We believe SCU staff deserve to be treated with respect and rewarded with pay and conditions comparable to colleagues across the sector.
What NTEU members are seeking is not unreasonable. We’ve secured fair agreements at 30 of 37 universities already this round. They are sensible measures that will make our universities better places to work and study.
NTEU members at SCU are seeking:
A Fair Pay Rise
Pay increase of 16.5%
- With campaigning concluded at 29 of 37 universities, the average annual pay rise NTEU members have achieved is 3.48%, and that’s on top of improvements to working conditions.
- SCU management offered you just 2.3% in return for unprecedented cuts to your working conditions.
- SCU staff deserve a pay rise that keeps pace with colleagues across the sector. We’re seeking 16.5% in total over the life of the new Agreement (inclusive of the 2.3% already paid).
Improved Job Security
Conversion opportunities
- NTEU members have secured OVER 1000 new secure jobs for existing casuals this round in NSW alone.
- We’ve secured life changing rights to conversion from rolling fixed-term contracts to ongoing work.
- Loyal, hard-working SCU staff deserve similar pathways into secure jobs.
Limits on casual employment
Casualisation is at epidemic propropotions across our sector. University managers have seen it as a way to cut costs at the expense of permanent insecurity and stressful employment for casual staff. NTEU members are determined to turn this situation around, starting with limits on casual employment at SCU. If we need more staff, lets hire them in secure jobs.
Redundancy as a LAST resort
Enhanced redundancy provisions to ensure staff redundancy is a last, not a first, resort.
Retention of limits of fixed-term contracts
The 2021 Agreement that was struck down by the Fair Work Commission removed all restrictions on the use of fixed-term contracts at SCU.
Limitations on the use of fixed-term contracts are in place at EVERY Australian university and have been for over 20 years. If they are not retained, your conditions will be set back by two decades and the door will be potentially open to a massive increase in insecure work.
Retention of procedural fairness right
The quashed 2021 Agreement removed provisions that protect procedural fairness including our review committees. These are essential to ensure staff receive a fair hearing in disciplinary matters. These are fundamental rights in a democratic society and should extend to our workplaces.
Workload Relief
Workload protections in restructures
We’ve all been through workplace change processes. The end result is often less staff and increased workloads for those remaining. NTEU members are seeking provisions requiring that any change process assess and mitigate the workload impact on remaining staff.
Accurate assessment of the time required to perform work
SCU colleagues report that excessive workload are impacting their health. This came through loud an clear in the survey we ran in 2022. The first step towards fixing this situation is to require that workload allocations accurately reflect the time taken to perform our duties. NTEU members want that protection enshrined in our Enterprise Agreement.
Enhanced professional staff access to paid overtime
There are times when we need to work long hours or outside normal work times. That should never be the norm and when it is required for a special project or event, we should be paid overtime for it.
Inclusive workplaces
Retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment targets
For many years NTEU members have been campaigning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment targets to be included in our Enterprise Agreements. These targets ensure transparency and allow university and staff reps to work together to opportunities are created for indigenous colleagues.
The 2021 Agreement removed them at SCU. They must be retained to ensure SCU remains a fair and inclusive workplace.
Gender affirmation leave
In this round of enterprise bargaining, NTEU members have proudly achieved an Australian first, the provision of paid leave for gender affirmation processes for trans and gender diverse colleagues. This leave comes at a very small cost to the University, but it makes our workplaces more inclusive and respectful.
NTEU members want our universities to lead the way on fairness and inclusivity and we’ve won this right at campuses across the country.
Why did we oppose the 2022 Agreement?
1
Very low 2.3%pa pay rise
At Western Sydney Uni, NTEU members have secured a fair pay rise. In 2022, they’re getting between 4.6% and 6.4% (the pay rise is weighted more heavily to lower HEW levels). At SCU management is offering ZERO% for 2022.
Across the life of their agreement WSU staff are getting up to 16.3%, At SCU you’re being offered only up to 10.5%. That will amount to a real pay cut in return for all the hard work you’ve been doing holding things together through the pandemic and floods. It’s just not good enough.
2
No academic workload relief
Earlier this year, we ran a survey into wellbeing at SCU. The results were not good. Staff overwhelmingly reported that systematic overwork was negatively impacting their health. You’d think SCU managers would be alarmed by this and would have taken action to improve things. But instead, they took the extreme and unprecedented step of trying to block access to the survey.
SCU management’s new agreement does nothing to address these workload pressures. In fact, a management rep recently admitted: “we need to get more work out of people”. That tells you everything about their agenda for SCU.
3
Reverts casual conversion to inferior FairWork Act provision
The conversion rights contained in the FairWork Act were not written with our sector in mind. They have not proven to be a viable option to get more of our precarious casual colleagues into secure jobs. Less than 1% of university casuals who have applied have been approved.
