NTEU Annual Report 2019-2020

Annual Report 2019-2020 1

Contents NATIONAL UNITS Purpose & Structure......................3

NATIONAL OFFICERS

Alison Barnes, National President...6

Matthew McGowan, General Secretary.....8 Gabe Gooding, National Assistant Secretary...................10

NATIONAL GROUPS Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Caucus....................... 12

DIVISIONS

Industrial & Legal.......................... 20

ACT Division........... 34

Policy & Research................... 22

NSW Division......... 36

Organising, Campaigns & Communications.. 26

NT Division............. 38

Union Education... 30

Qld Division............ 40

Recruitment & Retention..................32

SA Division.............. 42

Budget & Finance......................33

Tasmanian Division.................... 44

Defence Fund Allocation 6% Discretionary 7% Operating 12%

Queer Unionists in Tertiary Education (QUTE)....................... 15

Branch & Division Salaries 55%

National Office Salaries 20%

Women’s Action Committee (WAC).........................16 NATIONAL TERTIARY

CASUALS COMMITTEE

Vic Division............. 46

National Tertiary Casuals Committee (NTCC).......................19

WA Division............ 48

NTEU Annual Report 2019–20, Report to the 2020 National Council Meeting ISSN 2652-3426 (Online)

Published by National Tertiary Education Union

ABN 38 579 396 344

Publisher: Matthew McGowan

Editor: Alison Barnes

Production: Paul Clifton

Editorial Assistance: Anastasia Kotaidis

Cover illustration by Sam Wallman. All text and images ©NTEU unless otherwise stated.

NTEU National Office, PO Box 1323, Sth Melbourne VIC 3205 phone: (03) 9254 1910

email: national@nteu.org.au

Available online at www.nteu.org.au/annual_report

Purpose & Structure National Executive 2019–20 National Officers National President Alison Barnes General Secretary Mattew McGowan National Asst Secretary Gabe Gooding Vice-Presidents Andrew Bonnell (Academic), Cathy Rojas (General)

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander member Shane Motlap (to Dec 2019), Sharlene Leroy-Dyer (from Feb 2020)

Division Secretaries ACT Cathy Day (Acting to Jan 2020) NSW Michael Thomson NT Rajeev Sharma

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.

• 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.

NTEU now proudly represents over 30,000 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.

nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us

Qld Michael McNally

Purpose of the Union

SA

WA Jonathan Hallett

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.

Ordinary Members

The primary objects of NTEU are to:

Ron Slee

Tas Kelvin Michael Vic Mel Slee

Steve Adams Melbourne Nikola Balnave Macquarie Damien Cahill NSW Div Asst Secretary Vince Caughley UTS Andrea Lamont-Mills USQ Virginia Mansel Lees La Trobe Catherine Moore ECU Nick Warner Adelaide

Image: Member selfies from the National Day of Action, May 2020.

• 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.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Purpose & Structure

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

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 are 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-driven 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-making body is a general meeting of members.

A Branch Committee comprising elected representatives of members governs the continued overpage...

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affairs of each Branch in between general meetings of members. Each Branch also elects National Councillors, who also constitute the Division Council. This mechanism ensures that each Branch is represented on the relevant State or Territory-based Division Council. nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/our_ structure National Council National Council consists of members directly elected from Branches (in proportion to the number of members at each Branch), three full time National Officers, the eight State and Territory-based Division 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.

In 2020, the National Council is to be conducted ‘virtually’ via Zoom due to the travel and other restrictions made necessary by the global pandemic. The National Council has also been split into two distinct sessions with the first to be held in late October and the second in December (the second meeting will be devoted only to consideration of policy and strategy related to the next round of bargaining commencing in 2021). nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/ national_council

National Executive

National Staff

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).

Director (Industrial & Legal): Wayne Cupido

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 10 ordinary members of the National Executive.

From these, National Council elects a VicePresident (Academic) and Vice-President (General Staff).

Industrial Support Officer: Renee Veal

As 2020 is an election year, a ballot would normally be conducted at National Council to elect the ordinary members of the National Executive, and subsequently the two VicePresidents. COVID-related delays mean that this election will not take place at the 2020 National Council but will occur sometime later. ◆ nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/ national_executive

Senior Legal Officer: Kelly Thomas National Industrial Officer (Research & Projects): Ken McAlpine National Industrial Officer: Campbell Smith Director (Policy & Research): Paul Kniest, Terri MacDonald (Acting Mar-July 2020) Policy & Research Officers: Terri MacDonald, Kieran McCarron National A&TSI Director: Adam Frogley National A&TSI Organiser: Celeste Liddle National Organiser (Media & Engagement): Michael Evans National Organiser (Publications): Paul Clifton Education & Training Organiser: Helena Spyrou Communications Organiser (Digital): Jake Wishart (from Dec 2019) Executive Manager: Peter Summers National Membership Officer: Melinda Valsorda ICT Network Engineer: Tam Vuong Database Programmer/Data Analyst: Uffan Saeed Payroll Administrator/HR Assistant: Jo Riley Manager, Office of General Secretary & President: Anastasia Kotaidis Executive Officer (Meeting & Events): Tracey Coster Administrative Officer (Membership & Campaigns): Julie Ann Veal Receptionist & Administrative Support: Leanne Foote Finance Manager: Glenn Osmand Senior Finance Officer: Gracia Ho Finance Officers: Alex Ghvaladze, Lee Powell, Tamara Labadze, Daphne Zhang

Images (this page & opposite page): WA Division’s separate, socially distanced campus signs for National Day of Action, May 2020.

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NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ PURPOSE & STRUCTURE

NTEU Structure

Branches

KEY Direct election by all members (includes certain designated Academic & General positions)

Branch Committee

Direct election by A&TSI members only Direct election by casual members only

2 YEAR TERM

Branch President Vice-President (Academic) Vice-President (General) Branch Secretary + Ordinary Members

2 YEAR TERM

Designated A&TSI position

2 YEAR TERM

Designated Casual position1

Elected from within relevant Council or Committee

NATIONAL TERTIARY

ALL NTEU MEMBERS

Divisions

CASUALS COMMITTEE NOTES

Division Executive2

4 YEAR TERM

Division Secretary 3

4 YEAR TERM

Division Assistant Secretary 4, 5

2 YEAR TERM

Division President Vice-President (Academic)5 Vice-President (General)5 + Ordinary Members

Division Council

1. Not all Branches have designated casual positions.

2. Division Executives only in NSW, Qld, Vic & WA. 3. No Division Secretary election in NT & Tas. 4. Division Assistant Secretary positions only in NSW, Vic & WA. 5. WA has two Division Assistant Secretaries (Academic & General) but only one Division Vice-President.

Designated A&TSI position

2 YEAR TERM

National

National Executive National President

4 YEAR TERM 4 YEAR TERM

General Secretary

4 YEAR TERM

National Assistant Secretary Division Secretaries (8)

2 YEAR TERM

National Council

2 YEAR TERM

A&TSI National Councillors (3)

2 YEAR TERM

Vice-President (Academic) Vice-President (General) + Ordinary Members (8) A&TSIPC Chair

2 YEAR TERM 2 YEAR TERM

National committees where membership is appointed via expressions of interest in each Division:

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 â—† PURPOSE & STRUCTURE

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Alison Barnes, National President Welcome to the 2020 NTEU Annual Report. This has been a year like no other for our sector and our Union.

Alison Barnes National President

At the time of writing 12,500 of our workmates, who should be teaching our students, developing theory and innovation or running the administrative functions of our universities, are standing in unemployment lines across the country. What’s more, 12,695 is a gross underestimate of the real numbers of staff across our sector who have lost work.

It does not capture those working for private education providers who bore the first wave of COVID-related job losses nor the many thousands of casuals who have silently been let go.

A number cannot begin to capture the human cost of unemployment: the financial and emotional strain unemployed workers endure. It doesn’t capture the story of people like Dash, employed for years on rolling contracts at a private provider but who is now permanently leaving the sector; nor members of our National Tertiary Casuals Committee (NTCC) who haven’t worked for months; nor Ali, a professional staff member at Macquarie, who is applying for a VR as her workload spirals beyond breaking point.

These job losses impact not only individuals but also undermine the ability of our universities to contribute to the economic reconstruction of Australia.

Image (this page): 2020 International Women’s Day march, Melbourne.

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That said, the value of higher education to our society should never be measured by economics alone; the contribution of universities to the rich fabric of our society must not be discounted. We are witnessing

increasing job losses among researchers employed on rolling contracts, undermining our nation’s intellectual capacity at the very moment we need to confront not only recession but the devastating impacts of climate change and global uncertainty.

COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll across our sector but, as our Blue Stocking Week demonstrated, it is women who have been particularly affected. Two-thirds of redundancies have been borne by professional and general staff, 64 per cent of whom are women.

Moreover, evidence is emerging that the publications output by women has suffered as a result of the double burden of managing work and life in lockdown. The longer-term impacts will be to make it harder for women to gain promotion and widen the gender pay gap.

The Federal Government, rather than valuing the contribution of our universities, has refused to throw the sector a life-line, thus undermining the sector’s ability to perform its core functions of teaching and research.

The Government has stood by as job losses swept our sector and, on three occasions, has denied our colleagues access to JobKeeper, thereby effectively severing the relationship between staff and their institutions.

The recent passage of the Higher Education Support Amendment Bill reshapes the architecture of the sector in a way that not only sees students pay higher fees but also provides staff with fewer resources. Yet again, the Government has attempted to reignite the culture wars.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Alison Barnes, National President

Our million-dollar Vice-Chancellors, who by-and-large have refused to advocate for their staff and students, are now incentivised to make staff and students bear the cost of the COVID-19 crisis. These are the same Vice-Chancellors we have had to fight for safe workplaces, for arrangements for staff to work from home, and for COVID-19 leave for all including casuals. These fights continue.

generations of students; and, importantly, the National Union of Students who campaigned alongside us. We pay tribute to students in Tasmania like Miranda, who addressed our rally and joined with us in speaking to Senator Jacqui Lambie about what it is like for working class kids from northern Tasmania who want to go to university.

