TEU Tertiary Update Vol 13 No 5

POLYTECHNIC STAFF WANT FACILITATION AFTER A YEAR OF NEGOTIATIONS

Tertiary Education Union members at the six polytechnics that have been in negotiations for nearly a whole year now, have again rejected their employers' latest employment offer. Instead they are seeking facilitation under the Employment Relations Act.

Union members at the six polytechnics, NorthTec, Whitireia, Wintec, WITT, Unitec and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, have been taking industrial action since September last year to protect their working conditions. Last year they offered to accept a zero pay increases at four of the polytechnics in return for retaining their existing employment conditions. However the employers have remained adamant throughout the dispute that they wish to increase duty days and reduce leave provisions for their staff.

Facilitation, as described under the Act, provides a process that enables parties to employment bargaining who are having serious and sustained difficulties in concluding a collective agreement to seek the assistance of the Employment Relations Authority.

The TEU and its predecessor unions have never had to use facilitation, as outlined in the Act, to resolve any previous dispute.

After a year of negotiations, if no agreement is reached, a collective agreement expires and the employer can start to offer individual agreements. The Polytechnic MECA expires on 1 March this year. However the employers have assured TEU that they "have no agenda of seeking to move to individual employment agreements for all staff".

TEU is requesting that during this next stage in the bargaining process and post 1 March polytechnics continue to honour the MECA, for all existing and new employees. If this happens TEU members will not take any industrial action over the coming weeks while the Authority considers its recommendation.

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:
1. Protecting public education
2. ITF calls for rationalisation of polytechnic course
3. Self monitoring tool for the gender pay gap
4. Steven Joyce plays his cards
5. New Zealanders soak up tertiary education

PROTECTING PUBLIC EDUCATION

New Zealand needs to reaffirm its commitment to public education says TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan.

"While the majority of New Zealanders support public education they often forget some of the important reasons why. Public education is a crucial pillar of our egalitarian democracy. It gives citizens opportunities. It helps bring social justice to our communities. It gives our economy real, sustainable economic strength. Through research and learning it expands our horizons and it connects our history to our future."

"Private education might do these things incidentally, but not consistently and on purpose."

Dr Ryan says that New Zealanders need to be aware that individual policy decisions like cutting adult and community education or limiting students' access to polytechnics through an EFTS cap or allowing numerous low quality private providers to proliferate all have an impact on the ability of our public education system to meet its egalitarian goal of giving opportunities to New Zealanders.

"New Zealand has an excellent tertiary education system. It produces world class graduates and is highly respected. All the people involved deserve credit for that."

"Public education has always had to negotiate compromises - it took a long time to evolve, and it won't disappear overnight," says Dr Ryan. "But we do need to work to ensure that it evolves in ways that are democratic, and inclusive of all New Zealanders."

ITF CALLS FOR RATIONALISATION OF POLYTECHNIC COURSES

There is a significant mismatch between what industry wants and what polytechnics and institutes of technology are providing according to Jeremy Baker the chief executive of the Industry Training Federation (ITF)

In an interview on National Radio's Nine to Noon show this week Mr Baker to said that New Zealand's vocational tertiary education sector is not providing as much value for money as it should to taxpayers and students.

As an example he noted that our food manufacturing industry has over 50,000 workers but in 2008 only 700 students completed qualifications in that area. By contrast 3,500 students completed sport and recreation qualifications in 2008 across seventy-six different providers "...and that is about 2,000 more people than you'd reasonably expect."

Mr Baker noted that there are over 6,000 vocational qualifications for potential students to choose from including many that polytechnics have self-approved. He argued that the average polytechnic qualifications was very expensive, costing the tax payer around $20,000 and the student $5,000, yet many students were not ending up with the skills or qualifications they needed for a job and many industries were not getting the graduates they needed to meet their workforce requirements.

"We think, and now finally the government actually agrees with us, that we really do need to see some serious rationalisation in the area."

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan agrees that there are too many qualifications and there is a need for some national control than ensures courses are credible and relevant.

"Polytechnics provide most of New Zealand's high quality vocational education, but they shouldn't have to compete against a proliferation of private providers cherry picking students with 'flavour of the month' qualifications."

"Vocational education should not be driven solely by student demand. There also needs to be greater commitment from employers to making education part of employment, rather than just expecting qualified people to walk in their door, freshly trained," said Dr Ryan.