That’s why we need more robust conversion provisions in the enterprise agreement. Management wants to strip them all out. We think this will result in basically no pathways to secure employment for SCU casuals.
At other universities, we’re making real strides tackling casualisation. At WSU they’ve won 150 new permanent jobs with local casuals getting preference. They’re going forward. SCU management is taking you backwards.
4
Increased management rights to direct your leave
Clause 221 of your current agreement says “employees are normally entitled to take annual leave at a time of their choosing”. In Tyrone’s draft, that becomes “the University will not unreasonably object to an employee’s request to take annual leave”. That may seem like a minor change, but in practice, it shifts from a presumption that it’s your choice, to management deciding whether your request is reasonable and what’s reasonable to you, may not be reasonable to them.
The current agreement allows management to direct you to take leave once you accrue more than 40 days, to reduce your leave balance below 30 days. The new draft allows them to direct you reduce your balance to below 20 days. That’s two extra weeks of directed leave. The current agreement gives you 4 months to take your directed leave (with provision to request 6 months). The new draft abolishes this time frame, leaving it up to mangement to decide how long you have.
Lastly, the new draft introduces a new right for management to direct you take leave “during an advised University closure”, regardless of your leave balance. Does this mean over Xmas? During a pandemic lockdown?
Its the same story with Long Service Leave. Under your current agreement, as long as you give 6 months notice, you can take your long service leave at a time of your choosing. The new draft agreement you’re voting on subjects all LSL requests to “operation requirements”.
Your current agreement only permits management to compel you take 20 days LSL once you’ve accrued more than 85 days. Tyrone’s new draft removes those limits and just says that when agreement on LSL timing is not reached, “the University may compel an employee to take accrued long service leave with 6 months’ written notice”.
5
Removes procedural fairness in performance/disciplinary matters
Procedural fairness is a fundamental aspect of our democratic rights. It is the principle that anyone subject to an accusation must have a fair and reasonable opportunity to defend themselves. In our universities, procedural fairness is achieved by our right to independent review processes if any of us are accused of unsatisfactory performance or misconduct.
Tyrone Carlin’s draft agreement abolishes independent review committees at SCU.
6
Removes severance provisions for new fixed-term staff
Your current agreement provides for severance payments to fixed-term staff whose contract is not renewed. This payment is in recognition of their service and that they’re losing their job through no fault of their own.
Tyrone Carlin’s draft abolishes this right. Although note that it is preserved for existing staff. Ask yourself, why is that? We think it’s because they know it’s unfair and would not be accepted by existing employees. They’re asking you look after yourself at the expense of future colleagues.
We believe fairness and equality should be the foundation of our University. This measure could create division and resentment between colleagues.
7
Removes commitments to bullying prevention, work life balance, respect & fairness
At beginning of your current SCU agreement, there are agreed goals of working to prevent bullying, establish a healthy work/life balance and to promote fairness and respect in the workplace. Tyrone Carlin’s draft removes all of these. Why would he want to do that?
8
No guaranteed flexitime or work-from-home for professional staff
The VC is going on and on about NTEU reps are misleading you about flexitime. The fact is, what we said remains 100% true, his draft agreement does not guarantee you access to flexitime. Clause 373 of draft states it will only be available “subject to the concurrence of [the] Head of Work Unit”. This means your access to the scheme is entirely at the discretion of management.
The covid pandemic taught most of us that we can actually work from home, at least some of the time. It also taught us it can really help with work/life balance by cutting down commuting time and letting us attend to household chores in break times. That’s why NTEU members around the country are seeking permanent work-from-home rights for professional staff and, at most places, managers are happy to grant them. Not SCU. There’s no right for professional staff to work from home in Tyrone’s draft agreement.
9
Removes ALL limitations on the use of fixed-term contracts
Your current agreement limits the use of fixed contracts to time limited or externally funded projects/tasks, temporary replacements and secondments, research only appointments, industry/vocational appointments, teaching fellowships and pre-retirement contracts. These limits are to ensure that fixed contracts are only used when appropriate and don’t become the default.
SCU management’s draft scraps all of these limits, paving the way for a massive increase in the use of insecure fixed-term contracts.
10
Removes First Nations employment targets
The NTEU has hundreds of First Nations members. They alone determine what employment conditions we seek in relation to their employment. For almost a decade, they have asked us to prioritise employment targets in our enterprise agreements. This is intended to address the systematic employment disadvantage experienced by First Nations people and in recognition of richness and diversity they bring to our universities.
In particular, our First Nations members want these targets in enterprise agreements and not only in university policy. That’s because it allows for proper, independent oversight of them.
Shamefully, Tyrone Carlin has abolished them completely from his draft agreement.