Members across Australia in their many, many thousands petitioned, wrote letters, sent emails, attended snap actions and lobbied politicians to demonstrate their opposition to the Higher Education Amendment Bill, which the Government had erroneously labelled (in a nod more to marketing spin than real reform) their JobReady Graduates package.

Although the Government succeeded in passing their legislation by one Senator’s vote, we have not been deterred in the broader fight; and indeed, the Union has grown even stronger. The ongoing crisis in higher education forces us to continue to focus on last year’s National Council priorities of building our workplace structures, increasing our workplace density, and strengthening our power so that we are robust enough to overcome the challenges our sector faces.

NTEU members made 400 submissions when the Federal Government first sought to gag our voice by attempting to block a Senate inquiry and then vastly reduced the time available for submissions. Members made videos telling their stories, asked friends and family to write to crossbench MPs, and rallied outside Parliament House.

In South Australia and Tasmania, NTEU members were at the forefront of this struggle and helped to launch the moving billboard, and stood up to their ViceChancellors to pressure them to oppose the Bill. Our members nationwide, via their professional associations, sought to increase the chorus of people opposing the Bill and took to social media in their thousands to make the parliament and the public aware of their opposition to the Bill.

Image (this page): Fund Uni Fairly rally at ANU, Sept 2020; Social media graphics from the Fund Uni Fairly campaign.

2020 is an election year and we were anticipating meeting and welcoming new National Councillors. But, as with many things, face-to-face gatherings have been postponed and for the first time we will meet virtually. While our Council will be different and while we have faced an unanticipated crisis, the increase in membership and the commitment and defiance of our members encourages me to hope that, if we continue to stand together, to organise and to build our power, we will prevail. ◆

While NTEU members stood united, we did not stand alone. Our actions in defence of the sector ensured that the Australian Labor Party, the Greens, and Senators Patrick and Lambie stood by us. We had the support of peak unions bodies across the country who emailed their constituents and sought to amplify our message.

Our fellow unions joined with us: the Australian Services Union worked alongside us to highlight the impact on social work degrees; the Australian Education Union, whose members lobbied and wrote to MPs to highlight the impact of the Bill on future NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Alison Barnes, National President

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Matthew McGowan, General Secretary The past 12 months have been unlike anything experienced by our union, and deeply painful for our members and the sector.

Matthew McGowan General Secretary

COVID-19 hit the higher education sector early and very hard, and the grim warnings about the impact of the loss of the international student market have played out as predicted. As hard hit as we have been by the global pandemic, the failure of the Federal Government to support higher education has almost been as devastating a blow.

In facing into this challenge, the Union has found strength – inspired and led by our incredible members.

NTEU members, delegates, elected officials and Branch committees have shown resilience and courage, and in their commitment to collectivism, they have supported each other and fought for the future of quality higher education.

Our staff and members have worked closely together to navigate through the harm caused by the pandemic, and our union purpose and vision has revealed the lack of leadership in so many university managements.

At this time of stress and pressure, we welcomed many new members into the Union, proving to all of us that we are stronger together, and that the role of unions is well understood in our community.

Images (this page): Jobs Protection Framework banner; Rachael Duncan (Melb) #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfie, 21 May 2020

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The Union will emerge stronger and more resilient from this crisis, and we have proved our mettle, even as managements and

government have failed us and the sector once again.

Impact on jobs and our sector.

The loss of jobs in our sector is not only a result of the havoc caused by COVID-19.

The lack of Federal Government support, and the decades of neglect of Australia’s higher education sector has compounded the damage done by the virus.

The financial impact of the collapse in international income on the sector is dramatic with an estimated loss of between $3.5 billion and $4.2 billion.

The Union had warned of the risk of overreliance on international student income for over two decades. This reliance has been encouraged by successive governments who have relied on the income to drive increased domestic access without commensurate increases in government funding. Our teaching and research became hostage to government objectives to increase participation whilst decreasing per capita expenditure.

It is cold comfort to those in the firing line to be proved right. It is the staff and students who will bear the cost of this folly.

Government has not only failed to provide adequate support to the sector, it has compounded the harm to staff and students through the Jobs Ready Package.

The Jobs Protection Framework In this gloomy climate, the Union has stood strong, and acted early. When it became clear how dramatic the damage was going to be, the Union sought to negotiate a Jobs

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Matthew McGowan, General Secretary

Protection Framework with University managements. The national framework was negotiated with the ability to be adjusted to reflect the circumstances of different institutions.

We sought to protect up to 10,000 jobs through collectively agreeing to cost saving measures in exchange for guarantees of financial transparency, management accountability, and limitations on how employers would act to reduce jobs.

Through Universities Australia (UA) and the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association (AHEIA), university managements nominated four VCs to negotiate the framework with the NTEU national leadership. After weeks of intensive negotiations, a historic agreement was reached. While contentious, the package was endorsed by 80% of NTEU National Council members. With four senior VCs at the table, we had reason to believe we were negotiating in good faith. As we all know now, the universities reneged on their agreement and walked away from the framework.

While those VCs who had signed the agreement remained committed, others worked to undermine it. There are many reasons for this, but responsibility for the collapse of the framework, and the consequential loss of thousands of jobs across the sector, must rest on the conscience of Chancellors and ViceChancellors across the country. I believe history will judge the current managements of our university sector very harshly.

Despite university managements walking away from the Framework, the NTEU has negotiated agreements at universities that have accepted the transparency, accountability and limitations on actions sought by the Union. Variations to the agreement have been negotiated and implemented with NTEU consent at Monash, La Trobe, UWA, QUT, WSU, UTas, Wollongong and Adelaide.

The NTEU has also won ballots against universities attempting unilateral unfair changes – at Melbourne, Curtin, Wollongong (leading to later negotiated outcomes), Southern Cross, Griffith, Curtin and Murdoch.

Staff at ANU and JCU have approved variations to their agreements that were opposed by the Union.

of the crisis. This initiative was both an offer to new members, but it also provided existing casual members relief from membership fees at this most perilous time.

we are hoping that the election process will resume again as soon as practical but some phases of the elections will probably not be completed until early 2021.

Sixty per cent of new members were from ongoing and contract staff who saw the Union as the only effective body working to protect their jobs. This assessment was confirmed in early results from the COVID-19 edition of the State of the Uni survey where 70% of NTEU members stated they were satisfied or very satisfied with Union efforts to protect jobs in the sector.

Only 15% expressed dissatisfaction. (It is interesting to note that 55% on non-union members expressed satisfaction and 15% dissatisfaction, but only 5% were unaware of any actions).

National Council, by electronic ballot, endorsed a change to the Union’s rules in May, in order to extend terms of office until new elections can be held, and to ensure continued proper operations during the pandemic. A further rule change is being presented to the Council to extend the special COVID-related election arrangements into 2021.

The challenge for the Union will come next financial year (2021/22) when the impact of job losses from across the sector flow through.

Union finances The Union is in a strong financial position, delivered by record membership and reduced expenditure forced by COVID-19 limitations and unfilled staff positions. Key features for the 2019/20 financial year are set out in the Finance Report on p. 33.

Despite our strong financial position, the 2020/21 budget presents significant challenges as it is difficult to predict how expenditure patterns will be impacted by ongoing COVID-19 measures. While membership income will improve significantly as a result of increased membership in the 2019/20 financial year, the impact of job losses is expected to significantly impact on the 2021/22 financial year.

The key highlights for the 2020/21 Budget are as follows: • Membership income to increase by about $429,000 or about 2.0% due to an increase in members, at least in the first part of the financial year.

• Total salaries (including on costs) to increase by about $618,000.

• Operating and discretionary spending to decrease largely due to limited travel as well as a decrease in meetings, conferences and other COVID-19 related items.

Eight joint agreements were concluded, seven unfair management proposals defeated, and two opposed variations proceeded. It is estimated that 1,500 jobs have been saved by Union negotiated variations so far.

• A budgeted surplus of about $335,000.

Membership

The Pandemic, Elections and Rules

Through all this, NTEU membership has grown. We have seen an increase nationally of over 12% in the first 6 months of the year to our highest ever membership level.

Elections for Branches, for new National Councillors, and for most Division positions were due to be conducted in 2020. By law, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) conducts all union elections, and has suspended elections since March this year.

Democracy is central to everything we do, so

Around 40% of this growth came from casual members who responded to the offer of 3 months free membership offered at the start

NTEU will publish Audited Financial Statements later in calendar year 2020 in line with regulations within the Registers Organisations Act and International Accounting Standards.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Matthew McGowan, General Secretary

Debate makes our union strong.

I recognise that the Jobs Protection Framework created debate, and the Union has been criticised by some. I have been in the Union for more 25 years as a member, delegate, Branch committee members, state and national official, and I have seen my share of heated and strong debates. And it was expected and very reasonable to have disagreement about something as significant as the Union’s response to the pandemic.

These debates make our union strong. What does not make our union strong is abusive rhetoric, and the stoking of division when a position has been debated and lost. Only a small number of people have been aggressive and have attacked the Union, its officers and its staff. Our staff and Branch Officers do not deserve such treatment. They deserve our thanks and support, even when we disagree.

Some of the people who disagreed with the Union’s position have established parallel organisations to undermine the position of the Union. NTEU is incredibly democratic and member driven. But democracy doesn’t mean getting your way, it means participating, debating, and at the end of that process – taking a position, sticking together and using our collective power.

Finally, I would like to offer my deepest gratitude to our staff, officers and colleagues.

Everyone has worked hard this year, and for some it has been the hardest year in memory.

There are too many people to thank in the space available, but without the support of the National Executive, the staff of the Union, Division Secretaries and Branch Presidents, we could not have managed to get through this year.

Many Branch and Division office holders will step down for personal or professional reasons, and other will leave as a consequence of the job losses ahead. To you all, thank you for your support. Thank you for the years you have put into representing and helping members, most often on your own time. Your effort has built a better union for all.

