Enterprise bargaining update

Dear colleagues,

Enterprise bargaining negotiations continue to make positive progress towards an Enterprise Agreement that reflects our vision for the future of our workforce.

At the Enterprise Bargaining meeting held on 10 September 2013, the following matters were discussed:

• Categories of Employment

Bargaining representatives discussed the principles that would be appropriate for obtaining the right balance between continuing, contingent, fixed-term and casual employment.  Achieving this balance can be challenging considering it is dependent on budget constraints but once it is achieved it can provide the University with sufficient flexibility to meet its changing needs.

• Academic Workload

An approach was agreed to allow discussion of the Academic Workload clause to progress more quickly.  Parallel discussions will take place in a working party drawn from the Academic Staff Consultative Committee and the outcomes of these discussions will be referred back to the bargaining group for consideration.

• Claims tabled by Union representatives

Union representatives tabled claims related to various aspects of Redundancy, Conversion to Continuing Employment and Organisational Change.  Bargaining representatives undertook to consider the claims and bring back a response to future Enterprise Bargaining meetings.

• Part B – (Performance and Conduct) of the 2010 Enterprise Agreements

Bargaining representatives made further progress in the negotiations related to part B (Performance and Conduct) of the 2010 Enterprise Agreements and agreed to the following draft clauses proposed by the University:

Staff Reports (Professional Staff)
Incremental Progression (Professional Staff)
Performance of Duties (Professional Staff)
Staff Supervision (Teachers)

Further discussion will take place in future Enterprise Bargaining meetings relating to the following clauses:

Managing Staff Workload (Professional Staff) (Teachers)
Probation (Professional Staff) (Teachers) (Academic Staff)
Promotion (Academic Staff)

• Priorities for future meetings

In the interest of continuing to make progress, priorities established for discussion at future meetings include:

We will continue to provide further updates throughout the Enterprise Bargaining process.

The University Enterprise Bargaining Team:

Andrew Parfitt
John Germov
Tina Crawford
Paul Munro
Greg Kerr