NTEU Annual Report 2015

Annual Report 2014–15

Contents

Introduction 3

Purpose and structure of the NTEU 4

National President 6

General Secretary 8

National Assistant Secretary 10

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Caucus 12

Women’s Action Committee 14

Industrial 16

Policy & Research 18

Union Education 20

Organising & Recruitment 22

Communications & Publications 24

Finance, Governance & Administration 26

ACT Division 28

NSW Division 30

Queensland Division 32

SA Division 34

Tasmanian Division 36

Victorian Division 38

WA Division 40

NT Division 42

Budget Report 43

NTEU Annual Report 2014–15 Report to the 2015 National Council Meeting

Published by National Tertiary Education Union ABN 38 579 396 344

Publisher: Grahame McCulloch Editor: Jeannie Rea Production: Paul Clifton All text and images ©NTEU unless otherwise stated.

NTEU National Office PO Box 1323, Sth Melbourne VIC 3205 1st floor, 120 Clarendon St, Sth Melbourne VIC 3205 phone: (03) 9254 1910 fax: (03) 9254 1915 email: [email protected] online at nteu.org.au/annualreport

Introduction

NTEU Annual Report 2015 • page 3

NTEU National Councillors from Branches across the country will meet again in Melbourne this October for our annual National Council Meeting. An annual conference of delegates elected directly from their workplaces deciding upon the program of the Union for the following year makes the NTEU a particularly democratic, accountable and transparent union. Last year’s Council saw many new delegates and new national executive members. At this year’s Council, we will review our collective performance over the past year and get ready for the next round of collective bargaining and a federal election, where we are determined to make higher education and research an issue.

For the second year we are presenting the National Office and national officer reports to Council in this Annual Report format. We have added Division reports this year, so as to provide a richer review of the Union’s activities. Reading this Annual Report should encourage confidence in our Union’s capacity to take on the challenges facing us in the next year.

Our key challenge is to increase our membership, develop delegates and organise activists. This is the way we build union power to be effective industrially and politically. As a union of workers largely dependent on public funding we have no choice. We must be politically active as decisions made by government impact directly upon our members, upon students and communities. Even a small budget increase or cut to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program or research infrastructure funding, for example, can mean new jobs or the loss of jobs.

The NTEU Annual Lecture continues to broaden our reach and appeal as we seek to shine a spotlight on important public intellectuals from across the disciplines. The 2014 lecture was given by actor, educator and Aboriginal activist Kylie Belling. This November in Brisbane well known civil liberties lawyer, Terry O’Gorman will deliver the 2015 NTEU Annual Lecture.

The NTEU’s new Carolyn Allport scholarship for feminist research was awarded for the first time in late 2014 and a second recipient is currently being considered. Over forty events were held during the fourth annual Bluestocking Week in August cementing this event as part of the NTEU calendar. Our objective, with NUS, in restoring Bluestocking Week was to make time and space to celebrate women’s achievements in higher education, and to keep issues on the agenda. We now have university managements and politicians starting to use Bluestocking Week to talk about women and gender equality in higher education.

A new initiative in 2015 was the first biennial ‘State of the Uni’ survey, which attracted 7,000 full responses, 40% of whom were not members (yet). We are still analysing the findings including the extraordinary levels of unpaid labour of general and academic staff. Job security, regardless of whether in an ‘ongoing’ or precarious position, was identified as the major issue for one in two respondents. This must be our priority.

To take on these challenges the Union must have robust administrative, financial and governance systems and processes. We are continuously reviewing and upgrading our practices. We continue to transition into the digital world for internal and external communications, and following last year’s success at going ‘paperless’, we will again utilise digital platforms at Council.

Jeannie Rea, National President

Purpose and structure of the NTEU

page 4 • NTEU Annual Report 2015

The NTEU was formed in 1993 from an amalgamation of five separate unions that represented academic and general staff in higher education, TAFE and adult education in Australia.NTEU now proudly represents some 28,000 workers across these sectors. As an ‘industry union’ NTEU represents all employees in academic and general/ professional classifications ranging from professors to accountants to gardeners. No other organisation in Australia is able to speak with a unified voice in support of tertiary education and allied institutions and the unique and vital public interests they serve.

Purpose of the Union

The broad purpose of the Union is to advocate for, and represent the rights, interests and welfare of members in the industrial, legal, political and social spheres.

The primary objects of NTEU are to:

• Improve and protect the living standards of its members as well as their working environment and professional interests.

• Promote the work of tertiary education institutions in Australia and to preserve their independence and integrity.

• Foster the process of intellectual debate within the Australian community.

• Defend and promote the rights of members to teach, research and disseminate knowledge and information without fear of reprisal.

• Promote the concept of equal opportunity in employment and to eliminate all forms of discrimination in tertiary education and in all spheres of the Union’s activity.

• Create and maintain an informed public opinion concerning tertiary education institutions and their staff.

nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us

Structure of the Union

The Union is organised across three levels: the National Office (located in South Melbourne), State and Territory-based Divisions and workplace-based Branches in each of the nation’s 38 universities, as well as Branches covering members in ACE (Vic), TAFE (Vic), Research Institutes, Navitas, RACGP and College of Law.

Our permanently staffed workplace-based local Branches in universities is a feature unique to NTEU in the Australian trade union movement. These structures permit NTEU to build and maintain a visible and organised presence at each university and to be able to rapidly respond to industrial and organisational issues.

NTEU is a highly democratic member-driv-en union with elected Branch Committees, Division Councils, and a National Council comprising representatives elected by members on a two year cycle. Council meets annually in October.

At each Branch, the highest decision-mak-ing body is a general meeting of members. A Branch Committee comprising elected representatives of members governs the affairs of each Branch in between gen-eral meetings of members. Each Branch Images (L–R): Insecure Work Conference, Hobert, Dec 2014;

National Council, Melbourne, October 2014.


also elects National Councillors, who also constitute the Division Council. This mechanism ensures that each Branch is represented on the relevant State or Terri-tory-based Division Council.

nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/ our_structure

National Council

National Council consists of members directly elected from Branches (in propor-tion to the number of members at each Branch), three full time National Officers, the eight State and Territory-based Divi-sion Secretaries plus three Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander National Councillors and members of the Executive. National Council has a total membership of about 130 delegates.

National Council is the supreme decision making body of the NTEU and has the critical task of setting the Union’s budget for the forthcoming year.

nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/ national_council

National Executive

The National Executive is composed of the three full time National Officers, eight Division Secretaries, the Chair of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee and ten ordinary members elected from the floor of the National Council (elected for a two-year term).

National Executive meets six times per year and is responsible for running the Union between meetings of National Council.

A ballot is held at National Council to elect ten ordinary members of the National Executive. From these, National Council elects a Vice-President (Academic) and Vice-President (General Staff). The last such election was held at the 2014 National Council and the ten ordinary members of the National Executive and the two Vice-Presidents elected at that time will continue to hold office until new elections are conducted for these positions at the 2016 National Council.•nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/ national_executive

x

Rachael Bahl ACT

Gabe Gooding WA

Genevieve Kelly NSW

Kelvin Michael Tasmania

Michael McNally Queensland

Colin Long Victoria

Kevin Rouse SA

Lolita Wikander NT

x

National OfficersNational President: Jeannie ReaVice-Presidents: Andrew Bonnell (Academic) Michael Thomson (General Staff)General Secretary: Grahame McCullochNational Assistant Secretary: Matthew McGowan

National Executive

Terry Mason A&TSI member (A&TSIPC Chair)Rachael Bahl ACT Division SecretaryGabe Gooding WA Division SecretaryGenevieve Kelly NSW Division SecretaryKelvin Michael Tas Division SecretaryMichael McNally Qld Division SecretaryColin Long Vic Division SecretaryKevin Rouse SA Division SecretaryLolita Wikander NT Division SecretaryStuart Bunt UWACarolyn Cope QUTVirginia Mansel Lees La TrobeAnne Price MurdochCathy Rytmeister MacquarieJohn Sinclair ACURon Slee FlindersMel Slee RMIT

Division Secretaries National Executive 2014–15

National President


Since early 2014, the NTEU has led the campaign against the Coalition Government’s higher education agenda of fee deregulation, funding cuts and privatisation. As a result, the Senate has twice rejected the Coalition’s higher education and research ‘reform’ legislation, but even after the second defeat on 17 March 2015, the Minister for Education declared his intention to keep trying. The NTEU’s response has been to ramp up our campaign against any further attempts to legislate these unfair and unsustainable changes, as we organise towards the next federal election. We continue to work with allies across the sector including the students, as well as with trade unions, politicians, professional and community organisations.

The NTEU’s federal election campaign in 2015-16 will focus upon fair access to quality public higher education, rejecting the Coalition’s policies, and calling upon the ALP opposition and other candidates to pledge their commitment to restore and increase public investment in education and introduce stability and sustainability to public funding in further and higher education and in research.

Following the 2014 federal budget announcements, the NTEU’s modelling that found that if the cuts to CSP funding and deregulated fees went ahead, some

degrees will soon cost over $100,000. This was scorned by the Minister for Education, yet the government still refuses to release their modelling. No one has refuted the NTEU’s findings. We stand by our position that the Coalition’s policies will take Australia towards a highly segmented and unequal American style higher education system where wealth, not merit, determines what and where a student studies. No $100K degrees has become shorthand for opposition to cuts, deregulation and privatisation.

The 2015-16 Federal Budget reiterated the higher education plans announced in the previous year’s budget and also made further cuts. Some of these require legislation but others, including to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs, will go ahead. Research funding has become a political football, jeopardising both research careers and the reputation and success of the Australian research effort.

Education is too important to leave to market forces

The Government is now blatantly flying their ideological colours. Gone are the platitudes about access and equity. The terms of reference of the current research funding review is highly skewed towards commercialisation. The Coalition’s advocacy of extending CSPs to pre-degrees is now exposed as nothing more than a hand-over of public money and a free rein to private companies to undermine public provision, as has happened to the Victorian TAFE system. There is no evidence to support their assertion that private providers do a better job, but rather a sorry tale of ripped-

Images (L–R): National Council, Melbourne, October 2014; With NUS President Rose Steel at NUS National Day of Action, Melbourne, August 2015; NTEU member with our Pyne Unwanted poster, March 2015.

Jeannie ReaNational President


off students in debt without worthwhile qualifications.

The NTEU is affiliated to Education International (EI) which is the global federation of 400 unions covering over 30 million education workers. The 7th EI Congress this year identified privatisation and commercialisation at all levels of education as the major threat to the expansion of quality education for all. When the NTEU National Council convenes, we will be having similar discussions to those of our colleagues around the world.

Our No $100K degrees campaign has made the right to decent and affordable further and higher education part of public discourse.

Lack of leadership from universities

Another positive outcome of the campaign is the heightened staff and public interest in the leadership and management of our public universities. Many are asking why university leaders are supporting cuts to their funding so they can impose higher fees on their student cohort. The media and public are just as outraged as we are at the vice chancellors’ salary packages. “Some VCs are paid more in one week than many casual academics earn in a year” was a very popular meme.

The rights of staff and students to be represented on governing bodies is regularly challenged by the chancellors and vice-chancellors. Meanwhile university councils treat universities are mere business enterprises with little regard for their unique role in society and the expectation that universities act for the public good. There are emerging calls to re-democratise our universities and I predict that this is a movement that will gather strength as staff, rather than despairing, decide to take back more control over their work and challenge the decisions of management.

The NTEU’s inaugural ‘State of the Uni’ survey found that while over 70% of respondents were satisfied with their work, just as many lacked confidence in senior management to deal with the big issues facing their university. Academic

staff reported working on average more than 50 hours per week and general and professional staff reported uncompensated overtime at an average of 5.7 hours per week. This basically means that university staff are donating millions of free hours and saving universities millions. The National Council will be asked to endorse a major conference in 2016 on the state of the sector, to which we should bring a vision of an alternative university and higher education sector.

Job security is key concern

One in two survey respondents also thought their jobs were unsafe and this included those in ‘ongoing’ positions. There is high public empathy with casualised academics and the proliferation of recurring fixed term contracts because insecure work is widespread across the Australian workforce. The public though is surprised to learn that one in two jobs in universities are precarious. Lack of employment security is identified as the villain adversely impacting upon everything – from student performance, research output, teaching innovation, excessive workloads and productivity to intellectual freedom, the brain drain and capacity to develop industry and community engagement.

Last November, the NTEU held a major conference, with delegates from most branches, to learn more about the extent and characteristics of insecure employment in higher education. Consequently, the National Executive made a commitment to heighten the priority of addressing both insecure work in the sector and the issues for insecurely employed staff. We still have a long way to go, but new organising initiatives such as the Victorian Supercasuals campaign and the research contractors recruitment project in Queensland are on the right track. However, I understand the frustration of insecurely employed workers and are acutely aware that only limited headway has been made in the face of management intransigence and lack of funding.

We have made tangible improvements such as new STFs (teaching focussed positions) we won in the last round of collective bargaining, Now we must ensure that

these positions are actually filled. Similarly, we won new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander jobs. We must make sure these are secure and decent jobs so that numbers of A&TSI staff can increase and community confidence is restored so more students will enrol and stay in university. National Council will be determining our bargaining priorities for the next round. However, we must work on implementing our current agreements as we identify new claims.

The NTEU’s profile is the highest it has ever been amongst members, in the sector, in the media, in federal parliament and with the public. This is primarily because of our “Defend our universities – no $100K degrees” campaign, but also because we make and enforce good collective agreements.

The NTEU is seen as the defender of not only staff, but of our university system, of students, and of community aspirations for a better educated and better qualified citizenship. What we need to do is to join up those non-members, strengthen our delegates’ power and influence on the ground, and mobilise activists to campaign for the restoration of decent funding and access to quality higher education and research in this coming election year.

It has been a pleasure to work with the new NTEU National Executive elected last October. Associate Professor Andrew Bonnell and Michael Thomson have taken on the roles of vice presidents academic and general staff respectively with gravitas and enthusiasm. New division secretaries Rachel Bahl, Michael McNally and Dr Kelvin Michael, along with the new executive members Carolyn Cope, Cathy Rytmeister, Anne Price and Ron Slee bring new experiences and ideas to the executive that add to the quality of our discussions and decisions. •www.nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/national_office/president

General Secretary


Over the last twelve months, the public policy environment has been unstable with the Abbott/Pyne plan for a deregulated university system stalled in the Senate and Labor yet to unveil a clear new policy having disavowed the Emerson/Gillard cuts and expressed reservations about the limits of the demand driven university funding model. Amidst this uncertainty there is continuing policy paralysis and division amongst the vice-chancellors and within Universities Australia. Although our well paid CEOs may be unclear about future policy formation, they have nonetheless become more aggressive and increasing litigious in their management approaches, reflected in many restructuring and downsizing initiatives notably in Victoria.It was within this wider landscape that the Union prosecuted its 2014-15 work program and against which we can measure some success, but also register some serious concerns.

