new students are in the private sector. There has also been a very significant growth in international students at subsidiary providers or language units attached to public education institutions, rather than at the institutions themselves.

While most international students continue to enrol in English language courses, the bulk of the growth in new students has been in business or business computing courses. A disproportionate number of international students are located in Auckland (56 percent). With nearly a quarter of international students coming from China, it remains the most common country of citizenship for international students, though growth was nearly static. By comparison there were over 2,000 more students from India this year.

CHINA WARNS STUDENTS TO AVOID AUSSIE PTES

China is directing its booming student trade away from "unstable and risky" private colleges in Australia, warning that those who intend to study there should enrol only in accredited universities and TAFE colleges.

An alert published by the Chinese Education Ministry and disseminated throughout China contains an explicit warning against Chinese students enrolling in private Australian colleges. Thousands of such colleges have sprung up to attract students from China and India especially.

But the collapse of several high-profile operations has damaged the reputation of the Australian higher education sector, triggering a charm offensive by politicians to convince students Australian education has been cleaned up. But in an escalation of Chinese warnings about Australia's $17 billion education industry, the Education Ministry has re-issued a list of providers that students are approved to study at.

"Students should be cautious and not choose education providers that mainly enrol international students under a short-term business model based upon education as export," the Education Ministry said.

In a further blow to belated efforts by Australian authorities to toughen regulations protecting overseas students, the Chinese government branded private providers "unstable and risky -- even if they have been approved by local authorities".

As the Australian government foreshadowed an upgraded regulatory framework to protect students from dodgy providers, the Chinese government said "students shall choose Ministry of Education-approved education agents" and declared the rest illegal.

Australia has almost 150,000 Chinese students who make up a quarter of the country's 610,000 overseas students and as a group fund an estimated quarter of all Australian university teaching.

The alert was described as "significantly influential" by Australia's Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

From Guy Healy at the Australian

POSTGRAD STUDENT RESIGNS TO PROTEST TEACHING FOR FREE

PhD candidate in cultural studies, Tammi Jonas, has resigned from her position on the Melbourne University Council after the university invited her to teach a seminar for free that she had been paid to deliver for the previous two years.

Ms Jonas decided to resign from her position on Council and use the example to reinvigorate her long-standing campaign to improve remuneration and conditions for casual academics.

In her email to council, Ms Jonas says the university's Arts Faculty made a 'strategic decision' to stop paying for guest lectures last year, "which has put countless postgraduate students in the position of offering or agreeing to teach the lectures for free in the belief that it will be good for their careers".

Ms Jonas wrote that, as a councillor, she was not in a position to speak out about the "outrageous, unethical management decisions" being made by Melbourne University

"It is also against my own ethical position to remain on a governance body that will allow the University to continue to move in this direction, where its least powerful members are so desperately undervalued.”

"I would also bring to the Council's attention that, across the sector, sessionals are doing over 50 percent of the teaching, and postgraduates make up 57 percent of the sector's research and development output."

FAREWELL TO 2009

This is the last edition of Tertiary Update for 2009. We will be back in mid-to-late-January next year, with more news from the tertiary education sector written from the perspective of those who work in it. Thanks to Sharn, Jo, Graeme, Lee, Tom and others who, in a year of recession and cut backs, have consistently made sure that I remember the difference between 'less' and 'fewer'. Thanks also to all our readers for the feedback, story suggestions, and advice. Happy holidays for those who have them.

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

© Scoop Media