And to the National Officers, Alison Barnes (President) and Gabe Gooding (National Assistant Secretary), this year could not have been survived without your good humour, encouragement, expertise, and effort. But thank you mostly for your comradeship in the most difficult and trying of circumstances.

We are all stronger together. ◆ 9

Gabe Gooding, National Assistant Secretary

Gabe Gooding National Assistant Secretary

As we all know, 2020 has been a year to remember and possibly one that we would all like to forget.

It has been deeply disturbing and distressing for many members, and, as we approach the end of the year we face a sector that is being radically reshaped in ways that will continue to challenge us in the future.

The pandemic has upended our lives and our work. This report is a reflection of the main work that I have done this year.

Work Health and Safety Our original plan to build capacity in work health and safety (WHS) through a staged process, like many other things, went out the window with COVID-19. Clearly our members now had urgent need for health and safety advice. I would like to sincerely thank the WHS Team who researched, wrote fact sheets for Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) and members, organised ongoing sessions for HSRs and helped with submissions. Campbell Smith (National Office), Alex Cousner (Queensland), and Corey Rabaut (Victoria) are all qualified, committed and enthusiastic comrades who have put in enormous work on WHS this year in addition to their other duties.

Image (this page): Members taking part in the 2020 Melbourne Pride March., February 2020

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A predictable and heart-breaking consequence of the pandemic and the Federal Government’s failure to adequately support our sector has been the massive loss of jobs.

Whether through appropriate consultation

and restructure processes, or through a mass voluntary process, the loss of jobs is always a WHS issue that requires risk identification and specific consultation through the WHS mechanisms. There are strong powers in the various Acts and it is great to see some Branches starting to use WHS to force meaningful engagement. More importantly, looking at job losses through a WHS frame as well as an industrial one, gives us the best chance of mitigating the effects on the mental health of those who remain.

We encourage members and Branches to continue to discuss the impact of redundancies, and over-work on our mental health. It is well past time that we accept that our employers are as responsible for risks to our psychological health as they are for risks to our physical health.

Too many workers accept the proposition that if they suffer from excessive workrelated stress that it is their fault because they are ‘weak’ or ‘unable’ to cope. We would not accept the proposition that if a worker broke a leg falling into a pothole it was because their bones were too weak; we would expect the cause of the injury to be fixed. We must not accept pathologising the individual as a way of allowing our employers to avoid responsibility for working conditions that cause psychological harm.

An enormous thank you to all those HSRs who have actively worked to protect their co-workers and who have participated in our sessions on WHS. You are the backbone of the WHS system, and for those who don’t have a HSR in their workplace, please consider becoming one, there is great

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Gabe Gooding, National Assistant Secretary

training and support and you can make a real difference.

Fact sheets and information can be found www.nteu.org.au/whs and are being added to and updated regularly.

Wage Theft We started this year with a comprehensive submission to the Senate Inquiry on wage theft (that covered theft from members at universities and private providers).

We observed that in universities being employed as a casual is almost a necessary precondition for wage theft. This was clearly an effective submission because it prompted vehement and vigorous denials from some Vice-Chancellors and the Australian Higher Education Industry Association.

At last year’s National Council meeting we announced settlement of an underpayment issue at a private provider that resulted in around $2,000,000 being repaid to workers with many gaining greater job security. That was due to the excellent work by Serena O’Meley and the members who stepped up and organised their workplace.

Our plan was to springboard from this work and apply it across the private provider sector. This was one of many projects that were put on hold for a while as we dealt with the impact of COVID-19 but we are now testing a new app for recording time taken by casual staff that will produce solid evidence and can be adapted for use in university Branches.

NTEU has launched a major action in the Federal Court pursuing alleged underpayments to workers at JMC Academy who are purported to be ‘independent contractors’. This is important litigation that could put the brakes on sham contracting in the private providers.

The University of Melbourne Branch engaged in a very successful campaign to address wage theft from casual academics and they should be congratulated for that long, dedicated, and often innovative campaign.

But it was the comprehensive reporting by the ABC of wage theft across the country that really put the issue in the spotlight. In response to that coverage NTEU received

close to 3000 submissions from employees seeking information about or reporting instances of wage theft.

Branches are now working through those submissions (where we have contact details) and we expect to see outcomes within the next 6 months.

State of the University Survey, COVID-19 edition 2020 The State of the University survey is conducted every two years with consistent questions and was last held in 2019, well before the pandemic. We have circulated a special edition with some specific questions around the pandemic, the impact on university workers, the effectiveness of the response of managements, the Government and the Union, and some standard questions on attitudes to determine how the pandemic has altered (if it has) the attitudes of employees.

Images (this page): Chloe Gaul displaying the ‘recipe for wage theft’ at Melbourne University (Toby Cotton); Richard Hamilton (UNDA) #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfie, 21 May 2020; Social media graphics for the Fund Uni Fairly and Wage Theft campaigns.

A short preliminary report will be presented to the National Council meeting and a full report will be released later in the year or in early 2021.

Staff and comrades In an extraordinarily difficult year it has been an absolute privilege to work with the dedicated NTEU staff who really pulled out all stops to keep the Union running for our members. They have rapidly responded to significantly changed circumstances and have adapted and developed techniques to make sure that we are there when members need us. Thank you all.

Thank you also to my fellow National Officers, Alison Barnes and Matthew McGowan. It’s been one hell of a year that I could not have survived without your friendship and support. Thanks also to the National Executive who have worked tirelessly throughout the year, and all those Branch Committees, delegates and members who have been so supportive in difficult times. Solidarity all. ◆

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Gabe Gooding, National Assistant Secretary

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Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Caucus www.nteu.org.au/atsi A&TSI Director: Adam Frogley A&TSI Organiser: Celeste Liddle QLD/NT Division A&TSI Officer: Phil Mairu (to Feb 2020) Branch Organiser (Monash): Frank Gafa

A&TSIPC 2019–20 Chair Shane Motlap (to Dec 2019) Acting Chair Sharlene Leroy-Dyer Deputy Chair Sharlene Leroy-Dyer (from Feb 2020)

National Council 2020 – Motions Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander motions from National Council 2020 have formed part of the annual work plan for the A&TSI Team.

The following motions were developed at the 2020 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Forum.

• C2a_Carry forward actions from 2019 National Council motions • C2b_Identified positions and senior appointments • C2c_FNWA withdraw NTEU support

Job-Ready Graduates Package – Impacts on Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander participation The Job-Ready Graduates package announcement by the Education Minister on 19 June 2020 detailed significant changes to higher education funding priorities.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander students

Course increases ranging between 28% – 113% to Law, Commerce and Arts/Humanities courses respectively will factor highly into considerations for many Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples contemplating tertiary education.

Division Representatives

Federal Budget 2020/21

Tas Jacob Prehn

2020-21 Federal Budget, released on 6 October 2020, saw further reductions to the supplementary funding allocation and forward estimates via the Indigenous Student Assistance Grants (ISAG) for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander student support administered through the Indigenous Student Success Program (ISSP).

On current full-year statistics (2018), 51% of the total Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander student cohort were undertaking courses under the broad fields of management and commerce, society and culture and creative arts.

When compared to the previous year’s Federal Budget and forward estimates, an overall funding decrease of -$177k has been applied to the ISSP in the 2020-21 financial year, with a further -$3.78m removed from the comparable forward estimates.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander academic and general/professional staff, like many other academic and general/professional staff, are facing loss of employment, reduced hours, additional tasks to their workloads and utilising annual leave and other leave to reduce university leave liabilities.

Vic Terry Mason WA Brendon DeGois

National Councillors Sharlene Leroy-Dyer UQ Terry Mason Deakin Robert Anders UTas

Image (this page): Celeste Liddle (right) at the Melbourne Invasion Day march, Jan 2020 (Brandan Bonsack) Images (opposite page): Melbourne Invasion Day march, Jan 2020 (Brandan Bonsack)

12

As the key funding allocation supporting Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Support Centres and their staff, the Indigenous Student Success Program (ISSP) provides funding allocations to all Table A and B higher education providers to provide Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander students with culturally appropriate support and places of cultural safety on campus.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander staff

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander staff are appointed to roles funded with Indigenous Student Success Program (ISSP) funds and significant changes to student enrolments will impact these Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander student support staff significantly and may force staff reductions in student support areas.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Caucus

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander employment 2019 2019 University Staffing data was released on 9 July 2020 by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE). Nationally there was an additional 117 Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander staff (headcount) appointed to fixed term and ongoing roles, representing an 8% increase from 2018.

For full-time equivalent (FTE) there was an additional 103 Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander positions created, representing a 7.8% increase from 2018.

National, Division and Casual Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Forums 2020 Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Forum was conducted entirely online for the first time in the history of National Forum, with over forty delegates registered to attend National Forum 2020 via the Zoom platform.

National Forum was conducted over two days, with two sessions per day (morning

and afternoon). Sessions across the two days incorporated introductions, reports, yarn session and time for motion development and debate. A total of three Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander motions were developed and endorsed by the majority of attending delegates.

caucus meeting was also held to give the members an opportunity to hear from the National Executive Officers and the Policy Committee members regarding the Jobs Protection Framework.

Membership National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander membership stands at 514 on 9 Oct 2020.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Division Forums were also moved online and were held on a monthly basis from April. Online Division Forums have been successful, and through this process we have attracted new member activists who had not necessarily attended an on-campus member meeting or an annual Division Forum prior to now.

Membership experienced a 7% growth shortly after the stages of pandemic lockdown were implemented, and when coupled with the announcement pertaining to the casual fee waiver, membership during this time has been increasing. In the period June to October membership numbers have fluctuated between 507 and 517.

In 2021 the Team will continue to hold meetings online to supplement the annual in-person meetings and campus visits across the country. Online meetings have been useful and will be utilised further.

Campaigns, Education and Communications In 2020 as part of the NTEU National Office restructure, the National Organiser was made an adjunct part of the National Organising and Campaigns Team.