Bargaining

At this time last year, I reported 33 out of 37 universities had finalised or were near finalisation of Round 6 Collective Agreements and confidently predicted the remaining four would be concluded by 2014’s end. A rapidly deteriorating economic climate and stout employer resistance confounded these expectations. While Agreements were concluded at Federation and Swinburne universities in 2015, the Union has not yet concluded Agreements at Southern Cross University and the University of the Sunshine Coast, as at September 2015.

Nonetheless, we have functionally speaking concluded Round 6 and can count its outcomes as generally successful with Aboriginal employment targets totaling around 800 new jobs, more than 900 new secure jobs for casual academics under the Scholarly Teaching Fellows (STFs) initiative, improved General Staff classifications, the extensive provision of paid domestic violence leave, and maintenance of our high 17% superannuation and 26-36 weeks paid parental leave standards. And there was no significant erosion of our disputes and managing change clauses with all Collective Agreements providing ultimate access of arbitration of disputes (with very mild dilutions in some cases).

Very importantly, university wages are at their highest point in more than 30 years and have grown at a much faster rate than traditional comparable labour markets and the economy as a whole (see chart, opposite page).

This broad success should not obscure some important setbacks and shortfalls – a

Images (L–R): Grahame McCulloch at EI 7th World Congress, Ottawa, Canada, July 2015; Proud to be a Union Member; Members and staff at the March in March, Melbourne 2015.

Grahame McCulloch,General Secretary


patchy outcome on academic workloads, only limited gains on general staff career development, slippage on general staff span of hours standards and some HECE limits on the use of fixed-term contracts. And we cannot ignore the much greater time and difficulty involved in the bargaining round.

This year’s National Council will need to think very carefully about the implications of these weaknesses for our Round 7 strategy.

Training and Education

The Union’s 2013 decision to renew our investment in education and training continued to pay dividends in 2014-15 with increased member and staff participation and a much wider array of programs including new staff and officer induction, governance, bullying, academic promotion, general staff classifications, industrial and legal skills, academic freedom and professional writing for the Union.

Finance

The Union continued to contend with moderate difficulties in balancing our operating budget arising from a combination of cost pressures (increased leave replacement, the maintenance of a substantial Growth Team and 2013 decisions to increase our underlying staff establishment) and recent income shortfalls (mainly attributable to a net membership loss of around 500).

In these circumstances the Union ran an operating deficit of $440,000 or around $90,000 more than was budgeted, and I anticipate a deficit of similar magnitude in the 2015-16 financial year.

In the short run this will be manageable given the Union’s healthy balance sheet – we are holding around $23.1 million in net equity with nearly $8.3 million in assets covering the Defence Fund, leave liabilities and cash – but we will need to put measures in place at next year’s Council to substantially reduce costs if we face further membership loss.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander work

In 2014-15 the Union increased its Aboriginal employment numbers to three, with Phil Mairu as an Organiser in the Queensland Division, as part of a wider initiative to increase internal NTEU Aboriginal employment numbers to at least five within the next three years.

The Union continues to maintain high density amongst Aboriginal higher education staff and we can be very proud of the comprehensive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment clauses in our Collective Agreements.

Membership

After the exceptionally strong membership growth performance of 2011-14 (which saw an increase of more than 3,000 or around 12%) membership fell by around 2% in 2014-15, probably reflecting a combination of job cuts and the beginning of the demographic transition of the mid-1970s intake.

The adverse trend was reflected more in an accelerated rate of membership loss rather

than a reduction in the number of new members signed up.

The National Executive will need to monitor the Growth Team program for 2015-16 very carefully – if current trends continue, the cost structure of the program will not be sustainable in the long run.

Thanks

It has been a difficult and frustrating year for many parts of the Union, and I would like to thank all officers and staff for continuing to remain as dedicated and focused as they were.

We can make our frustrations all worthwhile by helping to beat Tony Abbott in the 2016 Federal Election. •www.nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/national_office/general_secretary

31.5

18.8 17.2 18.6

14.0 10.9

8.1 9.0 5.9

7.0

8.5

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

Universitysalaries

FederalAgreements

Wage PriceIndex

Teachers CPI CSIRO

Definite increases Forecast increases

Cumulative Salary Increases by sector, 2009 to 2017 (index points)

National Assistant Secretary


The environment that the Union is working in has continued to become more hostile and contested. At a national level, the Federal Minister for Education is continuing to pursue his deregulatory prescription for the sector despite it being rejected twice by the Senate. We also face legal prescriptions on unions’ activities that make our traditional industrial campaigning efforts harder than they once were. The Union continues to focus on creating other avenues to exert influence over decision makers at all levels. The push to deregulate University funding which has seen the NTEU in direct conflict with the Minister, who has still refused to meet the Union. In this, we have also found ourselves in public opposition to almost every vice chancellor in the country, with one or two notable exceptions.

While the NTEU is not the subject of any allegations before it, the Trade Union Royal Commission contributes to the sense of official hostility to unions in general. As a consequence, we are also impacted on by these things even if we are not implicated.

Our policy work is central to our authority as a legitimate and important voice in the national debates about the direction of the higher education sector. The analysis by Paul Kniest, National Policy & Research

Coordinator, was critical to the Union establishing itself as a body that could respond quickly, accurately, and with insight. This gave us authority in the debates. But equally important was our ability to generate and respond to media in timely way.

While we are in a period when constructive dialogue with employers and government is difficult, we must maintain efforts to develop our tools of persuasion to complement our industrial options. Tools that provide public and community pressure to issues of importance internally.

Key tools for this work include our planned election efforts in the face of continued government attacks on the sector, our media and social media engagement, and the new ‘State of the Uni’ initiative which presents some interesting options for engaging staff across the sector.

Election campaigning

The Union has actively campaigned in elections when important matters affecting the sector have been evident. At other times, we have simply provided advice about the policy positions of the parties. NTEU is not affiliated with, nor makes any donations to, any political party. Our views about political parties is directly related to the policy positions they make that affect the work and views of our members.

The 2015/16 Federal election is due within the next 12-15 months. While final decisions will be made through the executive and council of the Union, the Government’s persistent deregulatory agenda will continue to be opposed by the Union and

Images (L–R): National Council, Melbourne, October 2014; Poromotional poster for the new Postgrad membership category; Televison reporter at March in March rally, Melbourne, March 2015; NTEU member supporting our No $100K Degrees campaign, March 2015.

Matthew McGowanNational Assistant Secretary

POSTGRADMEMBERSHIP

Your chance to benefit fromfree Union membership TODAY!

WHAT IS IT? BENEFITS?The NTEU represents sta� who work in higher education. We are central to many campaigns and issues a�ecting the university sector.

Now postgraduate students can have access to some of the benefits enjoyed by NTEU members who work within the sector, all at no cost!

Please note: This is not a full membership of the NTEU. Postgrad members will receive electronic copies of union publications, and have access to some member benefits. Those with casual or other work in a university should join as full members.

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NTEU.ORG.AU/POSTGRAD

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Authorised by G McCulloch, 120 Clarendon St, Sth Melbourne VIC 3205


we are likely to advocate a vote opposing the current government.

In anticipation of this, the Union has started preparing for the election, identifying members who will be willing to directly assist in campaigning efforts and helping them develop the skills and experience necessary to effectively participate in the election.

In September, advertising in a small number of electorates has commenced, including the seat of Sturt in SA, which is currently held by the Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne. Other seats targeted for early advertising are Corrangamite (Vic), Banks (NSW), Page (NSW), Brisbane (Qld), Herbert (Qld), Bass (Tas), and Solomon (NT). Divisions are planning a range of activities in these and other locations to maximise the benefit of the advertising to our campaign preparations, and to raise the profile of our concerns in the community.

Media and Communications

Our media and social media performance continues to improve as our campaigns have developed. Our media work headed by the National President, Jeannie Rea, has seen the NTEU messages promoted widely and effectively. So much so that the $100,000 degree message has become shorthand for many people’s anxiety about costs of living and education more broadly and is now reported independent of the Union’s efforts.

Our social media presence continues to grow with in excess of a 25 per cent increase in likes on Facebook and of followers on Twitter over the year. At present, we have

2,582 Twitter followers and 11,134 Facebook Likes. These provide a valuable tool for communicating with both members and the broader community.

This allows us to communicate effectively with people who will be interested in issues of concern to the Union regardless of their previous association with the Union or the sector. In communicating to a following outside our normal industrial frame, these tools help build a capacity to communicate with a community of interest outside the sector and helps the Union build influence, and identify alliances for future work.

State of the Uni survey

The work on the ‘State of the Uni’ survey has been an important part of building our influence beyond straight industrial campaigning. Over time, data from the survey will provide longitudinal data on staff views about the sector, their workplace, and their union. In addition, it will allow the Union to identify issues of significance for future consideration.

The 2015 survey has demonstrated a severe disconnect between the path taken by most of the Vice Chancellors in supporting deregulation and the views of staff. But the disconnect is not just over national policy debates. Staff are feeling scrutinised and undervalued to a significant degree, and do not have confidence in the senior leadership of their institutions.

Significant issues are apparent around excessive workloads, unpaid overtime for general and professional staff, and management of change and restructuring came up as a serious concern for both academic and general staff.

The trend to measure and compare staff performance using metrics of one sort or another is a reality for many staff. The survey now provides us with a mechanism to generate our own rankings. Ranking based on responses from staff across the universities will allow us compare employers and their approach to key workplace issues. Over time, we will make these publically available. We will develop a website to support this and encourage staff to consult the information when considering their employment options.

Image a world where universities give as much attention to their State of Uni rankings as they do to their research rankings. In this world, potential staff would consult the ranking before deciding to apply for work at a university. Employers might then pay greater attention to their treatment of staff in the hope of improving their ranking, and therefore improving their chances of recruiting the best staff. We have a long way to go before we achieve this sort of influence, but in planting this seed, we should set our sights high. •www.nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/national_office/national_assistant_secretary

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Caucus


The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander (A&TSI) Unit and the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee (A&TSIPC) work in conjunction with all National Office units, Divisions and Branches, providing advice and support on A&TSI education, employment and social justice issues.

NTEU A&TSI Employment Strategy

Implementation of the NTEU Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Employment Strategy (2014–2020) has progressed, with a number of important milestones achieved in 2014–2015. The Employment Strategy has an agreed target of 5 per cent Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander employment across the Union by 2020.

As part of the NTEU commitment to the employment strategy, the position of Queensland/NT Division Aboriginal & Tor-res Strait Islander Officer has been created. Initially, this is a project based appointment with Phil Mairu employed to the position.

Implementation of the strategy is listed as a standing agenda item for the A&TSIPC, with the Chair reporting to the National Executive on progress toward achieving strategy objectives.

Round 6 Bargaining

Round 6 bargaining is in its final stages, with the A&TSIPC and National Unit assisting in the negotiation of the A&TSI

mandatory settlement point (MSP). Across this Round Branches and Divisions have negotiated an impressive employment outcome, with 8451 additional opportunities created.

The focus for Divisions and Branches now turns to implementation, specifically the need to ensure the continuation of full-time/ongoing positions. The goal of the MSP is to maintain and establish new ongoing/full-time employment outcomes, although it has become apparent that institutions have sought to increase head-counts while offering positions at signifi-cantly reduced time fractions.

A&TSI employment in the sector

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander aca-demic and general/professional staff now comprise 1.0 per cent (head-count) and 1.1 per cent (FTE). In numeric terms, a total of 1,215 (head-count) and 1,086 (FTE) A&TSI staff are now reported as employed. In the period 2013-2014 there was a reported increase of 38 positions (head-count) or 43 (FTE). See Table 1.

What is not apparent in the dataset is the growing disparity between the head-count and full time equivalence for A&TSI employment. In the period 2000–2014, the difference was reported as being within 30 positions; in 2014 this had increased to 129. Awareness of the trend to reduce time factions and offer insecure employment should factored into the process of imple-menting Round 6 bargaining outcomes.

Federal Budget 2015–16

The 2015–16 Federal Budget saw a further cut in vital funding to A&TSI support

• A&TSI employment strategy

• Federal Budget 2015–16

• Bargaining

• Membership

• Constitutional Recognition

• Social media & communications

The National A&TSI Unit consists of Adam Frogley (National A&TSI Coordinator) and Celeste Liddle (National A&TSI Organiser).

Chair Terry Mason*Deputy Chair Sharlene Leroy-Dyer*

Division A&TSI CouncillorsJohn Graham* QldRobert Anders TasBen Atkinson VicTerry Mason NSW Frank Gafa ACT WA, NT, SA vacant

* = National A&TSI Councillors

Images (L–R): Aboriginal panellists (Gordon Chalmers, Steve Coghill, Sam Cook, Paul Spearim & Phil Winzer) at the Qld Division’s ‘Fireside Conversations: Community Closure, Lifestyle Choice or Living Culture?’, April 2015; Adam Frogley, Terry Mason, Celeste Liddle and Phil Mairu, National Council, Melbourne, October 2014.

Key activities:

A&TSIPC 2014–15

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6

Claim introduced

BIITErestructure

FTE

Head count

HEWRRs &changes to

AbStudy

HEWRRsremoved

2000 02 04 06 08 10 12 1401 03 05 07 09 11 13

Table 1 – Employment Trend and increasing gap between the FTE and head-countTable 1: Employment trend and increasing gap between the FTE and head-count


programs at Australian universities. Overall funding for the Indigenous Sup-port Program (ISP), the primary funding allocation supporting Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander students and funding staff positions, has been reduced in real terms by $2.45 million (compared to the 2012–2013 Budget). However, the continued increase of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander student enrolments is not counted for.

While NTEU recognises continuance of the ISP funding allocations through to 2018–2019, we are greatly concerned that funding allocations for the current and future years have not increased as project-ed. If ISP is reduced in its ability to provide culturally appropriate support to students, those students will suffer for every dollar that is lost. See Table 2.

Membership

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander mem-bership has decreased slightly, from 448 in June 2014 to 428 in July 2015. While the long-term membership trend is on the increase, in the previous thirteen months there has been a decrease of 20 A&TSI members nationally. See Table 3.

This equates to a national member density of approximately 37 per cent of all A&TSI university staff and approximately 51 per cent of all A&TSI academic staff.

Social media & communications

To ensure our national membership remains informed on issues of importance across the sector, the National Unit produc-es monthly editions of the online newslet-ter e-Yarn and maintains an active presence

on social media through Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.

To continue to provide appropriate options for communicating with the Union, the National A&TSI Unit is in the process of de-veloping a Communications Strategy that will be driven by member input and will target the preferred avenues of interaction between the Union and A&TSI members.Along with the Communications Strat-egy, the A&TSI Unit has also considered reinvigorating the print version of Yarn for 2016. Previously, Yarn was produced twice a year and distributed online with limited hard-copies being distributed.

Constitutional Recognition

The publicly funded campaign to see Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people recognised in the Australian Constitution has seen the Recognise movement make a concerted push to have as many public figures, organisations and companies sell the ‘Yes’ vote in any future referendum.

