2013 Enterprise Bargaining

All staff recently received an email or a letter from the Acting Director Human Resources, Tina Crawford, giving formal notification that the University is again about to begin the enterprise bargaining process, since the current Enterprise Agreements reach their nominal expiry date on 30 June 2013. 

The Agreements will still continue to apply after that date, so the terms and conditions of employment for staff will continue to be underpinned by the current Agreements until new Agreements are made and approved by the Fair Work Commission.

The University, like all employers who are starting enterprise bargaining, is legally required by the Fair Work Act to give all employees a Notice of Employee Representational Rights which informs staff that they are entitled to be represented (or represent themselves) in the bargaining process (such people are described as "bargaining representatives").  Under the Act, the Notice must be in the form that was sent to you.  It explains what your representation options are.  The notice also explains the particular arrangements that apply to the recognition of unions as bargaining representatives.

If you are uncertain what the notice means for you, you are welcome to contact Jackie Fox (4921 8651) or Greg Kerr (4921 5399), who are members of the Employee Relations team.

The University bargaining team, led by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor Andrew Parfitt, has held a preliminary meeting with representatives from the Community & Public Sector Union (CPSU) and the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) to discuss arrangements for the bargaining process, including frequency and length of meetings, how the meetings will be run, arrangements for representatives to be released from their work to participate in the bargaining meetings and the necessary administrative arrangements to manage the process. 

Any staff who notify that they wish to represent themselves in bargaining and any bargaining representatives nominated by staff will be invited to future meetings.  Nominations need to be made on the "Notice of Appointment of Bargaining Representative 2013" form that you received with the Notice of Employee Representational Rights.  The form may also be found here.

From the University's point of view, the aim will be to make sure that the new Agreement(s) provide a secure and balanced platform of terms and conditions of employment that meet the needs of both the University and staff as far as possible and which will, in particular, support the realisation of the NeW Directions strategic plan and the Corporate Planning process that is currently underway so that our University can move forward and grow as it needs to.  

The University Bargaining Team will provide regular reports to all staff members as bargaining progresses.

There will also be further updates in In the Loop and information will also be posted on a special Enterprise Bargaining 2013 webpage (this can also be found via the Staff web page or the Employee Relations web page).