Several casual member forums have also been conducted to ensure the A&TSIPC are providing a venue to hearing their concerns.

A National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander

continued overpage...

Commencing and All A&TSI Students by Broad Field of Study

65,000 60,000 55,000 50,000 45,000 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 2004

Natural & Physical Sciences

2005

Information Technology

2006

Engineering & Related Technologies

2007

Architecture & Agriculture, Building Environmental & Related Studies

2008

2009

Health

2010

Education

2011

Management & Commerce

2012

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 â—† Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Caucus

Society & Culture

2013

Creative Arts

2014

Food, Hospitality & Personal Services

2015

2016

Mixed Field Programs

2017

Non-award courses

2018

13

Given NTEU’s existing policies on sovereignty and treaty, Adani, and the Community Development Program (CDP) there is a strong need to be better engaged in the broader union campaigns on these and other issues of national concern.

Following National Forum, delegate feedback indicated a great deal of interest in undertaking Delegate training as well as Lateral Violence training. The National Organiser will work with the Education and Training Team and ACTU to provide further training opportunities for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander delegates and members. eYarn has been co-opted into various forms this year ranging from a news circular, a meeting notification, promotion tool for the National Forum and finally a call for member survey responses. In 2021 the National Team envisions eYarn will return to a news circular format which will run at least 6 times per year. Until this time the National Team will continue to contribute news through the NTEU’s Sentry publication and other member publications.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander member feedback page

Image: National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Forum 2020, held via Zoom.

In light of the pandemic and subsequent significant changes to the sector, the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Team have created a member feedback page to enable

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander members to have a secure platform to provide feedback on their situation. The National Team follows-up on feedback obtained to provide assistance and advice.

The Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander member feedback page is: www.nteu.org.au/ atsi/member_feedback_page ACTU Indigenous Committee and Unions NSW First Nations Committee The A&TSIPC and Team have been attending scheduled meetings of the ACTU Indigenous Committee and Unions NSW First Nations Committee.

NTEU is represented by A&TSIPC Acting Chair and the National Organiser and have continued our advocacy for the Community Development Program campaign and its goals, along with raising significant concerns regarding the Voice, Treaty, Truth training program. ACTU will hold the twentieth annual Indigenous Conference in November and NTEU will take part in several discussion panels as part of the Conference program.

With respect to the Unions NSW First Nations Committee, NTEU is represented by the Director (A&TSI Unit). In recent months the Unions NSW Indigenous Committee have drafted letters to NSW Parliament regarding the Black Lives Matter campaign and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

TEU Hui 2020

National A&TSI Staff - FTE & Number 1,800 1,600 1,400 1,200

NTEU participated in the 2020 Tertiary Education Union Hui via Zoom video on 2 September 2020. NTEU representatives, A&TSIPC Acting Chair and the Director (A&TSI Unit) gave an overview of the status of the Australian tertiary education sector, the Job Protection Framework and the JobReady Graduates package. ◆

1,000 800 600

20 00 20 01 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11 20 12 20 13 20 14 20 15 20 16 20 17 20 18 20 19

400

14

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Caucus

Queer Unionists in Tertiary Education (QUTE) www.nteu.org.au/qute

QUTE Steering Committee 2019–20 Division Representatives ACT Thomas Morrill UNSW (to Aug 20) NSW Kobie Howe NSW Div NT Alan Berman CDU Qld Amy Sergeant QUT SA

Liz McNeil Flinders

Suzanne Edwards Adelaide

Tas Brendon Condon UTas

National Conference

Resources

QUTE National Conference 2020, Our Voice at Work and Beyond, was attedned by over 50 participants in Melbourne in late January.

The Conference made four recommendations.

Working parties have been established:

The QUTE caucus flyer was updated in 2020.

QUTE collaborated with Victorian Trades Hall Council to run ‘Pride Chats’ on campus that were used to develop the resource for LGBTIQ workers, End Divide Through Pride: A Resource for Workers, Unions and Employers.

1. Education: a commitment to develop and lead four Friday Forums a year.

2. Darlington Statement: to develop a campaign to end medical intervention for intersex people.

3. Policy Review: a review of union policies and procedures to ensure inclusivity.

WA David Rhodes ECU

4. World Pride: a commitment to contribute to the 2023 World Pride in Sydney.

Staff Support

Events

David Willis Vic Division

Two LGBTIQ annual calendar events were held, remotely due to COVID-19: International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) Day May 17 and Wear it Purple Day 28 August.

Vic Virginia Mansel Lees La Trobe

The draft NTEU Transition Guide for Staff and Elected Officers was completed, providing a framework and resources for assisting transgender staff and elected officers.

Collaboration Monthly national Zoom catch-ups were established. Catch-ups kept members updated, provided an opportunity to suggest new ideas and to ask questions.

QUTE stalwarts Virginia Mansel Lees and David Willis have resigned from their positions. The Union thanks them for their boundless hard work and enthusiasm that has built and sustained QUTE for many years. ◆

Event resources were developed and distributed and national Zoom events held, in addition to local Branch activities.

QUTE members participated in various Pride events and marches. Thirty participants joined the 2020 Melbourne Pride March.

Actions QUTE members led affirmation of the Darlington Statement at National, Division and Branch levels.

Images: Particpants at the 2020 QUTE National Conference in Melbourne, Jan 2020 (Paul Clifton); Wear It Purple 2020 social media graphic.

QUTE contributed to the NTEU responses to the Federal Religious Freedom Review.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Queer Unionists in Tertiary Education (QUTE)

15

Women’s Action Committee (WAC) Due to COVID-19 closing down the National Office in March 2020, faceto-face meetings of the Women’s Action Committee (WAC) were replaced by two online meetings, which occurred in April and July.

www.nteu.org.au/women

WAC 2019–20 Chair Alison Barnes A&TSIPC Rep Anna Strzelecki UniSA

Division Representatives ACT

General: Jo Washington-King UC

Academic: Blair Williams ANU

NSW General: Julia McConnochie UTS

Academic: vacant

NT

General: Sylvia Klonaris CDU

Academic: Amanda Brain CDU

Qld

General: Gwen Amankwah-Toa QUT Academic: Leonie Barnett CQU

SA

General: Cécile Dutreix UniSA

Academic: Katie Barclay Adelaide

Tas

General: Jenny Smith UTAS

Academic: Natalia Nikolova UTAS

Vic

General: Karen Lamb ACU

Academic: Virginia Mansel Lees LTU

WA

General: Corinna Worth Curtin

Academic: Suzanne Jenkins UNDA

The focus of these meetings centred primarily around the growing impact of the COVID-19 crisis on our universities, and the feminised nature of the mass job losses that have ensued.

NSW Rhianna Keen

Qld

Noeline Rudland

However, the NTEU proceeded with our annual Bluestocking Week, and the promotion of our women’s organising networks in supporting our national campaigns on opposing job cuts and the Federal Government’s plans to cut funding to higher education.

SA

Juliet Fuller,Cheryl Baldwin

Tas

Emma Gill

Key activities

Vic

Amelia Sully

WA

Donna Shepherdson

• Monitoring gender equity legislation and progress in the sector.

Staff Support National Office Terri MacDonald

• Ensuring that gender balance, equity and advancement of women are integral to all NTEU structures, policies and practices.

• Coordinating the annual Bluestocking Week event.

Image (this page): From lockdown in Melbourne, National President Alison Barnes Zoomed into the NT Division’s Bluestocking Week live seminar hosted by Sylvia Klonaris; Kerrie Mellick (JCU) and Leah Winslow (GU) participating in the Anna Stewart Memorial project.

Image (opposite page): Cheryl Baldwin, Cécile Dutreix, Juliet Fuller and Jess Jacobson at the University of Adelaide during Bluestocking Week.

16

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

• Participating in trade union women’s activities.

• Engaging with and, where relevant, supporting research projects, conferences NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Women’s Action Committee (WAC)

and publications of interest to women in the Union.

• Producing the women’s publication Agenda.

Women and COVID-19 at universities Women now make up around 58% of university staff and consequently experience high levels of insecure employment; according to Universities Australia, women are 1.5 times more likely to be in insecure jobs in the university workforce.

NTEU has projected around 30,000 higher education jobs to be at risk as a result of both the COVID-19 crisis and the refusal of the Federal Government to assist in any meaningful way. In tracking the various announcements by higher education providers, we know that the majority of jobs that were initially lost were those held by casual/sessional academics, lower level professional/general staff and researchers on rolling contracts.

More recently, however, permanent academic staff and more senior professional/general staff are being targeted. Many of these permanent jobs, particularly in academia, are likely to be replaced by staff at lower levels and on casual/short term contracts.

Unfortunately, the recently passed Jobs-Ready Graduate package will not save one single job or provide the sector with additional ongoing funding, despite a projected loss of $16 billion in the next 3 years due to COVID-19. Instead, the Government’s changes will require universities to teach more students for less funding per student overall, increase the financial burden on students and intensify the already high levels of insecure employment.

While workload pressures have temporarily increased as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, there is a real concern that, for the staff who keep their jobs following the redundancy rounds, universities will seek to implement ways of extracting more labour, for less. The next rounds of bargaining will be crucial in preserving hard won rights and entitlements, particularly around workloads.

While women are at the forefront of university job losses, the COVID-19 fallout has also resulted in decreased research and

publication opportunities, tensions around work-life balance and carer obligations (noting that the home schooling during COVID-19 has fallen primarily to women) as well as obstacles to career progression.

There have been reports that women from diverse backgrounds are facing additional barriers to entry, retention, and progression, particularly in STEM areas, as a result of COVID-19. There is evidence that some university managements are winding back equity programs that promote workforce diversity.

We know from broader research that women are also bearing the brunt of other COVID-19 related stress, mental health problems and physical and emotional violence. The Union views domestic and family violence as a workplace issue, noting this violence does not stop once the victim leaves home.

However, in an environment where the target of the violence is working from home, the risk to that person from their perpetrator increases dramatically.