Recently, a survey conducted by Indige-nousX2 showed 58 per cent of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander respondents did not support the Recognise campaign and were more concerned about Treaty and Sover-eignty – a vastly different outcome from the Recognise survey, where it was reported that 87 per cent of respondents supported Constitutional Recognition.

While the ACTU and a number of unions and affiliates are supporting the Recognise campaign, the NTEU is more circumspect. In questioning the Recognise campaign, NTEU articulated a range of concerns through numerous opinion pieces, panel discussions and radio interviews undertak-en by the National A&TSI Organiser and members of the A&TSIPC.

As we draw closer to a possible referendum in 2017, NTEU will continue to question Constitutional Recognition and seek to pro-vide a point of difference in the debate. •nteu.org.au/atsi

1. Analysis of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Employment Targets (2015). NTEU National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Unit.

2. IndigenousX Constitutional Recognition Survey (2015). http://indigenousx.com.au/constitutional-recognition-survey/

37,000

38,000

39,000

40,000

41,000

42,000

43,000

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 f o r w a r d e s t i m a t e s

2018-19

2012-13Budget & forward estimates

2013-142014-152015-16

100

200

300

400

2000 02 04 06 08 10 12 1401 03 05 07 09 11 13 15

Table 3: National membership trend, A&TSI members, 2000–2015

Table 2: ISP funding allocation

Women’s Action Committee


The Women’s Action Committee (WAC) acts for women members identifying, developing and responding to matters affecting women. WAC met twice in 2015 and oversaw the Union’s highly successful biennial National Women’s Conference, the fourth annual Bluestocking Week and annual women’s magazine Agenda. WAC also scrutinised gender equity policies and legislation, and addressed broader issues of interest to women in the Union. WAC is chaired by the National President, Jeannie Rea and principally supported by Policy and Research Officer, Dr Terri MacDonald.

Participation of women

In the sector The gender distribution of NTEU members mirrors that of the sector. The latest Department of Education data indicates that in 2015, 56.4 per cent of university staff are women (noting that NTEU membership data includes not only those in universities). Over the last twelve years there has been a slow increase in the number of women members (from 51 per cent in 2004 to 57 per cent in 2015). This aligns with the rise in the proportion of women higher education staff over the last decade.

The university data reveals that 35.2 per cent of women in the sector are general and professional staff and are the largest cohort of university employees. Interestingly, while still a small proportion of the national university staffing cohort overall (around 4 per cent) figures show there is a startling rise of teaching-only positions in the last 12 months (36 per cent), compared to a slight growth of only 1.9 per cent nationally for all staff during the same period. Given the slight fall during that time in research (-0.8 per cent) and teaching and research positions (-1.5 per cent) nationally, it would appear that the majority of the growth in the sector is now in teaching-only positions.

Also of interest is that teaching-only positions are often held by women, especially in some disciplinary areas. Over 80 per cent of teaching-only positions are casualised. All other classifications show virtually no change in the gender break down.

Adding another dimension to the sector profile are the Workplace Gender Equality Employer (WGEA) reports, now in their fourth year. Despite the reluctance of university managements to report accurately, we are now seeing a clearer picture of the level of insecure employment in universities, which currently appears to be between 50–70 per cent of the total workforce and predominantly women. The NTEU will investigate this further and report the results.

Therefore, the growth in women’s employment in higher education must not only account for occupation and seniority, but also mode of employment. In view of this it is not surprising that the gender pay gap in the (whole of) education

• Monitoring gender equity legislation and progress in the sector and in the NTEU.

• Participating in trade union women’s activities.

• Contributing feminist critique to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander, industrial and higher education policy and research analysis, materials and campaigns.

• Coordinating Bluestocking Week.

• Producing Agenda.

The membership of the WAC comprises one academic and one general staff representative from each Division, as well as a representative nominated by the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee.

Images (L–R): Women’s Conference 2015

Key activities:


sector has increased by 1.3 per cent since 2013 to 12.8 per cent. The thirty year high in the national gender pay gap of 18.8 per cent more broadly reflects the pattern of women’s careers despite women now being the majority of bachelor degree graduates at 54.8 per cent. Forty-two per cent of women aged 25–29 years now hold first degrees, compared to 31 per cent of men.

In the Union The NTEU also closely mirrors sector trends in terms of the distribution of women in elected positions. While there is a higher degree of variation, much of this can attributed to small populations in these categories.

However, the WAC considers that it is still too easy for gender equity to slip without vigilant attention to ensuring gender balance. Currently, only one of the six nationally elected officers is a woman, despite this Union’s long history of supporting women to leadership positions. It is important that WAC representatives participate in the business of the Union at Division and Branch levels, not only reporting on WAC business but to ensure that a gender lens is applied to the work and processes of the Union more broadly.

Paid Parental Leave

During 2015, with our proud history of success in campaigning for paid parental leave (PPL) in Collective Agreements, the NTEU has intervened in the union movement and national political debates about parental leave. The Union’s adamant position is that PPL is an industrial right, not a welfare payment.

Domestic Violence Leave

The recommendation from WAC that the Union take up, in the recently completed round of university bargaining, negotiating for additional leave and other support for staff dealing with domestic violence has resulted in a number of Branches winning some of the best outcomes in Australia. NTEU representatives took up the argument that this is an industrial issue.

Bluestocking Week 2015: Spin a Yarn, Start a Fire

This year’s Bluestocking Week (10-14 August) saw over forty events. This is a clear affirmation of the 2011 decision of the NTEU and NUS to bring back Bluestocking Week.

In just four years we have reclaimed some time and space on university campuses to talk about women’s rights and achievements in higher education, as well highlighting the issues of the day, on and off campus and across the world. Bluestocking Week is now part of the annual work plan in most Branches and it is expected that this will be the case across all Branches in 2016.

Women in higher education. Now.

The focus of the 2015 National Women’s Conference, which drew together delegates from nearly all Branches, was upon the many issues confronting women in higher education and asked the important question – what do we want now?

The Conference sought to reframe the narrative and encourage women to reclaim and enact their own agency. In deliberating upon the theme, the Conference thought that women need to address the expectations that are made of them, both within our universities and more broadly, and question whether these are realistic or even what we want.

The Conference objectives were to:

• Challenge the hiatus in the status and advancement of women in higher education.

• Empower women to take on the corporatist, masculinise power structures and practices still in our universities.

• Ensure that women and gender equity continue to explicitly feature in NTEU political and industrial priorities.

• Better position the WAC and women’s networks at the centre of Division and Branch activities.

• Increase women’s capabilities as union activists, delegates and representatives.•

nteu.org.au/women

Chair Jeannie Rea A&TSIPC NomineeSharon Dennis UTASSharlene Leroy-Dyer Newcastle

ACTGen: Katie Wilson UCAca: Sara Beavis ANU

NSWGen: Laura Wilson Sydney Karen Ford W’gongAca: Sarah Kaine UTS

NTGen: Janet Sincock CDUAca: Dawn Daly BIITE Penny Wurm CDU

QLDGen: Carolyn Cope QUTAca: Liz Mackinlay UQ

SAGen: Shelley Pezy Adelaide Kate Borrett UniSAAca: Jennifer Fane Flinders

TASGen: Nell Rundle UTAS Aca: Megan Alessandrini UTAS

VICGen: Catherine Rojas SwinburneAca: Virginia Mansel Lees La Trobe

WAGen: Kate Makowiecka Murdoch Claire Fletcher MurdochAca: Wendy Giles ECU

WAC 2014–15

Industrial


The sector-wide employer strat-egy of global restructuring to impose redundancies on unwant-ed staff and create an atmos-phere of fear and insecurity has continued unabated over the last 12 months. Over the same period several other industrial trends have also emerged.Some of these are variations on the same theme. First, universities are using academic ‘reprofiling’ to further concentrate teaching and research duties into separate streams. This process involves the development of academic staff ‘expectations’ documents, leading to the identification of staff who are seen as not publishing enough or in sufficiently highly-rated journals, not bringing in enough research grant income or not acquitting sufficient HDR completions. These staff are then pushed into teaching-focussed roles or targeted for redundancy or ‘voluntary early retirement’ (now legally available on a wider basis than just to the 55-65 age group).

Second, universities are using the Higher Education Standards Framework of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 as justification for getting rid of long-term university staff who do not hold at least one qualification higher than the course of study they teach.

In these ways the quality and funding pressures on the higher education sector continue to be passed down the line to staff and played out as unfairness in the workplace.

The burgeoning insistence of employers in our sector that they may reach into and regulate employees’ private activities is another identifiable trend. Over the last 12 months staff have been subject to actual or threatened disciplinary proceedings for such activities as espousing unpopular views in social media through to being sub-ject to an AVO in relation to their personal life. Universities can take action in relation to these matters due to a toxic combination of university codes of conduct requiring that employees ‘act with respect towards others’ and ‘do not bring the University into disrepute’, and contracts of employment requiring compliance with such codes.

It is important that the Union continues to defend the rights of our members to engage in public debate, protest, political activity and civil disobedience, and to have a private life beyond the reach of their employer, whether their conduct is politically aligned to our views or not.

Finally, 2014–15 saw the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into the Common-wealth workplace relations framework. As expected the employers in all industries, including ours, submitted their anti-union ‘wish list’ for industrial relations reform. Not unexpectedly the Productivity Com-mission’s Draft Report, released in August 2015, largely supported the perspective of the employers, calling for a wide range of ‘repairs’ to the industrial legal framework, including attacks on weekend penalty rates, additional restrictions on industrial action and the reintroduction of take-it-or-leave-it individual agreements. We will soon see whether the Abbott Government intends to heed this call and revive the ‘dead, buried, cremated’ corpse of WorkChoices.

The National Industrial Unit is coordinated by Sarah Roberts (National Industrial Coordinator).Staff are Linda Gale (Senior Industrial Officer), Wayne Cupido, Susan Kenna, (Industrial Officers), Andrea Brown (Research Officer) and Renee Veal (Administrative Officer).The Unit is under the direction of the General Secretary.

• Collective bargaining

• Industrial disputes

• Award Review

Images (L–R): Members on strike at UNSW, March 2015; Strike day signs at SCU, April 2015; La Trobe members rallying, Sept 2014.

Key activities:


Round 6 higher education bargaining

A major focus of the National Industrial Unit in 2014–15 has been the finalisation of Round 6 higher education bargaining. At the time of writing, Agreements had been concluded at all but two institutions.

Our Agreements now include a minimum salary increase of 3 per cent per annum, enforceable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment targets, improved career opportunities for long-term academic casuals via Scholarly Teaching Fellow (STF) provisions, improved general staff classifications and career development, better regulation of workloads and a host of other improvements for members.

Our wages outcomes continue to lead the economy, as do our achievements on parental leave, leave for domestic violence purposes and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment.

Of particular note in Round 6 is a good first Agreement negotiated for Federation University Australia staff, and the achievement of combined academic-general staff Agreements for the first time at four more Branches, lifting conditions for general/professional staff.

The Unit is now shifting focus to the enforcement of entitlements, ensuring the Union is actively enforcing the provisions we have won in bargaining.

Swinburne non-union AgreementNTEU’s objection to the approval of management’s proposed non-union Agreement at Swinburne led to an important precedent. Initially, a Fair Work Commission (FWC) Full Bench had approved the Agreement, despite NTEU’s objection that ineligible voters had been permitted to vote in the ballot (casual staff who had been employed at any time over the last several years, rather than those simply employed ‘at the time of the ballot’), and staff had been offered a $250 incentive to vote in favour.

However, upon NTEU’s application, the Full Bench of the Federal Court quashed FWC’s approval of the Agreement, holding that to be entitled to a vote on a proposed

Agreement an employee must actually be employed ‘at the time of the ballot’. After a long struggle, this win means Swinburne now has to return to the bargaining table to negotiate with the Union.

Bargaining in other sectors

Bargaining outside the university sector has been busy, too, with a number of sites taking industrial action. Members at La Trobe Melbourne (LTM) took a range of protected industrial action and won a historic Agreement with significant improvements in terms and conditions of employment. Membership density at LTM rose to 80 per cent during the campaign, and half of all casual teachers joined the Union. Sustained and successful industrial action was also taken in pursuit of Agreements at Monash College Pty Ltd and Hawthorn Learning Pty Ltd.

Many other new Agreements were also reached in 2014–15, including for student unions, training institutes, research institutes, TAFE and Adult Education, ELICOS centres, Navitas and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Key disputes

The Union has run a record number of important disputes over the last 12 months. More often we are tending to run these cases in-house using internal legal skills, rather than lawyers. Notably, in October 2014 NTEU represented itself in the Federal Court for the first time in James Cook University’s ultimately unsuccessful application for declaratory relief in relation to the interpretation of redundancy payout calculations.

Restructuring & redundanciesAfter winning at FWC in our case against La Trobe for failure to consult appropriately around 350 proposed redundancies, the University nonetheless continued to proceed with targeted redundancies. Our application for a permanent injunction to stop these targeted redundancies failed in the first instance at the Federal Court, with Tracey J unhelpfully finding the commitments in the Agreement did not impose binding obligations on the University. At the time of writing no

decision had been issued in our Full Federal Court appeal.

Along similar lines, in November 2014 the FWC found that Victoria University’s job security clause placed positive obligations on the University to pursue alternative options before implementing forced redundancies. Happily, the University’s appeal to the FWC Full Bench was unsuccessful, meaning these employer obligations in the context of redundancy are now firmly established.

Freedom of associationThis last year saw a significant number of disputes about discrimination on the grounds of union activity or members’ insistence on their workplace rights.

At the University of New England, NTEU’s Branch President, who is also the elected academic staff representative on University Council, was asked by the Chancellor to ‘reconsider her position’ on University Council on grounds of a perceived standing conflict of interest due to her NTEU role. After denying that any such standing conflict existed, the Branch President was refused access to aspects of papers and Council meetings. Legal advice was shared with the University stating that this constituted discrimination and adverse action under the Fair Work Act, but the University nonetheless continued with its discriminatory approach. At the time of writing, legal proceedings against the University were being drafted.

BullyingNTEU represented members in two matters in the new Bullying jurisdiction of the FWC for the first time in 2014–15. Unfortunately, due to the reluctance of the FWC to make binding orders, the achievement of a settlement was a lengthy and frustrating process for the members concerned. As a result of this experience, the Industrial Unit now does not recommend pursuing disputes in the Bullying jurisdiction.

Award Review

While the vast majority of NTEU members work under Agreements which override Award provisions, the maintenance of relevant Award standards remains important. The Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) requires Agreements to at least meet the standards set by Awards, and Award standards still carry great persuasive power at the bargaining table and among the membership.