SELF-MONITORING TOOL FOR THE GENDER PAY GAP

A free “quick health” check is now available for employers and their staff to monitor pay and employment equity.

The new self-assessment and monitoring tool launched yesterday by the Human Rights Commission allows companies and organisations to work out whether they have a gender pay gap and what they can do about it. Overall New Zealand has a gender pay gap between men and women of about 12 percent median hourly rates.

"This tool allows companies to judge for themselves whether they are being fair to all their employees. If your organisation has not undertaken a pay and employment equity review in the past this provides guidance about simple diagnosis and what adjustments may need to be made," said Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor.

Meanwhile the Human Rights Commission in its annual progress report on employment equity is warning that public sector chief executives who do not address pay inequities in their organisations as part of their good employer obligations could be held legally accountable.

The commission is citing a legal opinion which states that while finances remain a factor in implementing pay equity and equal employment opportunity policies, they do not relieve chief executives of their responsibility.

“Where women in that sector have been identified as being vulnerable to pay inequities, the need for action is greater. Chief executives must take reasonable steps, based on current information, to implement those duties,” the opinion states.

The legal opinion, prepared by Helen Aikman, QC, was released at the Pay Equity round table last year.

All of the polytechnics, institutes of technology and the wānanga who completed reviews last year identified gender pay gaps as well as factors that contributed to the pay gap in their institutions. Action plans for each institution identified steps that chief executives can take to address the inequities. Monitoring is a vital element of ensuring that lasting changes are put into place.

In New Zealand as a whole in 2009 there is a median gender pay gap in hourly earnings of 12% and weekly earnings of 31%. Male median earnings are $992, whilst the median weekly earnings of women are $688 (Statistics New Zealand 2009).

STEVEN JOYCE PLAYS HIS CARDS

New tertiary education minister Steven Joyce met with Tertiary Update's beehive correspondent Paki Taunuhia earlier this week to give a surprisingly frank assessment of his new role:

PT: Thank you for agreeing to meet with me minister. The beltway gossip is that you got this job because you were a safer pair of hands than your predecessor - a more nuanced and subtle thinker?

SJ: You might well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

PT: Unions have been expressing significant public concern about your government's agenda for education. Are you concerned about this opposition? How is 2010 shaping up for the government?

SJ: The opposition did rather well this year. Abandoned their usual tactic of squabbling in public and shooting themselves in the foot and had a go at us, in particular the Prime Minister, very unsporting of them.

PT: What are your thoughts on John Key's comments that the tertiary education sector has 'increasingly urgent' problems? What kind of changes will this mean for tertiary education workers?

SJ: I'm the minister. Merely a functionary. I keep the troops in line. I put a bit of stick about. I make 'em jump.

PT: Sixteen months ago you were not even a member of parliament, let alone a high flying minister. It has been a meteoric rise to power. Where to next?

SJ: Me? Well, I'm just a backroom boy.

PT: So no leadership ambitions then? What are your thoughts on prime minister John Key?

SJ: He trusts me absolutely. I trust he does. And I, I trust him absolutely - to be absolutely human.

NEW ZEALANDERS SOAK UP TERTIARY EDUCATION

New Zealanders spend an average of 19.7 years in education, including 4.1 years in tertiary education according to information from the Ministry of Education.

In a survey of 27 OECD countries, based on 2007 data, New Zealanders spent much longer than average on education than citizens of other OECD countries. The OECD country mean was 17.6 years. Overall, New Zealanders have the 6th highest expected number of years in education on average, at 19.7 years, an increase of 2.5 years from 1999. New Zealanders spend more years in education than the United States and Ireland, but spend 0.9 years less than Australia. Finland has the highest expected number of years in education in the OECD.

New Zealand’s overall average is strengthened by our relatively high participation in tertiary education. On average New Zealanders spend 4.1 years in tertiary education, compared to the average in OECD countries of 3.1 years. This ranks New Zealand fifth highest out of OECD countries. This measure is influenced by both the entry and participation rates in tertiary education and the typical duration of study. The rising average age of New Zealand’s tertiary population also suggests that more people are spreading their total education over a longer time span, as well as doing more study on a part-time basis.

The data also shows that, in the majority of countries, females can expect to spend more time in education than males. In New Zealand, females can expect to spend an additional one year in education overall.

----

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