Finally, the COVID-19 crisis has presented many managers in universities with an opportunity to attempt widespread industrial relations changes. This may in the long-term result in wider restructures, less protections around redundancies, and increased casualisation through ‘flexible employment’ models. Union experience is that these practices disproportionally impact women.

members to work together to build a better working life on the other side of the crisis.

Despite the limitations presented, Branches and Divisions still held Bluestocking Week events, with petitions, songs, discussions and cupcakes.

The culmination of Bluestocking Week was a national seminar on Women, Work & COVID-19 that was attended by over 300 members via Zoom. NTEU National President, Alison Barnes, set the context and introduced the two special guest speakers, Professor Rae Cooper (Gender, Work and Employment Relations and Co-Director of the Women, Work & Leadership Research Group) and Sarah Mosseri (Postdoctoral Research Associate in Work and Organisational Studies). Both spoke about the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women and the widening of the economic gap between men and women.

Participation of women in the university workforce The latest Department of Education data (2019) shows that there are 61,691 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) women university staff, making up 57% of all university staff. While the Departmental data does not include casuals, it is worth noting the proportion of women in difference areas and levels: • Teaching only: 59% women • Research only: 46% women

Bluestocking Week

• Teaching and research: 44% women

The impact of COVID-19 on women in higher education, framed around the theme Women, Work & COVID-19, set the tone for this year’s Bluestocking Week (31 August–4 September), now in its 8th consecutive year.

• Other function (non academic): 65% women.

While higher education is feminised, the more senior the level, the greater the proportion of men:

While the higher education sector is in crisis, the high level of insecure employment and the inequalities that women in particular experience were present long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

• Above senior lecturer: 25% women.

While noting the mass redundancies, a growing gender pay gap, insecure work, and an antagonistic Federal Government, Bluestocking Week 2020 focused both on elevating the achievements of women in higher education as well as encouraging

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Women’s Action Committee (WAC)

• Level C: 45% women.

• Level B: 53% women.

• Level A: 51% women (however, this is likely to be an under estimation as casual/ sessional staff are usually appointed at level A, and are not included in the Government’s FTE data on levels). continued overpage...

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While the Department does not collect data on levels in non-academic areas, the NTEU’s own data as well as reporting by the Workplace Gender Equity Agency has shown that the proportion of men increase substantially at managerial and senior managerial level.

Participation of women in the Union Over the last 19 years there has been a steady increase in the number of women NTEU members. In 2000, women comprised 48% of the Union’s membership, but this has now grown to 59% in 2020 (up from 58% in 2019), which is a slightly higher proportion than the sector overall. The largest group of NTEU members are women academics at 10,217 (up from 8,793 in 2019), which comprise 56% of the Union’s women membership and 33% of all members.

In relation to casual members, women are also the majority at 58% (proportionally unchanged from 2019), which is consistent with the overall trend. As with the data for all members, the majority of casual members are women academics, comprising 46% of all casual members. However, a difference with casual membership compared to overall membership is that academic casual women make up 80% of all casual women members.

There are relatively fewer casual general staff women (and men) taking NTEU membership than overall but interestingly, casual women comprise 58% of all casual general staff members, while for general staff members overall, the proportion of women is higher at 66%.

Images (this page): NTEU Industrial Officer, Noeline Rudland, Retired NTEU Griffith member and Emma Miller Award recipient, Sue Monk, and USQ Organiser, Patsy O’Brien starting the Qld Bluestocking Week meeting with a rendition of ‘Bread & Roses’; From lockdown in Melbourne, National President Alison Barnes Zoomed into the CDU Bluestocking Week live seminar hosted by Sylvia Klonaris; Former federal ALP MP for Longman, former official with the United Workers’ Union, and now Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at QUT, Susan Lamb, spoke at the Qld Bluestocking Week event on why ‘Politics Matters’, how unionism and politics has improved the lot of women workers in Australia; Bluestocking Week 2020 poster.

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Elected Union officials Below are the current numbers of elected officials. It’s worth nothing that while women are in the majority as ‘Branch officials’, they fill less than half of the important roles including National and Division Councils and as Branch Presidents. The Union may wish to review strategies around mentoring and support for women in Union leadership roles.

The WAC has been involved in previous programs to encourage women within the NTEU to take on activist and leadership positions, and would welcome the opportunity to continue this work with Divisions and Branches.

Position

Women

Men

National Executive

10

12

National Councillors

46

59

Division Councils

73

89

Branch Presidents

12

25

Branch Officials*

213

186

*Excludes Branch Presidents and National and Division Council members, includes Sub-Branches.

Looking to the Future This year has presented the Union and the WAC with many challenges and obstacles, yet we have continued to grow both in our organising strength and in membership numbers. The WAC is looking forward to using this momentum to build on our advocacy work and fight for the issues that are important to women in our Union. ◆

While this difference may be a reflection on the type of work being undertaken by general staff members who are insecurely employed, the NTEU should review our recruitment strategies that target general and professional staff, particularly for casual/ contract staff.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Women’s Action Committee (WAC)

National Tertiary Casuals Committee (NTCC)

Ellyse Fenton UQ

In its first full year of operation, the NTCC has amplified the voices of casualised workers in our Union, developed a plan to implement NTEU priorities as they relate to casualisation, and set up structures to facilitate participation and democratic decision-making.

Victoria Fielding UniSA (from May 2020)

National Council 2019

James Harding Sydney (to Dec 2019)

NTCC met in person for the first time at National Council 2019. Six members were supported to make the trip to Melbourne to shape NTEU policy and priorities for the coming year, significantly enlarging the number of casual staff present at Council.

www.unicasual.org.au/ntcc

NTCC 2019–20 Representatives Elizabeth Adamczyk Newcastle Dr Andrew Broertjes UWA Dr Tricia Daly Macquarie

Annette Herrera Melbourne Lina Koleilat ANU Nathaniel Lau UTas (to Dec 2019) Dr Audrey Statham Deakin (to Apr 2020) Perpetua Turner UTas (from May 2020) William Wilding Swinburne

Staff Support Michael Evans National Office Lachlan Clohesy ACT Division

NATIONAL TERTIARY

CASUALS COMMITTEE

Image (this page): NTCC members at National Council 2019 (Paul Clifton)

While the Committee does not have voting rights at Council, the voices of casualised workers were heard loud and clear in discussion on the floor. Arguing that casualisation is core Union business, the NTCC helped to move an unopposed motion directing our Union to review industrial and organising approaches to de-casualisation in order to improve outcomes for casual staff in the 2021 round of bargaining.

Strategic Aims 2020-2022 Continuing discussions began at National Council, NTCC members developed a set of Strategic Aims to guide the Committee’s work to 2022.

The Strategic Aims Discussion Paper sets out four goals for the Committee to pursue in implementing NTEU priorities as they relate to casualisation. Full list of aims is available at www.unicasual.org.au/ntcc.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ National Tertiary Casuals Committee (NTCC)

Democratic structures The pandemic saw significant disruption to the momentum NTCC had built heading in to 2020. The Committee was not immune to the impact of COVID-19 on the sector, particularly on casualised workers who have no job security, or to the contentiousness of the Jobs Protection Framework, which divided workers throughout our Union. The Committee lost six members in 2019-20. In mid-2020, the empty Tasmanian, SA, and Queensland positions were filled.

Workload pressures and turnover in the NTCC saw a shift in focus to strengthening democratic structures to support member participation and distribute labour and leadership. To this end, the NTCC is in the process of updating its Terms of Reference to ensure they reflect the lived realities of casualised workers. So far, this has meant adopting a rotating Chair and Secretary, setting meeting times democratically (including out-of-work-hours options), and creating a space to store Committee documents accessible to all members.

Shaping the future of our Union As uncertainty deepens in Australian higher education, it has never been more urgent to de-casualise our sector. The NTCC is working with the General Secretary and the Industrial and Legal Team to develop recommendations for furthering the goal of de-casualisation in the next round of bargaining.

In addition, the Committee has contributed a motion to National Council 2020 aiming to strengthen the voice of casualised workers in our Union. ◆ 19

Industrial & Legal www.nteu.org.au/rights Director (Industrial & Legal): Wayne Cupido Senior Legal Officer: Kelly Thomas National Industrial Officer: Campbell Smith National Industrial Officer (Research and Projects): Ken McAlpine Industrial Support Officer: Renee Veal The Unit is under the direction of the General Secretary

The pandemic has delivered an industrial environment that we have never faced before. Stand downs, quarantine orders, campus closures, working from home, health and safety issues, JobKeeper (or lack thereof), agreement variations and job losses, are some of the issues that Union has had to respond to this year.

The National Industrial and Legal Team (NILT) acknowledges and thanks all members, Branch, Division and National office staff who have supported us in responding to the challenges that the pandemic has thrown at us this year. Without this collective response, we would not have been able to perform the work outlined in this report.

Bargaining Jobs Protection Framework & Enterprise Agreement Variations

In response to the impact of the pandemic on University budgets, and the failure of the Federal Government to provide any significant financial aid to the sector, the work of the National Industrial and Legal Team (NILT) has been focused on enforcing our members’ rights and negotiating variations to enterprise agreements that protect jobs. Members of the NILT also attended and assisted Branches and Divisions at member meetings to consider variations.

Image (this page): Nicole Downes, Chloe Gaul, Trevor Miller, Cassandra Prigg, Paul Drew and Carl Millard at the NTEU protest outside Dan Tehan’s office in Warrnambool, May 2020 (Mark Witte)

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NTEU variations have been negotiated at eight Universities, one non-union variation (ANU) has been approved by the Fair Work Commission (FWC), another (JCU) is pending approval and subject to challenge by the Union. Four non-union variations were voted down by members at Melbourne, Murdoch, Griffith and Curtin University.

All union negotiated variations are temporary and contain job protection measures and improvements in rights for members. Job protection measures include stronger limits to forced redundancies, no stand downs without pay, new rights to work for casuals and fixed term staff, and no unnecessary external appointments for the life of the variation. Most importantly, Union endorsed variations will save more than 1500 jobs and increase management accountability.