Over 2014–15 the National Industrial Unit has been further refining and gathering witness evidence for our proposals in the Four-Year Review of Modern Awards, including reasonable workload allocation for academics, a ‘discipline currency’ allowance for casual academic staff, proper compensation for overtime for general staff and updated general staff descriptors. •nteu.org.au/rights

Policy & Research


The Union’s higher education policy and research work since the 2014 National Council meeting has been dominated by the Liberal National Party Coalition Government’s higher education policies and related legislation. Announced in the 2014–15 Federal Budget (and repeated in the 2015–16 Federal Budget) the Government seeks to make significant cuts to higher education spending includ-ing a 20 per cent cut to Commonwealth Supported Places (CSPs) funding to univer-sities, while proposing to introduce CSPs to private (including for-profit) higher educa-tion providers. Universities would be able to make up the loss of funding by charging students as the Government sought to fully deregulate domestic undergraduate student fees. (International and postgraduate fees are already deregulated.)

The Senate has now rejected the Govern-ment’s deregulation legislation twice, with the defeat of the Higher Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill 2014 on 2 December 2014, and Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014 on 17 March 2015.

Despite making several major concessions to the original legislation, and in particular dropping the imposition of market based interest rates on Higher Education Loans Program (HELP) debts and establishing a $100 million structural adjustment fund, the Government’s second deregulation bill received less support in the Senate than the first attempt. The ALP and the Greens have remained resolutely opposed and

actively campaigned against deregulation and privatisation. They have been joined in opposition in the Senate by Senators Lazarus (Qld), Lambie (Tas), Wang (WA) and Xenophon (SA) who all voted against the original Bill, and also Senator Muir (Vic) in voting down the second Bill.

Christopher Pyne, Minister for Education, continues to maintain that he is reintroducing the legislation this year.

The campaign against Pyne’s policies

While the Government has not been helped by the Minister for Education’s inability to competently advocate the merits of his policies, there is no doubt that the main reason for his failure is because funding cuts, fee deregulation and privatisation are very unpopular with public, even while Universities Australia was backing both rounds of legislation. The NTEU has been at the forefront of the campaign to block the passage of the Government’s legislation because they are unprincipled, unfair and unsustainable public policy.

The Policy and Research Unit has been central to this effort and has included:

• Analysing and modelling the likely impacts of the Government’s policies, including the very real possibilities of $100,000 degrees and rorting of the system (as has happened in the VET sector) by some private for-profit providers if they are given access to public funding.

• Developing campaigning and lobbying materials.

• Preparing written submission and participating in Senate Committee

The National Policy and Research Unit is coordinated by Paul Kniest (National Policy and Research Coordinator).Staff are Dr Terri MacDonald and Dr Jen T Kwok (Policy and Research Officers). The unit works under the direction of the National President.

• Focus on Government policies

• Demand-Driven Model

• 2014–15 Federal Budget

• Research policy

• Intellectual freedom

• Insecure work

Images (L–R): No $100,000 Degrees billboard; Defence Trade Controls poster; Federal politicians show their support for the NTEU’s campaign.

Key activities:


inquiries into the Higher Education and Research Bills.

• Maintaining consistent, constructive communication channels with the ALP, the Greens and the crossbench senators.

• Providing analysis and commentary that facilitated the high levels of engagement through traditional and social media.

For a more detailed analysis of the substantive policy issues, readers are referred to a number of articles in recent editions of the Advocate, including: ‘$100,000 degrees are no fantasy’ (November 2014); ‘Contradictions, confusions & concessions in Pyne’s higher education policies’ (November 2014); ‘On the higher education policy merry-go-round’ (March 2015); and ‘Federal Budget 2015: Pretend policies and fiscal fantasies’ (June 2015).

no100kdegrees.org.au

2015–16 Budget Submission

While the NTEU agrees with the Abbott government that the status quo in relation to higher education funding is unsustainable, we reject their conclusion that deregulation is the only viable solution. Given the low level of public investment in our universities and high fees paid by our students by international standards, the NTEU is advocating for increased levels of public investment. Increasing the costs for students will only lead to a blow out in the HELP debt.

In our 2015–16 Federal Budget Submission the NTEU took the opportunity to outline an alternative policy framework for the regulation and funding of Australian higher education. Our proposal argues that a necessary pre-condition for increasing public investment per student is an orderly well-planned and managed, yet flexible, system for the allocation of CSPs, as opposed to blindly following a purely market based solution with what is essentially a funding ‘blank cheque’ .

Our framework proposes an independent funding and regulatory body that would use Public Accountability Agreements (PAAs) to plan and manage the allocation of CSPs. PAAs would not only be used as a mechanism for each university to specify the number of CSPs it was

intending to offer, but also as a way of them demonstrating that they have the capacity and capability to ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed in the course in which they enrolled.

As anticipated, the 2015–16 Federal Budget ignored NTEU’s advice and reaffirmed the Government’s higher education policies, clearly articulated in Budget Strategy and Outlook Budget Paper No.1.

Amongst further funding cuts, but under enormous pressure from the universities and research sectors, the Government did fund the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), which Minister Pyne had threatened to de-fund unless his deregulation legislation was carried. However, NCRIS was funded at the expense of the Sustainable Research Excel-lence (SRE) grants which were cut by a total of $263 million over the forward estimates.

Research

As well as the cuts to SRE funding an-nounced in the 2015–16 Federal Budget, the Minister has announced a series of reviews to research funding and research training, under the broad heading of ‘Boosting the commercial returns to research’. What is becoming increasing clear is that the Gov-ernment is attempting to skew its research funding into areas with the potential for commercial returns. The NTEU is con-cerned that change in emphasis has the potential to disadvantage basic or blue sky research as well as much research in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

The Unit continues our watching brief on the Excellence in Research Australia (ERA), noting that it continues to advantage proven researchers at the expense of Early Career Researchers and newer universities – and new research initiatives. The discredited journal rankings, although abolished by the Australian Research Council (ARC) continue to be used in some version in a number of universities.

The Policy and Research Unit with the National President continues to make detailed submissions and representations on research policy and funding to influence government decision making and policy implementation.

Other policy developments and submissions

Over the course of the last year the Unit provided the National Executive with updates on a number of other policy matters including: the Defence Trade Controls Act; the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Trade in Services Agreement (TISA); the further streamlining of higher education visa applications; the Government’s international education strategy; amendments to TEQSA legislation and Guidance Notes; and the implications of national security legislation on academic freedom.

Formal submissions included House of Representatives Inquiry Into TAFE; NTEU submission Reform of the ESOS Framework; 2015 Federal Budget Submission; Senate Inquiry into Private VET; Senate References Committee Inquiry into Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014; Inquiry into the impact of Australia’s temporary work visa programs on the Australian labour market; International Education Strategy White Paper 2015; Review of the Australian Research Training Scheme, Research Funding Review, and Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs Committee Inquiry into the Fairer Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill 2015. Copies of all submissions can be downloaded from the Submissions page.

nteu.org.au/policy/legislation_submissions

Stakeholder engagement

The Policy and Research Unit continues to actively engage with other stakeholders including participating in conferences and other events including Science meets Parliament, Universities Australia Higher Education Conference, CHASS forum, NUS and CAPA conferences. This year we also participated with NUS and CAPA in the ALP National Conference Fringe program.

The Union also meets regularly with relevant government officials and politicians and agencies including the Office of the Chief Scientist and the ARC. •nteu.org.au/policy

Union Education


NTEU Union Education re-started in 2012 with the aim of meeting the needs of members, elected officers and staff. Programs are developed and delivered by National Union Education Officers Ken McAlpine and Helena Spyrou with assistance from National, Division and Branch staff and officers. The program is underpinned by the 2007 NTEU Education and Training Framework, based upon three main subject areas – the Union, the higher education system, and work and employment – and three main components – knowledge, activities and practices. Most formal education and training delivery has been face-to-face with some delivery via webinar.

NTEU Education Officers also provide expert support to NTEU conferences.

Education program

The NTEU program is a mix of content identified and requested by members and staff, and content identified by senior officers and the National Executive as supporting urgent or important priorities.

It also reflects the strong capacity of NTEU members and staff as learners to actively engage with complex issues. However, at a broader level, union education and training should also provide these participants the chance to come together to reflect upon their practice and to develop new strategies and practices.

The courses run in 2015 included:

• Workplace Bullying and Case Management and presenting on Workplace Bullying to members (3 day course).

• General Staff Classification and presenting on General Staff Classification to members (2 day course).

• Academic Promotion and presenting on Academic Promotion to members (2 day course).

• Academic Freedom and Writing for the Union and presenting on Academic Freedom to members (3 day course).

• Industrial and Legal Skills Intensive (6 day course).

These courses build upon existing knowledge and develop the capacity of participants to themselves run education and information sessions for members.

Branch and Delegate development

The Branch and Delegate development workshops continued in 2015 with selected Branches (USQ, QUT, Murdoch, Curtin, Adelaide, Flinders, UniSA and ANU).

These focus on developing the capacity of the Branch – committee, staff and delegates – to organise the Union’s work, facilitate delegate networks and to critically reflect upon strategies and practices for building union power and union growth.

Organiser development

A two-day organiser development course was trialled for WA organising staff, dealing with work prioritisation and union

• Branch & Delegate development

• Financial governance

• Education materials

• Induction programs

• Online programs

• Events

• Scholarships

Unit staff are Ken McAlpine and Helena Spyrou (Education & Training Officers).The program is overseen by the National President and General Secretary.

Images (L–R): ‘Can we go home now?’ Expert Seminar Series, April 2015; Wiki page.

Key activities:


strategy, as well as specific skills in assisting members. The content of this can be developed further for other Divisions.

TAFE classification training

At the request of the Victorian TAFE Branch, three training sessions on the classification of TAFE PACCT Staff to joint union-management groups were delivered at Sunraysia (Mildura) TAFE, at Wodonga TAFE and at Bendigo/Kangan TAFE. It is worth noting that some employers seem to prefer our classification training to that of private consultants.

Financial governance training

The previous federal Labor Government changed the law governing unions in 2013 to require that all union officers whose duties ‘include financial management’ must undertake approved training in financial governance within six months of taking office.

This was a large task leading up to the 2014 National Council, but at that National Council meeting a good proportion of those who had not received training were able to complete it. Since then, six training sessions have been conducted for about 15 newly elected officers. The task in future years should be smaller as it will only be new officers who will be required to undertake the training.

Staff induction

The induction arrangements for new staff were revised and improved. Previously new organising, campaign and industrial staff from the Divisions came to the National Office for ‘administrative’ induction and a series of informal meetings with key staff in the National Office. This usually happened very soon after new staff commenced, and much of the substantive discussion of the Union’s work lacked sufficient context.

This has now been replaced with a more formal set of arrangements. Most ‘administrative’ induction for new staff is done within the relevant Division or by phone with the National Office in the first few days of employment, and on-line resources (Manuals etc.) are provided

covering introductory matters about the Union’s work. This is then followed up with a two-day formal induction training in the National Office. The aim is for this two day induction to be conducted every four months. The first of these has been conducted and was well received. It included sessions about the Union’s objectives; history and coverage; enterprise bargaining and industrial work; university funding and current policy issues; the nature of academic and general staff career structures; and the specific character of university work and academic freedom.

National Office has also developed a key set of IT and database competencies related to the Union’s work and is setting in place administrative procedures to ensure that these are acquired by all new staff within the first six months of employment.

Education materials development

Manuals, guides and other education resources have been developed or revised and can be downloaded from the NTEU ResourceSpace. A catalogue of all materials developed to date will be added to the NTEU Portal.

NTEU wiki

The purpose of the NTEU Wiki project is to develop and collect the information the Union has, along with ‘articles’ providing general or in-depth information and analysis of issues for officers and staff. This wiki is established with some articles and these will expand significantly over the next year.

wiki.nteu.org.au

Expert Seminar Series

The Union has continued with the successful series of seminars bringing together experts to discuss current issues in the sector. The seminars are video-recorded and edited for future use as well as live-streamed with viewers sending in questions to speakers. Since the last National Council meeting three have been conducted:

1. ‘Off track? Research staff and insecure employment in Australia’, October 2014.

2. ‘Can we go home now? Unpaid overtime

of general staff in Australian tertiary education’, April 2015.

3. ‘Not waving, drowning. Academic workload and autonomy in Australian universities’, September 2015.

nteu.org.au/seminars

Elected Officers Conference

Union Education officers with the National President planned and conducted a three-day residential conference on leadership for Branch and Division presidents and the national executive in February 2015. The Conference covered some of the general challenges facing the labour movement in general and the NTEU in particular, and covered such important issues as prioritising work at a local level, relationships with staff and between different levels of the Union. Evaluation of the Conference by participants was overwhelmingly positive.

NTEU Scholarship Program

Union education oversees two of four NTEU scholarships. The first recipient of the Carolyn Allport Scholarship for post-graduate feminist research has progressed very well in her first year of her three year scholarship. The recipient of the 2014 Joan Hardy postgraduate nursing scholarship is also progressing well. The 2015 winners of both of these scholarships will be announced in late August.

The NTEU Morning Star scholarship for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander students continues to be overseen by Charles Darwin University and the NTEU Charles Sturt University (CSU) Branch Indigenous Education Scholarship for an Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander student in an undergraduate teaching degree at CSU continues to be overseen by CSU.•nteu.org.au/myunion/education_training

Organising & Recruitment


The Organising and Recruitment Unit plays an important role in supporting our membership base nationally with campaign materials, resources and services.The key functions of the Unit are:

• Conducting membership and industry-wide surveys.

• Support for recruitment and campaign initiatives.

• Providing for membership discounts and services.

• Managing membership records.

No $100,000 Degrees

While defeated twice in the Senate, we are as persistent in our opposition to the Abbott Government’s higher education deregulation and privatisation bills as Education Minister Christopher Pyne is in presenting them to Parliament. We have reinvigorated the campaign to prepare for the looming federal election.

In September 2015, billboard and bus stop advertising has been placed in a number of key seats around the country, specifically Sturt (SA), Page and Banks (NSW), Corangamite (Vic), Brisbane and Herbert (Qld), Bass (Tas), and Solomon (NT).

Campaign activity will be occurring in each of these seats during this month to continue to raise higher education as an issue in the lead up to the federal election.


Ivory Tower

The rights to screen Ivory Tower on Australian campuses were secured by the NTEU in late April. This 2014 documentary by Andrew Rossi examines the factors threatening to bring down America’s once highly envied higher education system. The film raises worrying questions about where Australian higher education may be heading under the Abbott Government, and reinforces why there is such strong public and political opposition to the Americanisation of our world class public higher education system.

Branches have been using the film to send a strong message to staff, students and the community about the direction towards an American model being pursued by the Federal Government. So far there have been 31 screenings of the film at campuses across Australia with more screenings scheduled later this year.

nteu.org.au/ivorytower

State of the Uni survey

The Union initiated what is intended to become a biennial survey of university staff in 2015. This survey is intended to develop over time to provide valuable longitudinal information about attitudes to the sector, employment conditions, working in universities, and to the Union’s role in the sector.

The initial survey had 7,000 completed responses despite a number of university servers blocking the emails inviting staff to participate. This provided union members with greater representation than the population of the sector, however despite

• Recruitment and Growth Team

• National Organising

• Member services

NTEU’s work nationally on organising is undertaken by Michael Evans (National Organiser) and Rob Binnie (National Organiser – LSL replacement) and is overseen by the National Assistant Secretary. Campaign support is provided by Paul Clifton (National Publications Coordinator) and Courtney Sloane (National Media Officer, to June 2015). The National Membership Officer is Melinda Valsorda.The National Growth Team (Gaurav Nanda, Priya Nathan and Rifai Abdul) report directly to the National Assistant Secretary.

Images (L–R): Ivory Tower promotional banner; non-member mailout brochure (inside spread and cover); State of the Uni Survey promotional poster.

Key activities:


this over 40% of respondents were not union members ensuring that the broad scope of views were represented.

Two initial survey reports have been prepared and distributed (Overview and Workloads) and we will work through a number of additional reports over before the next iteration is due.

nteu.org.au/stateoftheuni

2014 NTEU Annual Lecture

The NTEU Annual Lecture was established in 2011 to provide a public forum for eminent Australians to present unique perspectives on aspects of higher education and its impact on the economic, social and cultural frameworks of Australian society.

The 2014 lecture was given by actor, educator and Aboriginal activist Kylie Belling. She is best known for her television work, playing Sarah West in Prisoner and Sharon Herbert as an original cast member of The Flying Doctors. Kylie also played Geraldine in the 2012 movie The Sapphires. She was also the first actor to play Ruby in Jane Harrison’s play Stolen; a confronting play about the experiences of the Stolen Generations. Recently, Kylie collaborated with a lobby group Concerned Australians to narrate a video calling for treaties to be negotiated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Kylie is a Yorta Yorta/Bangarang/Wiradjurri woman, born and raised in Melbourne. Her well attended lecture at Victoria University addressed the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and individuals in higher education, and focused upon her own experiences and that of her family. The compelling and informative lecture can be viewed at the Lecture website.

nteu.org.au/lecture/2014

Go Home On Time Day

Over the past few years, the Union has had a strong participation in the ‘Go Home on Time Day’ initiative of the Australia Institute. This has been primarily focused on drawing attention to the conditions of General and Professional staff in our sector. This year, as well as our usual on campus

promotion, the Union developed and launched a video focused on the high levels of unpaid overtime done by staff.

The video was picked up by The Age online which resulted in over 400,000 views of the video. For more information and to see the video visit the website

nteu.org.au/gohomeontimeday

Non-member mail-out

In May 2015 the NTEU reached out to non-members at tertiary institutions across the country. Each staff member was sent information about the Governments Higher Education agenda and how it will impact upon staff, students and the community. As a result of the drive close to 100 new members joined the NTEU.

Membership cards

New membership cards were issued to all members in April. The cards are directly linked to the member Advantage Benefits program that offers a large range of discounts to members.

Postgraduate membership

Stemming from a motion at National Council 2014, a new category of membership has been created for Postgraduate students. Postgrads can become members of the

NTEU for free, but will not be able to be represented by the Union, or have access to voting rights or a majority of benefits. Postgrads will have access to online publications and be able to become active in Union campaigns.

It is intended to be an introduction to the Union as an important organisation to be involved with while getting a tertiary career on track. Once Postgrads become employed at a tertiary institution their status will change and they will need to pay the appropriate fee to retain membership.

nteu.org.au/postgrad

Growth Team activity

The NTEU’s specialist recruitment team has continued their work through 2015 recruiting a total of 744 new members to July 31 which indicates a likely 2015 full year outcome similar to the 1,266 new members in the full year 2014. Growth team work has been extended for a further two years to December 2017. Total NTEU membership as at July 2015 was 27153. •nteu.org.au/campaigns

nteu.org.au/join

23,930

24,354 24,279 24,318

26,111

27,458 27,529

27,153

23,000July 2008 July 2009 July 2010 July 2011 July 2012 July 2013 July 2014 July 2015

24,000

25,000

26,000

27,000

28,000

2015 NTEU

STATE OF THE UNI

SURVEYHave your

say!ARE THINGS GETTING BETTER? ARE THEY GETTING WORSE?

The "NTEU State of the Uni" survey will tell us.

This survey will be conducted every two years to establish longitudinal information about university sta� views about:

• The sector

• Your University

• Your Conditions at work

• The union that represents University sta�

Find out what makes us tick.

How can we know where we are going if we don't know where we have been? Help build the picture.

WWW.NTEU.ORG.AU/STATEOFTHEUNI

Table 1: National membership trend, July 2008 – July 2015

Communications & Publications


Media

Over the past twelve months, the NTEU has provided media support to Branches and Divisions as they campaign for better pay and conditions for our members. We have helped support members in wins across universities such as Southern Cross and James Cook, to name a couple.

The NTEU’s communications have also formed an integral part of helping to twice defeat the Abbott Government’s plans to deregulate Australian universities. The NTEU has worked hard to place as much pressure on the government through its media and communications as possible.

Our work has been widely visible in both national and local media across print, radio and digital platforms broadening the discussion about higher education and its vital importance. Through the media, our message has reached hundreds of thousands of people in every corner of the country.

Social Media

The NTEU’s social media presence has con-tinued to increase as the Union develops innovative and engaging online content. Since 30 June 2014, the membership of all our online communities has increased. The national Facebook page has grown to over 11,000 likes, while our national Twitter account has grown to over 2,500 followers. Our Youtube channel also has more sub-scribers thanks to our focus on producing accessible and shareable video content.

This growth has enabled the NTEU to reach more people with our message to defend public universities, and ensure new sections

of the public are being brought into the debate. This has helped lay important foundations to complement on-the-ground campaign work currently being planned for the next federal election.

edXpress

With content sourced from all around Australia, edXpress keeps our members and subscribers informed about what is happening across each of the NTEU’s Branches and Divisions. Published monthly via MailChimp, edXpress is sent to over 1900 subscribers with an open rate of 36%.

nteu.org.au/edxpress

Magazines & journals

The National Publications Coordinator pro-duces all national magazines in association with each title’s editor and relevant staff at all levels of the Union.

Advocate (editor Jeannie Rea) was pub-lished Nov 2014 (vol. 21, no. 3), March 2015 (vol. 22, no. 1) and June 2015 (vol. 22, no. 2). Each print run is approximately 28,000, plus 2,200 soft delivery subscriptions (email no-tification with links to PDF on our website and e-mag on our issuu site, with a 34% open rate).

nteu.org.au/advocate

Australian Universities’ Review (AUR), edited by Ian Dobson and overseen by the AUR Editorial Board was published in February 2015 (vol. 57, no. 1) and September 2015 (vol. 57, no. 2). Each print run is approximately 5,150, plus over 6,000 soft delivery subscrip-tions (PDF and e-mag, 30% open rate).

aur.org.au

• Media work

• Social media

• Magazines & journal production

• Website development

• Campaign & event support

Communications and publications were undertaken by Paul Clifton (National Publications Coordinator) and Courtney Sloane (National Media Officer to June 2015), assisted by Elected Officers, staff and external contractors overseen by the National President and National Assistant Secretary.

Images (L–R): National Facebook page; Call to action section from no100kdegrees.org.au

Key activities:


Connect (editor Jeannie Rea, co-published by NTEU and the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations) was published in April 2015 and September 2015 – both dates later into the semester than previous years. Each print run is approximately 3,500 (PDFs and e-mag also available). Selected articles are reproduced as blogposts and shared on social networks where relevant.

unicasual.org.au/publications/connect

Agenda (editor Jeannie Rea, produced in conjunction with WAC), NTEU’s annual women’s journal was published in September 2015 (vol. 23) with a print run of 16,000 (PDF and e-mag available). Selected articles are reproduced as blogposts.

nteu.org.au/agenda

Other publications

NTEU Tax Guide 2015 (A4, 10pp.), the annual tax booklet for members, produced in conjunction with Teacher Tax, was published in July (digital only). It was downloaded by members almost 600 times.

nteu.org.au/tax

Production for the 5th edition of Smart Casuals has continued slowly in 2015. Customised booklets for each Branch will be published online as they are produced.

nteu.org.au/advocate

Campaigns

No 100K DegreesVarious materials were produced for ‘No 100K Degrees’, the next phase of the Union’s campaign against the Government’s proposed changes to higher education.

Items include a new simplified website (primarily aimed at getting people to sign up to the campaign), banners, posters (4 versions), videos, billboards, brochures, postcards, signs for rallies, various social media assets and t-shirts.


The original website (A Degree Shouldn’t Cost a Mortgage) was redesigned, cleaned up and relaunched as Defend Our Universities in July 2015.

nteu.org.au/defendourunis

Enrol to VoteThe Enrol to Vote website was redesigned and relaunched with iamgery from the No 100K Degrees campaign, in line with A5 postcards printed and distributed in July 2015.

nteu.org.au/enroltovote

Ivory TowerThe Union’s screenings of the US documentary Ivory Tower were accompanied by customisable poster templates that allowed Branches to advertise their screenings to members and the public.

nteu.org.au/ivorytower

SecureWorkA new Wordpress site was created for the Securework tweet up in July. Accompanying infographics were also produced.

securework.org.au

Events

A range of promotional material (logos, website pages, programs, banners etc.) were created for:

• The annual NTEU Lecture in December 2014 (delivered by Kylie Belling)

• Insecure Work Conference in Hobart in November 2014

• Bluestocking Week in August 2015• NTEU Expert Seminars• National Council.Hard copy and onlne promotional materials were also created for:

• State of the Uni Survey.• Postgrad membership.• Defence Trade Controls• Paid Parental Leave •nteu.org.au/media

nteu.org.au/library

Finance, Governance & Administration


Consistent with one of the four key national priorities for 2015, much work has been undertaken over the last year to modernise our systems and infrastructure. This effort builds on and extends initiatives taken in 2014 to implement digital and automated processes wherever possible and to markedly reduce our reliance on paper-based transactional methods for conducting our work.

Electronic infrastructure

The implementation of three specific initiatives has substantially transformed the way NTEU conducts its meetings, distributes documents and makes key decisions. Each of these is outlined below.

For the last two years, the National Executive has been using iPads, laptops and tablets to access meeting documents and reports and for the conduct of its meetings. This digital methodology has been generally well received by National Executive members and has been greatly assisted by the installation of a new meeting table that incorporates in-built power points and USB ports.

For the first time last year, the Union trialled a ‘paperless’ National Council meeting - the agenda and papers for the Council were distributed electronically and the meeting was conducted using a variety of digital platforms. Although

there were some limited difficulties at the 2014 National Council with wireless signal blackspots, the feedback received in response to this ‘paperless’ initiative was overwhelmingly positive and has encouraged us to continue this new practice. Particular attention has been paid this year to enhancing the wireless signal and bandwidth supporting the National Council meeting in an effort to ensure that everyone is able to access the digital signal and to prevent unexpected disruptions to connectivity. Lessons learned from the experiences of the 2014 and 2015 meetings of the National Council will be used to further refine and improve the technology in future years.

This is the second year that we have moved to an Annual Report format for the National Council papers, again electronically distributed and available for all members to view on the website following the Council meeting. For 2015, the Annual Report has been expanded to encompass reports from each Division. This will ensure that the Report provides a more comprehensive account of the work of the Union over the preceding twelve months.

Taken together, these three initiatives have resulted in massive reductions in the consumption of paper and eliminated the monetary and time-related costs associated with previous bulky mail outs of agendas and papers. Many trees continue to stand and absorb carbon because of these initiatives!

New databases

Last year the National Office reported on the work then underway to source and

The Management & Administration Unit is coordinated by Peter Summers (Executive Manager).Staff are Tam Vuong (ICT Network Engineer), Ray Hoo (Database Programmer/Data Analyst), Jo Riley (Payroll Officer), Anastasia Kotaidis (Executive Officer – National Officers), Tracey Coster (Executive Officer – Meetings & Events), Julie Ann Veal, Renee Veal (Administrative Officers) and Leanne Foote (Receptionist).

• Electronic infrastructure

• New databases

• Extending member services

• General governance

• Policy development

• Operations

Key activities:


purchase a new Union database to replace the existing membership database and to integrate in a single system a number of other existing discrete databases. This work has proceeded and a decision was taken in early 2015 to purchase Stratum which is manufactured by a UK-based company called APT Solutions.

Stratum is a specialist trade union product initially developed in 1998 in response to a need identified by the National Union of Teachers in the UK. Over 42 per cent of union members in the UK belong to unions that use Stratum and around the world some five million members belong to unions that rely on this software. These include some of the strongest and largest unions in Australia, NZ and the UK, covering a range of industrial sectors and occupational groups and spanning the public and private sectors.

Following completion of the technical specification documentation a contract for the purchase of Stratum was signed with APT in early July 2015. The new database will be built, tested and deployed in three phases over an 18 month period (approx.) commencing in July 2015 with full implementation expected by the end of 2016. When finalised, Stratum will provide real-time and personalised web-based information to members, Officers and staff of the Union. It will also provide a suite of Organiser tools to assist our campaigns and the development and maintenance of Branch-based delegate structures. Stratum will also provide a fully integrated national system of storage, retrieval and reporting against industrial case records as well as new web site pages for Officers, staff and for each member’s ‘MyPage’.

While the new database is being developed and deployed, the critical work of the Union must continue. Therefore, over the last year considerable efforts have been made to develop new databases of non-members (or prospective members) at each institution. These databases will be of immense value in our attempts to recruit new Union members and will assist us to enhance the effectiveness of some of our high profile national campaigns (especially in the lead up to and during Federal elections).

Additionally, a new network tool has been developed and deployed to assist Organisers to record, store, search and find contacts or persons who have participated in campaigns and events.

Our existing membership database has been modified following a resolution from the 2014 National Council to create a new Associate Member category for postgraduate students. The new category of Associate Members was launched in late July 2015.

Extending member services

A number of other important member-services related initiatives have been undertaken in the last year and many of these have drawn on the work of our Finance Unit and ICT staff. These include:

• The introduction of PayPal as an

alternative payment method for purchase of merchandise from the on-line NTEU Shop.

• The use of BPAY to complement other methods for payment of membership subscriptions by invoice.

• The introduction of an automated facility that generates electronic reminder notices to members whose subscription has fallen significantly into arrears.

• Considerable work to ensure our membership/finance system is compliant with the new Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) which mandates data security requirements for handling credit cards.

General governance

The Union is rightly proud of its rigorous and transparent financial and general administration and oversight practices including:

• Rules requiring disclosure by Officers and staff of any direct or material conflict of interest.

• Oversight of all budgets and accounts by the National Staffing and Finance Committee which considers comprehensive and detailed reports for Operating Income and Expenditure (for all levels of the Union), the National Defence Fund, the National Leave Fund, and the National Property Fund.

• Centralisation of financial record keeping for all Branches, Divisions and the National Office to ensure financial policy consistency and day to day accountability.