A critical part of the Union negotiated variation framework has been the establishment of the national Expert Assessment Panel (EAP). The EAP is a joint union-management auditing panel.

The panel’s role is to forensically examine university accounts and to assess whether there is a genuine need for any proposed cost saving measures. Additionally, the Panel considers whether a University has implemented other cost saving measures including cuts to senior executive salaries and discretionary spending.

For the remainder of 2020 and in 2021, the NILT will continue to work with Branches and Divisions to implement variations, and assist every Branch to enforce the industrial rights of our members through what we expect to be a tumultuous time.

Review of Round 7 & prep for Round 8

Over the past year the NILT undertook a much more comprehensive and detailed analysis of bargaining outcomes in higher education than has been done before.

Clauses dealing with key issues have been objectively assessed and compared to each other across the sector, and there has been a

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Industrial & Legal

stock-take of gains and losses since Round 5.

This will inform Branches and relevant staff about strengths and weaknesses going into Round 8.

exercising intellectual freedom, and largely disregarded the historical and fundamental notions of intellectual freedom. Ridd has now appealed to the High Court.

National Office and the National Executive have been analysing the impact of the pandemic, the concerns of key membership groups and the attitude of the employers in developing an approach to Round 8 in 2021, which is likely to be the most complex at least since that following the HowardGovernment’s HEWRRs in 2005.

Murdoch University – Gerd Schrõder-Turk

Coping with and assessing the impact of the pandemic has delayed strategy development but major decisions will be made by a Special Council in December 2020.

Bargaining in other sectors

Bargaining outside the Higher Education sector has been ‘brisk’ with strong outcomes on pay in TAFE agreements, Research institutes and English Language providers.

The challenge (or opportunity) for the Union remains increasing our density and activism in these areas so that we can achieve consistent entitlements for all our members.

Key disputes Over the last twelve months, the most significant disputes have largely fallen across two themes – academic freedom and consultation over major workplace change.

The latter is in large part as a result of the impact of COVID-19 and the devastating impacts on job security in the sector.

James Cook University – Peter Ridd – Academic freedom

In April 2019, Dr Peter Ridd won his case in the Federal Circuit Court against his former employer James Cook University. The Court found that JCU had breached the intellectual freedom clause of the enterprise agreement when it, among other things, terminated Ridd’s employment. JCU appealed that decision to the Federal Court, and NTEU sought leave to intervene in the appeal.

In July 2020, the Federal Court found in JCU’s favour, and did not allow NTEU to intervene. The Full Court found that the Code of Conduct still applied to academics when

Gerd Schrõder-Turk, the academic representative on the Murdoch University Senate brought a case against the University when it attempted to remove him from his position on the Senate because of his appearance on Four Corners where he criticised the University’s approach to the recruitment of international students.

In a highly publicised court case, the University also sought to sue him personally for loss in revenue. The matter settled. Gerd remains on the Senate and a review into governance has been announced.

University of Sydney – Tim Anderson – Academic freedom

NTEU has brought legal action on behalf of Tim Anderson against the University of Sydney when it terminated his employment for exercising his intellectual freedom when posting his teaching slides on social media.

The University decided his posts were offensive and he breached the Code of Conduct. The trial will proceed in late October 2020.

In a case that provided many wins along the way (interim order significantly delaying the process, orders for the production of documents) the Commission found in our favour, ordering management back to the drawing board for proper consultation.

University of Technology Sydney – Lucy Zhao – Research expectations

UTS terminated the employment of Dr Lucy Zhao for failing to publish in an A/A* journal.

NTEU represented Dr Zhao in an unfair dismissal application and was successful in gaining her reinstatement. UTS appealed the decision, claiming that the FWC had expressed views which elevated teaching over research, however, the Full Bench found that there was no error in the original decision. Dr Zhao is now back at work at UTS. Training The NILT has engaged in a variety of training activities. The NILT produced a Fact Sheet relating to COVID-19 issues, has engaged in directed training at institutions with the Jobs Protection Framework in place, as well as delivered approximately 10 different training sessions for Industrial Officers and Branch Presidents on a range of member rights and entitlements. ◆

JMC Academy – Sham contracting

JMC is a private provider offering degrees in creative media and performing arts. They engage the majority of staff as ‘independent contractors’ meaning they do not receive minimum award rates or superannuation.

NTEU has been actively recruiting members there, and in September launched Federal Court action on behalf of our members to stop these exploitative practices.

Images (this page): Social media graphic celebrating the Union win at Murdoch University, Sept 2020; ACT members calling for paid parental leave for all staff (Lachlan Clohesy); #IStandWithGerd social media graphic.

Deakin University – Change management

When Deakin management announced change plans that included a reduction of around 400 positions, the Branch notified a dispute on the basis that management were not properly consulting on the universitywide change, and instead doing so on a siloed basis which gave staff no real opportunity to change management’s mind.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Industrial & Legal

21

Policy & Research www.nteu.org.au/policy Director (Policy & Research): Paul Kniest Policy & Research Officers: Dr Terri MacDonald, Kieran McCarron The unit is under the direction of the National President

The most important issues addressed by the National Policy and Research Unit (PRU) during the last 12 months have been the profound impact of COVID-19 on universities and university staff and the need for a sustainable and fair funding framework for the sector.

COVID-19 While institutions responded early on in the pandemic by moving courses online and amending their education offerings and delivery, it soon become evident that COVID-19 would have more substantial and negative effects on the sector.

The significant reduction in university revenue, primarily as a result of the collapse of the international student market, is estimated to have cost our universities somewhere between $3 billion and $5 billion in revenue this year and up to $19 billion over the next few years. This, in turn, has led to the broadest and deepest loss of jobs the sector has ever seen.

Image (this page): Social media graphic for the #BlocktheBill campaign; Greens leader Adam Bandt with the NTEU’s Fund Uni Fairly polly pledge.

Images (opposite page):State of the Uni survey 2020; Shadow Education spokesperson, Tanya Plibersek, supporting our Find Uni Fairly campaign in Federal Parliament; #BlocktheBill Fund Uni Fairly social media graphic, Sept 2020.

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While these job losses were initially felt by our casual, limited term and professional/ general staff, a wave of voluntary and forced redundancies has since flowed through to ongoing positions. As a result, over 12,600 jobs are now gone, with many more thousands likely to follow; the NTEU’s own projections are for around 30,000 job losses as a result of this current crisis.

However, we know this does not include all of the thousands of casuals and fixed term

workers who lost work or did not have their contracts renewed, with many universities hiding their true numbers of casual workers and the Government keen to play down media coverage.

While all sectors of the economy have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, the Government has been selective as to which sectors are to be saved. While they were prepared to invest hundreds of billions in saving private sector jobs, our public universities were effectively excluded from accessing the same assistance. Instead, using the distraction of the COVID-19 crisis, the Morrison Government introduced its JobsReady Graduate suite of policies which have slashed public investment per student and, on average, increased student fees.

Policy Reviews and Budget Surpluses In policy terms, 2019 ended in a whimper.

The Government released a number of policy reviews including the Coaldrake Review of provider classifications, the Napthine Review of regional tertiary education and the Noonan Review the Australian qualifications framework.

In November 2019 the Government released a set of practical guidelines (developed in conjunction with universities) to counter foreign interference in the Australian university sector.

Secrecy and the corporate university The COVID-19 crisis has not only exposed the Government’s hostility toward our universities but it has also highlighted the arrogance of university managements and their dismissive attitude to both staff

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Policy & Research

and students. The transformation of our universities from being important civic institutions operating for and in the public interests of their students, staff and the communities they serve, to corporate entities operating in their own self-interest is all but complete.

Senior management could have chosen to share information about their financial position and staff losses with their staff by participating in the NTEU’s proposed Jobs Protection Framework (JPF) discovery process. But, with a few exceptions, instead of being paragons of transparency and public accountability, the senior management of our public universities have opted for managerial prerogative and secrecy.

Government support for higher ed While the Government injected over $150 billion dollars into supporting businesses and their employees in the wake of COVID-19, its support package for public universities amounted to a little over $40m over a fiveyear period, or the equivalent of $212,000 per university per year.

To make things worse, the eligibility rules for JobKeeper were amended three times in order to explicitly exclude Australia’s public universities.

Job-Ready Graduates policies On the back of embarrassingly inadequate COVID-19 support package, the Government was able to get its Job-Ready Graduates (JRG) bill through Parliament.

The passage of the Bill required the Government to deal with South Australia’s Centre Alliance (CA) and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation parties. Lower House MP Rebekha Sharkie and Senator Stirling Griff, both from CA, said they supported the JRG because it would give universities funding certainty.

They also claimed as a win the leveraging of additional government supported places for SA’s three universities and the classification of these universities as ‘regional’, thus delivering an increase in funding load.

However, their arrangement delivered for the entire sector the certainty of a drop in

public investment by an average of 15% per student and an increase in student fees by an average of 8%, resulting overall in a 6% reduction of funding per student. While CA claimed the JRG polices would be good for regional universities and regional and disadvantaged students, sector analysis clearly showed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, women, low SES and regional students would be disproportionately affected by fee increases.

The Government also accepted One Nation amendments to give students who pay their fees up-front a 10% discount and to limit access to Commonwealth supported places (CSP) to seven years. The amendments also require a review in 18 months.

Although One Nation claimed that their ‘deal’ with the Government also went to defining academic freedom and free speech legislatively (noting that these are distinctively separate issues), at this stage no changes have been made to academic freedom provisions in the Higher Education Support Act 2003.

Federal Budget The October COVID-19 Budget delivered 12,000 additional CSPs and 50,000 additional discounted fee short courses (microcredentials) to the higher education sector for 2021. The additional CSPs will be national priority disciplines and details as to how they will be allocated are yet to be released. The bulk (up to 80%) of the short courses are expected to be delivered by non-university providers. The Government has made available public funding for non-university providers to run the short programs in priority areas.

confirming our sector’s structural reliance on international students to maintain research.