• A Credit Card and Expenditure Policy under which NTEU Officers and staff must account and provide receipts for all expenditures and identify the Budget line item and/or activity against which such expenditure is to be charged, based on three levels of internal review. Financial probity and control is reinforced through strict credit card limits of between $1,000 and $10,000 p.a., and no capacity for cash withdrawals.

• Periodic competitive tendering for important and/or moderately high cost external services or work including property redevelopment and investment advice and periodic testing of service providers (e.g. printing and website hosting) against contemporary market prices.

Policy development

Consistent with our Policy on Tendering and Procurement, the three year contract for our external auditors has been reviewed and during the last year a new auditor was appointed.

In the last year a number of new policies have been developed and implemented to strengthen general governance and the oversight of expenditure of members’ funds. These include the adoption of an Instrument of Delegation which codifies delegated financial responsibilities throughout each level of the Union.

Following the public release of some limited personal and/or sensitive member information in 2013-14, the Union has reviewed its processes and introduced a new policy on the Use of the NTEU Database and Related Resources. This policy clearly delineates who is authorised to access member information and the purposes for which it may be used. The Union has also adopted a Data Breach Response Plan which sets out what steps will be taken (and by whom) in the event of any future unauthorised access to and/or release of member information. These policies and operational procedures are compliant with the Australian Privacy Principles and have been validated by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

A new NTEU Travel Policy was introduced in 2015 which identifies the circumstances and procedures relating especially to interstate travel for staff of the Union and associated policies relating to airline and accommodation bookings. At the time this Report was prepared an analogue policy relating to travel by Officers of the Union is also nearing completion.

Operations

A number of operational and administrative procedures, documentation and manuals have been compiled over the previous year notably in relation to flight and accommodation booking procedures; operation of the National/Victorian combined switchboard and reception area; checklists of tasks to be completed when a new employee commences work; and an online induction kit.

NTEU owns the largest share of the building that houses the National Office and Victorian Division Office in South Melbourne. The Australian Education Union and the Victorian Independent Education Union each own a smaller share. Our combined interests in the building are aggregated through an entity formed for the purpose called the Federation of Education Unions (FEU). As the largest shareholder in the property, from the commencement of the 2015–16 financial year NTEU has assumed responsibility for maintaining the accounts of the FEU. This improves our capacity to ensure the Union is able to properly protect its significant investment in one of its most important capital assets. •nteu.org.au/myunion

ACT Division


The ACT Division represents almost 1,200 members at four ACT public universities: Australian National University, University of Canberra, Australian Catholic University (Canberra Campus) and UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Round 6 bargaining and implementation

This year, NTEU finalised the first ever Enterprise Agreement to cover University of Canberra College (UCC) staff. Bargaining took over a year; it was challenging because three groups of staff with different conditions (staff covered by the previous UC/UCELI Agreement, staff covered by the current UC Agreement and those not covered by any Enterprise Agreement) had been working together in UC College. A goal of both NTEU members and management was to achieve uniform conditions as much as possible. This was achieved through the intelligent cooperation of members to reach and endorse an agreement that left all staff better off overall, despite some reduction in particular conditions for different groups.

Bargainers and delegates led by Annabel Beckenham did an exemplary job of recruiting, engaging, and consulting members throughout the process. From the beginning to end of the bargaining period membership density almost trebled.

There was a great improvement in job security as a result of the new Agreement

with over a dozen staff who had been on fixed-term contracts becoming continuing staff.

A 51% stake in UCC has subsequently been sold to Navitas. Having their conditions enshrined in an Enterprise Agreement will be an important protection for staff under the new ownership.

Bargaining at ANU College (Study Group Australia and NZ) concluded with a reasonably good agreement. This was the first agreement since ANU Enterprise had been split and the College division sold to Study Group.

Provisions to be proud of include: new Domestic Violence Leave of ten days - arrived at after protracted negotiation despite management’s initial offer of only two days paid leave; workloads consultation clause; Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander employment clause; and a reasonable salary outcome of just over 10% over 3 years. The Agreement expires in December 2017.

The Fair Work Commission approved the Australian National University (ANU) Enterprise Agreement 2013-2016 on 13 January 2014. Work continues to implement new clauses from the agreement. Regular meetings with ANU HR staff are occurring to ensure commitments are kept and new or modified clauses are working as expected. This is in conjunction with a number of disputes and grievances regarding the new managing change, workload and bullying provisions.

New provisions relating to domestic violence leave and occupant-only classifications for general staff have not, to date, been utilised by staff at ANU.

ACT has had two Division Secretaries in 2014–15; Stephen Darwin (to Jan 2015) and Rachael Bahl (from April 2015).Division President is Jack Bowers, Division Vice-Presidents are Craig Applegate (Academic) and Stephen Ohms (General).Staff are David Vincent-Pietsch (Division Industrial Officer), Tim McCann (Division Organiser) and Jane Maze (Communications Officer/Organiser).

Images (L–R): NTEU members and officials Rachael Bahl, Derek Corrigan and Jeannie Rea lobby ‘Big Tony Abbott’ outside Parliament House at the March 4 Higher Education; Senator Kim Carr showing support for the NTEU’s campaign; Rachael Bahl talks to an NTEU member; Flyer for NTEU event discussing the campaign against deregulated fees.

Top: NTEU members marching in the Palm Sunday Rally for Refugees, Canberra, March 2015.


The Fair Work Commission approved the University of Canberra (UC) Enterprise Agreement 2013-2015 on 16 December 2013. The Agreement nominally expired on 1 June 2015. Meetings have been scheduled with UC management to discuss negotiations for the next enterprise agreement while discussions with UC continue with regards to the implementation of outstanding issues from the current agreement.

Work on the Enterprise Agreements for UNSW at ADFA and Australian Catholic University was conducted by the NSW Division and National Office, respectively.

Public advocacy and campaigns

The Division has participated in NTEU national campaigns to communicate with members, non-members and the university community concerning the HERRA Bill and its implications for staff job security, as well as effects on students.

Screenings of the film ‘Ivory Tower’ were held at all ACT Branches and Sub-Branches in June 2015. The ANU event was particularly well attended and was followed by a lively discussion regarding the funding of higher education and alternate international models.

ACT Division has strengthened links with UnionsACT and is participating in the ‘Fair Go for Canberra’ and ‘Build a Better Future’ campaigns as the key union for higher education.

NTEU members attended the ‘March in March’ rally on 4 March 2015 in Canberra where NTEU National President Jeannie Rea addressed the crowd.

NTEU continues to support student National Days of Action and has provided local NTEU Officials to speak at them.

Membership growth and development

Membership in the ACT has declined by 2.5% over the last 12 months, but has declined by almost 8% over the last two years. This is due to the significant membership loss at ANU through its Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme of 2013/14. Over the same period, membership grew at the University of Canberra by 6.7%.

Development of Branch and Delegate networks is a priority for the ACT Division.

ACT Division has organised a range of events and training for members including:

• UC Staff & Student roundtable with Senator Kim Carr, ‘A degree shouldn’t be a debt sentence’, August 2014

• ACU academic staff workloads forum, November 2014

• ACT Division members were invited to ‘Think Outside the Pyne Box’ with NTEU President Jeannie Rea, May 2015.

• UC Academic Freedom information session, May 2015.

Strengthen NTEU structures and systems

ACT Division Secretary Stephen Darwin resigned in December 2014. Stephen and his partner have relocated to Chile to pursue academic interests there. Stephen’s resignation was a significant loss for the ACT Division as Stephen had led the Union through a period when managements at

both UC and the ANU were seeking to cut jobs and make radical changes.

An election for Division Secretary was held in April 2015. Rachael Bahl was elected to the role and commenced on 29 April.

ANU Branch Committee Training was conducted in early 2015.

ACT office staff, including the new Division Secretary have attended a range of national training in 2014/15 including sessions on bullying and case management, general staff classification, academic promotion, and industrial skills.

The UC Branch office was relocated to a bigger space in June 2015 which will allow more efficient servicing of UC members.

The Division, located just across the lake from Parliament House is ready to pounce when Education Minister Christopher Pyne re-introduces his deregulation legislation, or when a federal election is called.•nteu.org.au/act

NSW Division


The NSW Division represents over 7,300 members at 11 NSW public universities: Charles Sturt University, Macquarie University, University of New England, University of NSW, University of Newcastle, Southern Cross University, University of Sydney, University of Western Sydney, University of Wollongong and the University of Technology, Sydney and two campuses of the Australian Catholic University.The Division also has members at University of Notre Dame Australia and various private providers of higher education across the state.


NSW members continued to campaign for fair and equitable Agreements, taking action to support and empower those at the table. NSW has successfully secured strong Agreements at 9 out of 10 universities.

Bargaining continues at Southern Cross University (SCU) following the incredible member victory over management’s attempt to force through a substandard Agreement. In the face of a major management campaign and CPSU support for the Agreement, NTEU members through their very visible grassroots campaign, secured a massive 70 per cent no vote from SCU staff.

We have undertaken a review of bargaining, reflecting on our achievements, campaign tactics and planning, that will put us in a strong position for Round 7 bargaining.

Implementing Agreements through member education and engagementAs Agreements are concluded, each Branch has started implementation by working on a key clause related to insecure work, and one general and professional staff clause. The clauses to work on are selected by re-viewing what was achieved and considering issues that resonated most with members during the bargaining campaign.

Scholarly Teaching Fellows, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment targets, and general and professional staff development and mobility are being identified by Branches as key issues, as well as local clauses campaigned for by members in bargaining. Facts sheets and know your rights seminars have been developed to promote member knowledge and generate action.

The implementation campaign is about members securing their collective entitlements in practice, not just on paper, and educating members around their rights to lay the foundation for a strong round 7 bargaining campaign.


In order to be truly effective in defending our universities against further conservative attacks and cutbacks we require the active input, enthusiasm and participation of NTEU members. We need members to campaign – both within the university and outside the campus gates

NSW Division Secretary is Genevieve Kelly.Division President is John Sinclair, Division Vice-Presidents are David Ritchie (Academic) and Kate Mitchell (General).Staff are Joshua Gava (Senior Industrial Officer) , Jo Kowalczyk (Senior State Organiser), Jeane Wells, Kobie Howe, Lance Dale, Simon Kempton, Tamara Talmacs (Division Industrial Officers), Gabrielle Kavanagh (Division Industrial Organiser), Adam Knobel (Communications and Campaigns Organiser), Sharon Bailey, Amber Jacobus, Brigitte Garozzo, Cat Coghlan, Erin Chew, Jenny Whittard, Kaylene Field, Kevin Poynter, Holly Kemp, Kiraz Janicke, Lisa Roberts, Richard Bailey, Sean O’Brien, Trevor Smith (Branch Organisers), Kerrie Barathy )Executive Officer - Finance), Sharon Muddle (Executive Officer), Ben Simson and Jacqueline Check (Growth Team Organisers).

Images (L–R): Delivering fee deregulation petition postcards to Tony Abbott’s office, November 2014; Poster from the Southern Cross University Save Our Uni. Save Our Local Jobs. community campaign; Delegates from across NSW meet to kick off the Defend our Universities campaign, June 2015; NTEU members take part in the Australian-wide union day of action, 4 March 2015.

Top: Members at the ACTU March 4 Our Rights rally, 2015.


– if we are to change the conversation concerning higher education in Australia, and keep University funding on the political agenda.

Our challenge has been to progress our public advocacy campaigns from air war and political lobbying by NTEU officials, into more community conversations and local activity, lobbying and alliance building by NTEU members across the state. We need maximum member engagement in the campaign as we prepare for a federal election where we want to see a change of government and increase our capacity to campaign effectively in the future.

We have developed a two-stage campaign to identify members willing to be active on campus, then organise community-based action in the lead up to the election, focus-sing on target marginal seats and activities. This plan was endorsed by activist mem-bers and the Division Council and was the basis of our Delegate’s Conference in June.


Delegates and member activists are key to the strength of the NTEU. From 2012, NSW has focussed on delegate development beginning with the release of our first delegate handbook. We have since launched a training and story-sharing e-newsletter for delegates and hosted state-wide and local education and development sessions – all leading to our delegates conference in June.

60 delegates and member activists gathered from across NSW to discuss the Defend Our Universities campaign, and over the course of the day we:

• Examined key challenges for the Union, both internal and external.

• Heard from other organisations about their campaigning experiences – how did they achieve the change they wanted to see?

• Participated in workshops looking at the tools we need to campaign on our campuses and in our communities.

• Worked in institution groups to plan steps from here.

Building Union StrengthCSU Branch piloted our Building Union Strength (BUS) program that saw experienced Branch Executive members commit to an 8-week delegate development program. Participants identified other key members to work with to run workplace meetings and around university budget cuts. This successfully built the confidence and activism of these members in the workplace.

Branch campaigningOver the last 12 months, NSW Branches have engaged members in numerous campaigns on and off campus. Members, students and local community have taken action in support of our industrial and political goals, and worked to support other union and community campaigns.

We are incredibly impressed by all of this work, but particular mention must go to the SCU Branch’s Save Our Uni. Save Our Local Jobs. campaign. In response to financial troubles caused by a hostile management, NTEU members and supporters hit the corridors – and the streets – to talk with staff, students and community groups about why they needed to band together to protect local jobs.

The campaign resulted in an extraordinary wave of support from people in the com-munity, and brought campus NTEU mem-bership and activism to an all time high.


We have continued to work to improve our structures and systems in support of an organising and campaigning model of unionism. This has included undertaking coordinated activity to identify and mentor new workplace leaders in Branches, improving our cases/issues management system, developing and maintaining high-level relationships with other unions and community groups, and supporting development opportunities for NTEU staff.

A crucial development in the last 12 months has been the creation of an Industrial Organiser position to work building our strength with members in private providers and research institutes. This activity will be vital for future important campaigns to protect conditions across higher education and support workers in emerging areas.

In NSW we are very proud of the staff who have worked with us over the last 12 months to strengthen our union. Our current staff are from diverse backgrounds: university workers, community activists, political campaigners and staff from other unions. Along with Branch Committee members and our activists, they bring a wealth of knowledge and tireless passion to their roles, and we want to acknowledge their hard work and dedication.•nteu.org.au/nsw

Queensland Division


The Queensland Division represents over 3,700 members at eight Queensland public universities: University of Queensland, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology, James Cook University (JCU), Central Queensland University, University of Southern Queensland (USQ), University of the Sunshine Coast (SC) and the Brisbane campus of the Australian Catholic University (ACU).The Division also has members at Bond University and various private providers of higher education across the state.


Six of the seven public universities have Round 6 Enterprise Agreements in place. These are being implemented through:

• The joint management-union consultative committees which are required by our Agreements (and other specialised committees such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment committees.

• An education and training program for educating members about their rights and entitlements, provided through workplace workshops and university- specific factsheets.

• Enforcement of entitlements and conditions through the Fair Work Commission and the Federal Court.

Bargaining is still under way at the University of the Sunshine Coast due to a dispute over the application of the Academic Workloads clause.


The Division was involved in the campaign to defeat the Federal Government’s higher education bill. Members met with and lobbied local MHRs and the Queensland crossbench Senators. Independent (formerly PUP) Senator Glenn Lazarus, and Greens Senator Larissa Waters, both voted against the legislation when it was presented to the Senate. Indeed, Senator Lazarus has become one of the legislation’s key informed critics. The campaign on the ground generated excellent member participation and provided an excellent platform for collaboration with student unions.

On the state front, the Union contributed significantly to the Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) campaign to oust the Newman LNP government. Most of the contribution was in kind, through the efforts of organising staff and members with QCU rallies, doorknocking, election stalls, and a small financial contribution to the QCU ‘put the LNP last’ advertising campaign. The defeat of the Newman LNP Government and the election of the Palaszczuk Labor Government is a great fillip for the labour movement in Queensland and NTEU members played their part.

Qld Division Secretary is Michael McNally.Division President is Carolyn Cope, Division Vice-Presidents are Bill Blayney (Academic) and Brad Astbury (General).Staff are Barb Williams (Division Organiser), Lachlan Hurse (State Organiser), Noeline Rudland, Bill Danby, Cathy Grant, Christian O’Callaghan (Division Industrial Officers), Phil Mairu (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Officer), Narelle Maxton, Angela Scheers, Dan Coughlan, David Szumer, Ivan Phillips, Peter Whalley-Thompson, Stewart de Lacy-Leacey (Branch Organisers) and Max Chandler-Mather (Research Recruitment Project Officer).

Images (L–R): NTEU members at the annual May Day rally, 2015; Member John Quiggan showing support for our No $100,000 Degrees campaign; Griffith members raising funds for Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA for victims of Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu; Handing out ‘The unAustralian’, October 2015.

Top: State election rally, Jan 2015.


The Palaszczuk Government has acknowledged the role of the QCU, the unions and the labour movement in their election (they struggled to campaign effectively with only 9 members in parliament), and has been working collaboratively with the QCU and unions since February.


Membership has been steady over the 2014–15 Financial Year. The departure of members over and above the demographic aging of our membership profile can be partly explained by significant Voluntary Early Retirement schemes and restructuring, most notably at James Cook University. Other factors include the ‘churn’ both between universities and into and out of the university sector. The casualisation of the workforce continues to be a significant challenge.

On the positive side the Division recruited 830 members during the financial year, almost totally replacing the departures.

In terms of member development, the education and training program for members has begun to deliver a cohort of trained activists who are able to assist fellow members with low-level industrial issues in the workplace. The implementation workshops are assisting members to assert their rights within the workplace and the Division has been focused on raising the visibility of the NTEU, particularly in connection with everyday business of universities. This is part of a ‘normalising’ process to embed the Union as part of the everyday, normal

business of universities and the lives of university staff.

Strengthening of NTEU structures and systems

2014 saw the election of a new Division Secretary. This was the first such contested election in the state and roughly 30% of the eligible members cast a vote. This is quite high in union election terms and shows that members are engaged in the democracy of their union.

The elected representation structures of the Division were improved in 2014–15 with the reinvigoration of Branch Committees at Griffith University and the University of the Sunshine Coast.

Support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members and elected representatives has been improved through the Walking to a Different Drum project, which has led to the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Officer position within the Division.

The structure of delegates and activists which supports much of the organising and communication work of the Union is being reinvigorated. The focus of organising staff in 2015 has been on the identification of new activists, the provision of training through the education and training program and the regularisation of contact and activities with delegates and activists. This fits with the campaigning focus which is on the upcoming federal election. •nteu.org.au/qld

SA Division


The South Australian (SA) Division represents nearly 2,200 members at three SA public universities: University of Adelaide, University of South Australia (UniSA) and Flinders University.The Division also has members at various private providers of higher education across the state.


Analysis of the Enterprise Agreement (EA) process in South Australia during the Round 6 negotiations gave rise to patterns and results unlike previous rounds.

Traditionally SA negotiations have been protracted; 18 months to 2 years depending on when one starts the stop watch. The sequence of EA completions has normally followed the pattern of University of Adelaide first followed by the University of South Australia (UniSA) and then Flinders University. This most recent round of bargaining saw UniSA finish first, then Flinders and Adelaide last. This was despite a very good on the ground campaign from the Adelaide Branch.

All Agreements in SA are single Agreements covering both professional and academic staff.

Round 6 was characterised by a significant decrease in the time taken to complete agreements. This is particularly noticeable if we take the bargaining period to cover that period from when bargaining com-

mences (actual meetings) to the conclusion of the ballot on the final agreement. On all measures, a reduction in the time taken to complete agreements was made against the previous round. Despite a reduction in the bargaining period, data gathered by the Di-vision still indicates the membership would prefer a more expedient, shorter, process.

Two of the three Branches (Adelaide and Flinders) enabled protected industrial action (PIA) via a ballot. The UniSA Branch did not instigate PIA and completed within 12 months from logging claims to approval of the Agreement.

The UniSA Branch could also be measured as completing within 6 months if calculating from the start of bargaining meetings to in principle agreement.

Flinders Branch enabled PIA and did not need to take it and Adelaide enabled and took all industrial action available to it in order to reach an Agreement and completed last in SA.

Voting on the approval of Agreements varied. One Branch had 50% more staff vote on the agreement (yes vote) than it had as members. Another Branch had approximately the same number of University staff vote on the Agreement as it had members. It is of note that UniSA offered a significant pay rise that was contingent upon a longer agreement and expiry date.

Due to the late expiry dates of their previous Agreements, SA universities did not complete bargaining until mid to late 2014. While it is easy to identify the gains made it has been more difficult to ascertain the progress of implementation at some Branches.

SA Division Secretary is Kevin Rouse.Division President is Ronald Slee, Division Vice-Presidents are Rod Crewther (Academic) and Peter Cardwell (General). Division Assistant Secretary is Julie Hayford.Division staff are Anne Buchecker, Kathy Harrington, Cheryl Baldwin (Division Industrial Officers), John Kirkham, John Pezy, Juliet Fuller and Katherine Gale (Branch Organisers), Karen Mollaj (Enrolment Officer) and Donna Good (Admin Officer).

Images (L–R): Kevin Rouse at the rally presenting Education MInister Christopher Pyne with his outstanding HECS debt; ‘The Fixer’ cartoon; SA Division posters declaring 2 years is too long for bargaining negotiations; The 2nd annual Adelaide Bluestokcing Week dinner.

Top: Handing out ‘The unAustralian’, October 2014.



South Australia is ‘privileged’ to have the Federal Minister for Education and Training, Christophe Pyne, within its borders. This has provided a number of opportunities to attract media attention around higher education issues. One such event in 2014 was a rally at Mr Pyne’s electoral office in the seat of Sturt. This gained good local media attention highlighting that the Minister owed the tax office $80,600 for his own in HECS debt.

The SA Division has performed an electoral analysis and developed a campaign plan with a focus on the seat of Sturt. It forms part of the wider NTEU strategy centred on the forthcoming federal election. The Division is of the view that the Ministers’ unfair and unpopular higher education

reforms provide a sound platform for a targeted campaign effort in the seat of Sturt commencing in September 2015. Furthermore Mr Pyne is deserving of our attention.

The Division is planning a campaign in the seat of Sturt during September 2015.


Membership growth in SA has continued to be strong; however, net growth has plateaued. This is due to the significant financial rewards offered to academic staff to retire. Given the membership attrition, SA would have experienced a serious membership decline had recruitment specific staff not been employed. In SA

we commenced using recruiters (Growth Organisers) in September 2011 and continue to do so.

While there has been no net membership growth from July 2014 to July 2015, net growth from August 2011 to July 2015 is 11 per cent. This longer term upward trend coincides with the introduction of Growth Organisers roles by the NTEU.

Delegate development has also been significant in SA although it has come off a very low base in terms of raw numbers. Training has occurred each year since 2011 with a minimum of 12 attendees at each session. The Division Work Plan has set an aspirational delegate target of 5% of the membership at each Branch.


• Governance and financial management: Elected Officials have attended NTEU governance training and two signatories are required to authorise Branch and Division expenditures.

• Memtrack has been implemented in SA to identify and follow up both un-financial members and to track the delivery of welcome packs to new members. This is reported on by staff each fortnight.

• Casetrak has been implemented in 2014 to archive data related to individual cases and disputes at all SA Branches.

• Branches and Division have kept expenditure within the projected allocated budgets. •

nteu.org.au/sa

STFs A&TSI employment

Professional staff claim

Academic workloads

Adelaide Target 30

Appointed 3

Current 39

Target 45

Scholarships p/a:Current 50 Target 40

Staff secondment register not yet established.

Models to be created and compliant by the end of 2015.

UniSA Target 40

Appointed 91

Current 33

Target 52

Staff secondment register is opera-tional.

Workload models have been submitted to NTEU and are undergoing EA compliance review.

Flinders Target 10

Appointed 1

Current 45

Target 60

$97,000 of a $350,000 staff de-velopment fund has been spent.

3 schools are currently being reviewed by the University post NTEU compliance review.

SA total Target 80

Appointed 95

Current 117

Target 157

Tasmanian Division


The Tasmanian Division represents nearly 630 members at the University of Tasmania (UTAS).Another busy year for the Tasmanian Division. Some of the most fun we had were in creating posters protesting the priorities that University of Tasmania management seemed to be applying to spending money. See the ‘yacht’ and ‘deck’ posters below, which poked fun, respectively, at UTAS sponsorship of a Sydney-Hobart yacht and the construction of a balcony as part of a building refurbishment reputedly for the Vice-Chancellor to entertain dignitaries.


The Division created and disseminated a series of fact sheets, as listed below.

• Aug 2014 - Academic Workloads• Sep 2014 - Casual Academic Employment• Jan 2015 - Change Management• Mar 2015 - Overtime and TOIL for

Professional Staff• Apr 2015 – Redistribution of the fact sheet

on academic workloads.In addition, we ran a series of workshops to highlight aspects of the Staff Agreement and to improve members’ knowledge in key areas. In particular, we presented sessions on job security (Hobart 4 Dec 2014; Launceston 13 Apr 2015), on academic workload (Hobart 8/9 Dec 2014; Launceston 10/11 Dec 2014), and on casual employment rights (Burnie 18 May 2015; Launceston 18/19 May 2015; Hobart 20/21

May 2015). All of these workshops were successful in attracting and activating members.

Representatives of the Division met with University management (3 Jul 2014) to discuss review and conversion of fixed-term staff at UTAS, which was offered as an adjunct to the formal Staff Agreement. Movement has continued to be very slow. We have prioritised organiser meetings for sites with high concentrations of fixed-term contract staff.

In April 2015 the Division backed a member who had been accused of breaching UTAS policy by sending a letter to a Tasmanian newspaper which was critical of the sitting MP in Bass. Our actions provided strong and public support of Academic Freedom.

The current University of Tasmania Staff Agreement established a senior Indigenous position in the form of a Pro Vice-Chancellor Aboriginal Research and Leadership. Long time NTEU active member Professor Maggie Walter was appointed to this role in September 2014. Initially, we sought to support Professor Walter to work from the ‘inside’ to drive implementation of the relevant clauses of the Staff Agreement. However, the passage of time saw little progress. The Division’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Forum in May 2015 discussed the situation, and shortly thereafter a formal letter was sent to elicit a response on progress from University management.


The Division ran a series of member meetings in October 2014 to discuss a range of issues, including HERRA Bill

Tas Division Secretary is Kelvin Michael.Division President is Anthony Beckett.Division staff are Miranda Jamieson (Division Industrial Officer), Shannon Harwood and Deborah Wilson (Division Organisers) and Emma Gill (Growth Team Organiser).

Images (L–R): March in March, Hobart 2015; Tas Division ‘Priorities’ posters; Delegate training, June 2015; Member Steve Miller speaking to a student rally.

Top: NTEU Insecure Work Conference, Hobart, Dec 2014.

Priorities:

Staff cuts for the VC’s new deck?

The only union for all university staff. Join today at nteu.org.au/join

NTEU Tasmanian Division, Room G09, TUU Building, Ph 6226 7575


developments and implications for job security. In November 2014, Hobart hosted the successful NTEU National Insecure Work Conference, which included an evening public forum on insecure work in Tasmania. The issues covered in the conference were built upon in workshops on job security run for insecurely-employed members.

We continued to work in cooperation with the National Union of Students (NUS) and the local Tasmanian University Union (TUU) by promoting NUS National Day of Action rallies to our membership and also providing speakers for student rallies.

In August 2014 we had an initial meeting with Jacqui Lambie (Independent Senator Tasmania) to discuss her avowed opposition to the HERRA Bill. Over time, Senator Lambie has emerged as a trenchant critic of deregulation and privatisation. We have remained in regular contact with Jacqui, as well as other political figures, including Andrew Wilkie (Federal MP for Denison) and Peter Whish-Wilson (Greens Senator Tasmania).


In terms of recruitment and retention strategies and outcomes, the Division commenced the mapping of buildings in a geographical manner. We have also compiled lists of non-members by trawling the University staff lists which are available via the web. We ran a membership promotion in March 2015 which produced 21 new members for the month.

In addition, the Division utilised the pay rise in the middle of the 2014 year to

support a series of site visits by organisers, both in traditionally visited areas and in areas that are visited less regularly. They distributed small bowls of chocolate coins to highlight ‘more money in your pocket’ as a result of the Union won payrise, and this was a focus on increasing numbers of organising/recruitment conversations rather than just mailouts to members.

Higher than normal levels of attrition over the past year has led to a need to place greater emphasis on the follow-up of unfinancial and resigned members to boost retention.

Over the 2014/2015 year, the total membership has stayed flat, but a 3% decrease in academic members was compensated by 3% growth in professional (general) members.


In April 2015, the Division created a closed Facebook page to allow invited participants (i.e. NTEU members) to communicate and share information about issues at the University of Tasmania. Membership has grown steadily via word of mouth and opt-in to a current 24 members.

The Division stepped up its efforts around Bluestocking Week in August 2014, through active encouragement and facilitation of attendance and participation by members and staff representatives at BSW events, including the Unions Tasmania Women’s Conference. Also, in September 2014 the Division promoted Equal Pay Day and associated gender equity issues.

In 2015, the Division formed a Women’s

Working Party to plan and execute Bluestocking Week 2015 events, leading to a series of Stitch’n’Bitch meetings to bring activists together for the purpose of knitting squares – ultimately to be combined into a blanket for a women’s shelter.

In other initiatives, we ran a Health and Wellbeing Workshop for members in Launceston in April 2015. •nteu.org.au/tas

Victorian Division


The Victorian Division represents over 9,300 members at nine public universities: Deakin University, Federation University Australia, La Trobe University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, RMIT University, Swinburne University and Victoria University and the Melbourne and Ballarat campuses of Australian Catholic University. The Division also has members at TAFE, Adult and Community Education, Navitas, research institutes, and various other private providers of higher education across the state.


Given the difficult political context in which Round 6 agreements were negotiated, the results at most Branches were good. There was little loss of conditions and good gains in the areas of casual work, domestic violence leave and pay. Improvements to workload management processes were incremental, as were improvements to targets for the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff.