Foreign interference, foreign relations, academic freedom and institutional autonomy As if denying our universities any real support to get through COVID-19 and slashing public funding per university student by 15% were not enough, the Government further demonstrated its hostility toward our public universities, proposing to interfere in their day to day operations in several very important ways, including: • The introduction of foreign interference guidelines.

• Introducing new foreign relations legislation which would require all government and public university arrangements with foreign entities to be consistent with government foreign policy, even if that policy is not public or changes.

• Trying to amend the provider classifications standards and use the ERA to quantify the quality of university research.

• Making it illegal for universities to enrol someone as a Commonwealth supported student if they have failed half of the subjects attempted under their degree.

In 2019, the Government concocted a ‘crisis of free speech’ and enacted a review (known as the French Review) of university policies continued overpage...

The $1 billion additional research support announced in the Budget is very much a short, sharp sugar hit. It is here for 2021 but will evaporate in 2022. While it might help some research jobs in 2021, it does nothing to address the underlying issues of underfunding of research and insecure contingent employment amongst research academics.

It is premised on the hope that international student revenue will return from 2022,

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Policy & Research

23

around both academic freedom and free speech on campuses. While former High Court Chief Justice Robert French found there to be no evidence of a ‘crisis’, the Government continued to push its ‘free speech’ agenda, which appeared primarily to reflect the Government’s long running view that there is ‘left-leaning bias’ on university campuses shutting down academic debate and skewing curricular.

The Government insisted on universities adopting new guidelines on academic freedom and freedom of speech, and has now organised a review to determine which universities are yet to adopt the supposedly ‘voluntary’ guidelines as institutional policy.

While the Union has long held the view that academic freedom can be legislatively strengthened, the reality is that the only way to ensure the protection of academic freedom is through our industrial agreements. We are also concerned about the possible dilution of academic freedom by conflating it with the principles of free speech.

State of the University Survey The PRU has produced a new analysis of 2019 State of the Uni survey data, building on the time series created by previous surveys.

In addition, a special 2020 COVID-19 edition of NTEU State of the Uni survey was produced to specifically aide the Union’s efforts to gauge the impact of COVID-19 on university staff. This survey was sent to around 200,000 sector staff and asked specific questions about the impact of COVID-19 on working lives, staff mental health, and attitudes towards key sector participants and government policy changes.

Lobbying, campaign & industrial work

university job losses, the Government’s JRG changes and academic freedom.

The Unit has made numerous parliamentary submissions, including to the COVID-19 inquiry and around the JRG package, and appeared before Senate Committees on multiple occasions to argue on behalf of our members and higher education staff and students more broadly.

The PRU also engaged directly with NTEU members, activists, delegates and organisers, providing online seminars and briefings, creating dozens of briefing papers, memos and campaign flyers, and contributing to the Union’s broader print and social media publications.

We assisted in briefing the media, supported the Union’s campaign ‘snap actions’ and encouraged our members to participate in the NTEU’s lobbying efforts, including the more than 400 member submissions to the senate review the JRG legislation (which we had lobbied for).

We engaged directly with the opposition parties and independent crossbenchers to leverage support for the NTEU’s position and worked closely with other unions, including the AEU, ASU and ACTU, as well as professional bodies in support of the JRG campaign.

While the work of the PRU has been integral in supporting the Union’s activism, lobbying and campaign work, we have also been focused on the Union’s continued efforts to build strength and membership. Importantly, we continue to advocate for an equitable and fairly funded sector, where access to a university education is based on merit and not capacity to pay. ◆

The PRU has been active in the Union’s lobbying, campaign, and industrial efforts, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 crisis, Images (this page): ACT members demonstrating out the front of Federal Parliament (Lachlan Clohesy); #BlocktheBill Fund Uni Fairly social media graphic, Sept 2020.

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NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Policy & Research

Image: Fund Uni Fairly full page advertisement placed in the Burnie Advertiser, Sept 2020

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 â—† Policy & Research

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Organising, Campaigns & Communications National Organiser (Media & Engagement): Michael Evans National Organiser (Digital): Jake Wishart National Organiser (Publications): Paul Clifton Admin Officer (Membership & Campaigns): Julie Ann Veal

Images (this page & opposite page): Social media graphics from the NTEU’s #FundUniFairly campaign.

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It has been an intensive year for campaigns, communications & organising in the NTEU national office, with a series of crises affecting Australia, our sector and our union.

focus to ensure we can recruit, organise and build power into the future. As new tech tools come online to support our organising and campaigning efforts, there will need to be a programme of training and new practices developed to ensure staff and workplace leaders are supported to get the best out of the tools available.

Bushfires in summer were followed by the COVID-19 pandemic-recession, followed by an ideological Government attack on fairness and funding for higher education. These rolling events have created an unprecedented challenge to some of our traditional methods.

The below timeline and attachments are a short summary of some of our work this year.

Much of our front-facing communications work is also publicly available for review on our social media channels.

Despite these challenges, the campaigns, comms and organising team in the national office has played an important role in pioneering new ways of working together, campaigning, communicating and organising in an often-hostile environment. Based on Melbourne, we have worked remotely and relied on our ability to experiment with new forms of digital strategy, tactics and co-ordination. We are proud of the role we have played in advocating for our sector, our members and our union in which has truly an annus horribilis for many people.

It is encouraging to see a growth in union membership and activity, and we believe some of this can be linked to the work we have undertaken.

2020 Running Timeline

In addition to our front-facing campaign work to defend our union from major attacks, behind the scenes we have been working to improve our digital capacity, including the development of a range of new tech tools to track, communicate with and organise our members, potential members and community supporters. This work will be an ongoing

NTEU holds live TV cross at Monash University to advocate for staff, those in insecure work and international students.

January 2020

9th Members were emailed about the NTEU Emergency Grants scheme of up to $1,000 for members affected by the fires, OHS information about hazardous air quality and their workplace rights about accessing leave and other entitlements.

February 2020

10th NTEU writes to all Vice-Chancellors raising concerns about workplace health and safety, workloads, maintaining work for casual staff, and racism on campuses.

14th NTEU writes to Education Minister calling for a support package.

27th Australian Government declares that COVID-19 will become a global pandemic. During this time, universities were scrambling to get as many courses as possible ready for online delivery.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 â—† Organising, Campaigns & Communications

March 2020

April 2020

1st First recorded death from COVID-19 in Australia.

1st Briefings commence for NTEU Branches on the possibility of a jobs protection framework.

10th NTEU launches COVID-19 website.

11th WHO declares a pandemic.

12th Government announces first stimulus package, with no relief for casual workers or the higher education sector.

16th NTEU launches scorecards displaying how Vic universities are looking after staff and slowing the spread of COVID-19. All states and territories covered in following days. By the end of March, 28 universities had committed to at least a minimum 10 days special leave to cover isolation periods, including for casual staff.

18th Australian Government introduces an indefinite international travel ban.

19th NTEU launches megaphone petition ‘Don’t make uni staff pay’ for COVID-19 with members Steve Adams and Amy Thomas, demanding paid leave for uni staff (including casuals) and a support package for our sector. Petition attracts 12,5700 signatures – including members, non-members and community supporters. NTEU commissions union artist Sam Wallman to produce artwork around theme of isolation and solidarity to support our recruitment and communications efforts during the crisis.

19th NTEU writes to all VCs raising members’ concerns about the failure to ensure social distancing rules.

22nd Federal Government announces second stimulus package (increased JobSeeker payments through Newstart), excluding our sector again.

25th NTEU National Executive agrees to open discussions with employers on a sector-wide response to COVID-19, calls on universities to guarantee pay and conditions for all staff and protect staff health and safety, and calls on the Federal Government for a support package.

30th Federal Government announces third stimulus package (JobKeeper subsidy).

Universities effectively ineligible for JobKeeper subsidy.

5th NTEU email to members launching ‘Morrison Monday’, encouraging members to post on social media and ring PM Morrison’s office calling for a rescue package.

7th Universities Australia warns the sector is facing a deep crisis, with up to a $4.5 billion shortfall in revenue this year, threatening up to 21,000 jobs in the next six months.

12th Federal Government announces socalled ‘relief’ package for the sector. NTEU response is that the package is ‘smoke and mirrors’, as it effectively contains no new money for the sector.

14th NTEU email to higher education staff details extent of crisis, outlines a possible Jobs Protection Framework, and asks staff to send an email to the Education Minister calling for a real rescue package.

23rd Over 1,800 people send an email to the Education Minister, and over 12,000 sign the petition.

24th Online briefing for NTEU National Councillors. The briefing endorsed the NTEU’s negotiation with VCs for a National Job Protection Framework, with an 85% majority voting in favour of the motion.

28th Dr. Alison Barnes and members flood the ABC Q&A program with videos & questions for Minister Tehan, demanding a real support package to #SaveHigherEd. 29th NTEU launches Sentry online magazine to keep members informed and in touch during the COVID-19 crisis.

May 2020

1st Video released on social media to reflect the crisis we are facing and the campaigning, advocacy and resistance of our union & members 13th Landmark agreement between NTEU and universities, the National Jobs Protection Framework (NJPF), launched.

17th IDAHOBIT Day – Celebrated diversity and equality with members and the

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Organising, Campaigns & Communications

QUTE network digitally, standing against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.

20th NJPF endorsed by 80% vote at a meeting of NTEU National Councillors.

21st NTEU National Day of Action, ‘You have one job’, calling for a genuine rescue package for the sector. Trending number 1 on Twitter in Australia, flooding the internet with thousands of photos of members and supporters, and full-page ads in newspapers.

Video of NDA action here.

26th NTEU withdraws NJPF following at least 20 VCs refusing to support it.

28th Action out the front of Josh Frydenberg’s electoral office.

June 2020

Ballots on NTEU-endorsed variations to enterprise agreements modelled on the NJPF are carried at La Trobe, UTAS, WSU, UWA and Monash, following intensive campaigns involving online workplace meetings and calling individual members and other staff.