Implementation work is continuing, especially around Scholarly Teaching Fellows and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clauses. In general, the NTEU

needs to spend more resources and effort on the enforcement of agreements as part of a general improvement in the use of strategic litigation aimed at strengthening union and worker power in the workplace. New approaches to organising and campaigning will be introduced over the coming year to facilitate these improvements.

Round 6 was perhaps the most difficult round of bargaining experienced to date, with increasing management aggression and collaboration, in the shadow of budget cuts and a Federal government intent on an agenda of privatisation and cuts. Industrial action is proving more difficult, and the sector nationally experienced more anti-union activity by management than previously, including in the form of non-union ballots.

Not necessarily always directly related to bargaining, the Victorian Division engaged in several Fair Work Commission and Federal Court actions over the past year, with substantial success, especially in the Federal Court. Overturning the Swinburne University EBA approval by the Commission was of outstanding importance to the Union and to the union movement. The successful prosecution of Swinburne for adverse action was also important. Other important cases to do with the interpretation of redundancy clauses included one at Victorian University (a successful outcome) and one in the Federal Court in relation to La Trobe University (outcome still pending at time of writing).

The Victorian Division has also had substantial bargaining taking place in the non-university sector, including at Navitas

Vic Division Secretary is Colin Long.Division President is Philippa Wells , Division Vice-Presidents are Mark Schier (Academic) and Katrina Fleming (General).Division staff are Josh Cullinan (Senior Industrial Officer), Kate Wiggins (Senior State Organiser), Clare Danaher, Elizabeth McGrath, Gia Underwood, Michael Bjork-Billings, Rhidian Thomas and Stan Rosenthal (Division Industrial Officers), Margaret Maloney (National Industrial Officer), Corey Rabaut and David Willis (Division Organisers), Anna Gunn, Garry Ryan, Linda Cargill, Lisbeth Latham, Liz Schroeder, Rebecca Muratore, Russel Baader, Serena O’Meley, Steve Horton (Branch Industrial Organisers), Toby Cotton (Campaigns & Communications Officer), Janet Bourke (Division Industrial Organiser), Hayden Jones and Sam Maynard (Branch Organisers), Dustin Halse (Recruitment & Campaign Organiser), Adrienne Bradley (Admin Coordinator/Executive Support) and Ken Norling (Admin Officer - Industrial Support).

Images (L–R): VU Open Day, Sept 2014; Colin Long supporting the Dunkley doornock, Sept 2015; Delegates conference and launch of Defend Our Uni campaign, July 2015.

Top: La Trobe members meeting.


Bundoora (La Trobe Melbourne), where a very good Agreement was achieved, and in TAFE. At the stand-alone TAFEs, the NTEU is bargaining for PACCT staff and staff teaching in higher education programmes. The Victorian Government has recently announced that it will facilitate the negotiation of a Multi-Employer Agreement for teaching staff – the NTEU intends to participate in these negotiations.


The Victorian Division experience of the Victorian Coalition Government’s TAFE cuts has made us particularly concerned about the Abbott Government’s proposals for higher education, proposals that closely follow the model imposed in Victorian TAFE with devastating results.

The Division is working closely with the Victorian Trades Hall Council on a campaign to defeat the Pyne bills and the Abbott Government. This involves concerted activity in four marginal seats – Corangamite, Deakin, Latrobe and Dunkley – as well as activities at all universities, including handing out leaflets at Open Days. Most Branches have hosted screenings of the US documentary, Ivory Tower, alerting Australians to the risk of high student indebtedness.

The Victorian Division also participated in the Trades Hall Council’s campaign against the Victorian Coalition Government in 2014, with great success.

Other public advocacy activities of the Division:

• Submitted to the Victorian Government’s review into TAFE funding

• Successfully lobbied the new Victorian Government to reinstate elected staff and student representatives to University Councils and TAFE boards.

• Member of the Victorian Government’s Ministerial roundtable on International Education

• Member of the National and Victorian Organising Committees for the People’s Climate March

• Ongoing support to refugee rights movement

• Member of the global advisory group for Trade Unions for Energy Democracy

• Participated in the Trade Union Climate Summit in New York in July.

• Continued support for Earthworker Cooperative

• Member of Education for Sustainability• Support for Bangladeshi garment

workers through Australia Bangladesh Solidarity Network.

• Continued membership and Executive membership of Australia Asia Workers Links.


Membership levels dropped year-on-year, to a large extent because of substantial job losses in the sector. The level of recruitment has slowed.

Nonetheless, improvements in delegate identification and training have been made and good growth in membership is taking place in areas where the Union is active and visible. Much work has been done in trying to get members engaged in broader campaigns, such as to defeat the HERRA

Bill, with varying success. There is no doubt that a stronger sense of union engagement needs to be developed amongst members in general.


Improved training at all levels of the Union has been one of the highlights of the year, with a strong emphasis on governance and delegates. The NTEU’s impeccable record of governance and integrity is a tribute to our members, staff and structures. •nteu.org.au/vic

WA Division


The Western Australian (WA) Division represents nearly 2,400 members at the four WA public universities: University of Western Australia (UWA), Murdoch University, Edith Cowan University (ECU) and Curtin University and the University of Notre Dame Australia. The Division also has members at Navitas and some private collegesThe past twelve months have been a period of change for the WA Division. From a new home for the Division, new vice-chancellors and acting ones, new staff, constant workplace change for our members and a new strategy for prioritising our work, the year has been anything but constant.

In December 2014 we finally opened our new office in Subiaco. After many years, the WA Division is now housed in appropriate accommodation and we have a workspace that encourages good work. A key part of the new office is a meeting room that seats 30 in boardroom configuration that we loan to not for profit organisations. We hope that eventually the NTEU offices will become a common meeting area for like-minded community organisations.

On the less positive side of change the WA Division has suffered almost continual staff dislocation in 2015 including many months in which we were significantly under-staffed. This has severely impacted on our

capacity to engage in the sort of proactive campaigning that we need to undertake to maintain our profile, to demonstrate our relevance, but more importantly to make a difference.


At our four largest Branches we have been focused on a program of implementation and now, as bargaining looms again for us in March 2016, on preparation for the new round. Bargaining teams are in place and Branches have identified provisions in current agreements that we need to target for improvement.

This year the WA Division has successfully negotiated new collective agreements at the UWA, ECU and Murdoch Student Guilds and for the English Language Teachers at UWA (not yet certified at time of writing). Good pay rises and new and better entitlements were achieved for all. The end date of the ELICOS Agreement at UWA has been synchronised to allow for incorporation into a single Agreement next year.

Bargaining has also commenced at Notre Dame where we seek to consolidate the improvements we made to staff working conditions in the first collective Agreement, as well as incorporate meaningful regulation of academic workloads and commitments to general and professional staff careers.

Industrial Case work and strategies

The Industrial case load continues to escalate as the universities become more

WA Division Secretary is Gabe Gooding.Division President is Stuart Bunt, Division Vice-President is Ute Mueller. Division Assistant Secretaries are Robert Cunningham (Academic) and William Wilson (General).Division staff are Amy Talbot and Marty Braithwaite (Senior State Organisers), Donna Shepherdson, Alex Cousner (Division Industrial Officers), Glenn Walsh (Division Industrial Organiser/Officer), Tom Stewart (Division Industrial Organiser), Beth Cole, Eileen Glynn, Jayne van Dalen and Ryan Costello (Branch Organisers)

Images (L–R): Members at the May Day rally in Perth, May 2015; NTEU marching livery; Image for entry window of the new Division office.

Top: WA delegates at National Council, Melbourne, Oct 2014.


committed to using formal misconduct and performance procedures as a first resort, and as more workplaces develop an entrenched culture of bullying.

The Division has adopted a policy of prioritising work that builds union power and influence and has strategic applications. If the work is necessary member representation we determine a desired and achievable outcome and determine the resource commitment prior to commencing. By doing this we seek to ensure that we make the best possible use of Union resources to maximise our growth, power and influence in the sector and beyond.

We have had many significant wins in 2015 but the biggest case was probably that conducted for the Dental Clinical Assistants (DCAs) at UWA. UWA sought to remove a ‘retention allowance’ and market loadings that were being paid to the DCAs. On investigation it became clear that those payments that had been paid for the past twelve years was used to mask the fact that the lower level DCAs were under classified. After intervention by the NTEU, members agreed to accept a settlement that saw all Level 2s reclassified to Level 3, and all Level 3s reclassified to Level 4 with some back-pay.

DCAs at higher levels retained the allowance where it was specified in their contracts. Thus what started out as an exercise to remove an allowance to save $180,000 pa from the budget has ended up with a settlement that across the salary horizon of the employees, will result in the payment of $600,000 in higher wages for 50 FTE staff thanks to NTEU.


Just as change seems to be a constant in the life of the WA Division so it is in the sector with all Branches undergoing significant change management processes on a rolling basis. In each of these processes we lose long standing members. Despite steady recruitment, membership in the Division continues to decline. This has been exacerbated by the inability to secure a stable Growth Team presence in the State, which culminated in withdrawal of the program in April this year. Recruitment is a key priority for all WA Branches, and when back to full staffing we hope to see a turn-around in the trend.

Campaigns and social media

We have increased our commitment to the use of social media as a tool for public advocacy.

Accountability issues have been at the forefront at Murdoch where the VC was referred to the Corruption and Crime Commission, and at UWA where the University apparently ignored all due process and accepted a deal to host the Lomborg Australian Consensus Centre. These were issues where Social Media played a pivotal role in NTEU’s public involvement.

The attempt by the State Government and the four public universities to not just undermine staff and student representation in governance matters but also to fundamentally alter the purpose of the institutions are changes that we are gearing up to fight vigorously along with NUS. FOI requests and appeal processes

have put the universities on notice that what they thought could be a secret process of negotiation to change their Acts of Parliament has not gone unnoticed and will not go unchallenged.

Proactively the Division is focused on securing better conditions for members in insecure work, starting initially with engagement with research staff on fixed term contracts; and more broadly for fixed term staff where we are seeking to stamp out abuse of the fixed term categories; and of course we look towards the Federal election campaign and increasing our activity around the public policy issues.

While we accept that change is a constant, we hope that the coming year, while full of challenges, contains just a little less change for the Division and we have an opportunity to consolidate on the work we have done so far. •nteu.org.au/wa

NT Division


The NT Division represents nearly 350 members at Charles Darwin University (CDU) and Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE), as well as the Central Australian Remote Health Development Service and the Menzies School of Health Research.


Implementation of the CDU agreement commenced during 2014–2015. Three monthly Joint University Union Consultative Group meetings were conducted. The main topics for discussion included the General Staff Mobility Register, Dirty Work Allowance, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander employment, Early Career Development Fellowships, casual employment, university procedures, non-attendance time, review of position descriptions and maternity leave funding.

Overall progress on the implementation of mandatory settlement points has been steady. Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander employment targets were set at 80 and have increased from 30 to 50 FTEs. The establishment of an advisory group, including university and union representation, has not occurred.

CDU fell below the casual rate needed to proceed with the Scholarly Teaching Fellows claim. However, the CDU Agreement makes provision for Early Career Development Fellowships targeted

at casual staff. Eight of these positions are outstanding from the previous Agreement and only one out of eight positions have been filled during this Agreement. The University is formulating a plan for implementation in the second half of 2015. A General Staff Mobility Register has been established with some limited success.

The BIITE Agreement progressed well during 2014–2015 and is going through its final stages before submission. Bargaining at Menzies is about to commence. Membership has increased but is still low.


The Division tried to assist with campaigns as determined by the National Office but efforts were limited by time constraints of Officers. Activities included a stall at the CDU open day and a breezeway activity.


The delegate network expanded slightly during 2013–2014. The Division held month-ly delegate meetings and some delegates took advantage of the training offered by National Office, as did Elected Officers.

The NT Division ran several events during 2014–2015. These included a Bluestocking Week morning tea, a general staff event, an NT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Forum and an art show which incorporated an acknowledgement of the contribution made by life member Janie Mason.

Recruitment of new members continued and membership is at all time high. Local recruitment efforts were supported by several visits by the national recruiters, pay rise leaflets and mail outs from National Office. The NT Division performed financially above set targets.

An MOU was negotiated with the NT Branch of the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation (ANMF) which proved very popular with members.


Division developed a series of fact sheets to guide members through common topics of enquiry. A survey of general staff in con-junction with the general staff event will inform further fact sheets. A publications group was established and general newslet-ters were irregularly circulated. •nteu.org.au/nt

NT Division Secretary is Lolita Wikander.Division President is Darius Pfitzner, Division Vice-Presidents are Susan Bandias (Academic) and Sevastoula Klonaris (General).Staff is Heinz Schmitt (Division Industrial Officer).

Budget Report


The NTEU budget cycle is a complex process which must take account of total assets of $26 million, annual revenues of $21 million and the employment of over 120 staff.

The National Finance Unit oversees this process through the centralised collection and distribution of members’ fee income, budget setting and the preparation of income and expenditure statements for all levels of the Union.

Financial probity and the responsible management of members’ funds is central to the Unit’s work, with each level of the Union being required to account directly for each expenditure transactions with three separate levels of authorisation and review.

Key highlights for the last financial year are set out in the chart and table below, and include:

• An operating deficit of $440,000 (or around 2.1 per cent).

• Income lower than expected by $470,000. • Expenditure under by $380,000. NTEU will publish Audited Financial State-ments later in calendar year 2015 in line with Fair Work Australia regulations. •nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/finance

• National financial management

• Operating results

The Finance Unit is coordinated by Glenn Osmand (Finance Manager).Staff are Gracia Ho (Senior Finance Officer), Alex Ghvaladze, Tamara Labadze, Lee Powell and Daphne Zhang (Finance Officers).The Unit reports directly to the General Secretary.

Key activities:

DefenceAllocation

Fund 3%

LeaveProvision

3%

Discretionary10%

Operating13%

Salaries andOn Costs

71%

Expense Allocation 2014-2015

Summary of 2013-2014 Income and Expenditure - Actual vs Budget

Budget 2014–15 (adopted Nov 2014)

Actual Surplus/(Deficit) June 2015

INCOME

Membership Fees 20.21 19.58

Resource Adjustment 0.74 0.79

Other Income 0.14 0.25

21.09 20.62

EXPENDITURE

Salaries & On Costs 14.43 14.28

Leave Provision 0.60 0.60

Operating 2.67 2.72

Discretionary 2.32 1.98

Defence Fund Allocation 0.61 0.61

20.63 20.19

PROVISIONAL SURPLUS/DEFICIT 0.46 0.43

Surplus/Deficit b/fwd 0.07 0.07

Operating Result-Surplus/Deficit 0.53 0.50

GROWTH TEAM

Growth Team Expenses -0.88 -0.94

FINAL RESULT Surplus/Deficit -0.35 -0.44

nteu.org.au/annualreport

NTEU Annual Report 2015

Documents