A ballot on an agreement variation that was opposed by NTEU members at the University of Melbourne was defeated, while a similar ballot at ANU was narrowly carried. A ballot on various options at the University of Wollongong was defeated, for management to consider a further Union-endorsed option.

12th I Stand with Gerd campaign win – Murdoch backs down and reached settlement with Gerd.

17th Members at Navitas win back $100,000 after NTEU successfully pursued the ATO. 19th Education Minister Dan Tehan announces the proposed Jobs-Ready Graduates legislation, which will cut overall sector funding by $1 billion and more than double the cost of many courses, particularly humanities.

19th On the same day as Minister Tehan announces this attack, NTEU launches a digital campaign in rapid response, with an online petition and strategic communications to defend access to education for all. Petition garners 16,000 signatures and forms foundation for the Fund Uni Fair campaign. continued overpage...

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July–October 2020

NTEU launches ‘Fund Uni Fairly’ campaign to oppose the Tehan package. We utilised a myriad of tactics deployed to block the bill and change the conversation.

Campaign activities included: • Over 16,000 people signed our Fund Uni Fairly petition to Education Minister Dan Tehan. The petition was tabled in the Senate by ALP Senator Louise Pratt on 2 September.

• Actions with members in Tasmania and South Australia, pressuring key political decision makers.

• Nearly 6,000 people sent emails to the crossbench Senators urging them to block the Government’s legislation.

• Over 100 members from three NSW Branches sent emails to National Party MPs and Senators urging them to block the Bill because of the potential effects on regional universities.

• Nearly 600 members and supporters sent submissions to the Senate inquiry on the Government’s proposed legislation (over 80% of the submissions received by the Senate inquiry were negative about the proposed changes to funding).

• We developed a Fund Uni Fairly pledge that was signed by ALP and Greens MPs, independent Senator Rex Patrick from South Australia, and Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie.

• We regularly targeted social media ads at the crossbench Senators urging them to block the Bill.

• We ran a full-page advertisement in the Burnie Advocate on 21 August, urging the crossbench Senators (and Jacqui Lambie in particular, as Burnie is her hometown) to block the Bill.

• We launched a mobile billboard with Rebekha Sharkie’s face and own words on it and drove it around her electorate.

Image (this page): SaveHigherEd full page advertisement, The Age, 21 May 2020; Agenda, Sept 2020; Australian Universities’ Review, Sept 2020.

Images (opposite page): Sentry, Oct 2020; Advocate, July 2020; Connect, Sept 2020; Social media graphic from Fund Uni Fairly.

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• Our ACT members demonstrated against the Job-Ready Graduates bill in front of Parliament House on 28 August, the first sitting day of the last Parliamentary session.

• Over 80 NTEU Tasmanian members, students and supporters attended an online meeting on 24 September to discuss the Bill and our campaign.

• Over 180 people attended a national online seminar on 25 September to hear a presentation on the Bill and the campaign.

The meeting culminated in participants sending emails to the crossbench Senators, phoning their offices, and tweeting and posting on social media to get the message across to the MPs. • Nearly 300 people attended a snap online action called on 2 October and sent messages and emails to Centre Alliance MPs, urging them to block the Bill Despite the Bill eventually narrowly passing the Senate by one vote on 8 October, our campaign successfully changed the frame and won public support in a conversation which was about fairness and access, not ‘no-job vs. pro-job’ degrees.

We engaged with and mobilised thousands of members and supporters, and strengthened our political networks with the ALP, the Greens, Senators Rex Patrick (SA) and Jacqui Lambie (TAS) to vote against the Bill. Our campaign for fair uni funding will continue to run until the next federal election. We have reviewed our campaign strategy, tactics and team management so as to build a shared knowledge of best-practice for the next big fight.

13th NTEU wins court case defending the right to protest against NSW Police.

Magazines and journals Advocate Advocate (editor Alison Barnes) was published in November 2019 (vol. 26, no. 3), March 2020 (vol. 27, no. 1) and July 2020 (vol. 27, no. 2). The March edition was the first with a renewed cover and layout design. The July 2020 issue was sent to all members’ home addresses due to the lockdown.

Advocate is sent to all members. Average print run for the last year was 24,500, plus 7,000 e-delivery. The last three digital editions averaged 578 PDF downloads (with

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Organising, Campaigns & Communications

PDF downloading doubling for the lockdown issue of July 2020), 4,440 email unique opens and 625 issuu e-mag impressions. www.nteu.org.au/advocate Sentry Sentry (editor Alison Barnes) was launched in March 2020. It is a new digital monthly magazine, created as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sentry was designed to keep members informed and up-to-date during the shutdown of campuses. Published monthly, between issues of Advocate, it contains updates on NTEU campaigns and policy work, plus stories and advice from members relating to current events.

Agenda

Fund Uni Fairly

Agenda (editor Alison Barnes, produced in conjunction with WAC), was published in September 2020. It was a digital-only issue, and was partially re-designed to suit this format.

Fact sheets, briefing papers, banners, social media graphics, videos, newspaper adverts, Zoom backgrounds, a website and multiple activist tools were produced for our campaign against the Job-Ready Graduates package.

Agenda is sent to all members with sex listed as female or other. Digital print run for this year was 18,951. The edition garnered 315 PDF downloads, 6,130 email unique opens and 400 issuu e-mag impressions.

www.nteu.org.au/fundunifairly

www.nteu.org.au/agenda

• QUTE Conference (January 2020).

NTEU Tax Guide 2020

Sentry is sent to all members. Overall, the five editions have been well received, averaging 740 PDF downloads, 19,500 email unique opens and 1,790 issuu e-mag impressions.

Produced in conjunction with Teacher Tax, the NTEU Tax Guide was published in July (A4, 10pp, digital only). The 2020 edition has totalled 7,383 PDF downloads (an increase of 490% on 2019), and 1,967 issue e-mag impressions (increase of 360%).

www.nteu.org.au/sentry

www.nteu.org.au/tax

AUR Australian Universities’ Review (AUR), edited by Ian Dobson and overseen by the AUR Editorial Board was published in February 2020 (vol.

62, no. 1) and September 2020 (vol. 62, no. 2).

AUR is sent to all members who opt-in to subscribe. Average print run for the last year was 3,050, plus 12,750 e-delivery. AUR digital editions average 1,330 PDF downloads.

The two editions this year averaged 5,800 email unique opens and 2,000 issuu e-mag impressions. www.aur.org.au Connect Connect (editor Alison Barnes, produced in conjunction with the NTCC) was published in March 2020 (vol. 13, no. 1) and September 2020 (vol. 13, no. 2). The March edition launched a new cover and layout design.

Connect is sent to all casual members.

Average print run for the last year was 6,275, plus 2,075 e-delivery. The 2020 digital editions averaged 184 PDF downloads, 1,080 email unique opens and 565 issuu e-mag impressions. www.unicasual.org.au/connect

Events Print and digital items were created for: • Bluestocking Week (August 2020). ◆

Campaign publications National Jobs Protection Framework A 18-page digital brochure explaining the Union’s Job Protection Framework (JPF) was published in May. The PDF was downloaded 11,000 times (the highest ever for any NTEU publication), and there were 47,378 issuu e-mag impressions.

Scorecards were produced for each Division detailing every institutions’ commitment to protecting and supporting staff. These were updated whenever new information was received, and were successfully used to lobby VCs to deliver better outcomes for members.

A range of fact sheets were produced covering the JPF for casual members, for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander members, for women, with relation to JobKeeper & the Higher Education Rescue Package, and the vision for higher education.

Wage Theft Fact sheets, social media graphics and a website were created in support of the wage theft campaign. www.nteu.org.au/wagetheft

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Organising, Campaigns & Communications

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Union Education www.nteu.org.au/myunion/education_ training Education & Training Organiser: Helena Spyrou The program is overseen by the National Assistant Secretary

Union Education provides education and training to NTEU officers, members and staff which supports the Union’s objectives.

It is delivered by National Union Education Organiser Helena Spyrou along with National, Division and Branch staff and officers.

Union Education ensures knowledge and good practice that already exists within the Union is recorded, accessible and shared.

Union Education resources are made accessible via the NTEU SharePoint site. The NTEU Wiki and the Friday Sessions are two examples ways of sharing knowledge.

Shift in focus for Union Education Two things shifted the focus in 2019-2020.

Education Program Union Education engages NTEU members and staff as active learners engaging with complex issues. It builds on existing knowledge and asks participants to reflect upon their practice to develop new knowledge and practices.

Most work aims to be consistent with Union’s 2007 Education and Training Framework, which has three subject areas – the Union, the higher education system, and work and employment, and three components – knowledge, activities and practices.

The 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.

Image (this page): Members protesting to #SaveHigherEd outside Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s electoral office, May 2020.

Images (opposite page): Griffith Branch Vote No poster, Aug 2020; Social media graphic celebrating the Union win at Murdoch University, Sept 2020.

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Union Education develops education materials and training manuals to implement the program, including ‘train the trainer’ education. We provide expert content design, coordination, and delivery to NTEU conferences and workshops, such as the: Elected Leaders Conference, Women’s Conference, A&TSI Forum, Governance Workshop and All-Staff Conference.

Firstly, as a result of the managing change process in 2019, Union education now has one person in the position, not two and a greater emphasis is placed on organising and delegate and activist leadership development. This means a greater focus on the education and professional development of existing (and new) staff, newly elected NTEU leaders and delegates. Union Education also has a reduced role in hands-on delivery of courses in the Branches and Divisions and a greater role in developing courses and programs that will assist the Union to achieve its goals.

Secondly, due to COVID-19 closing down the National Office in March 2020, Union Education began prioritising member and delegate development through online delivery and closely supporting with other units – Policy, Industrial and Communications in organising briefings and workshops and in educating staff, delegates and members in the use of online tools and in the delivery of online workshops.

As well as producing materials for organisers and other staff to use to develop the organising and activist skills of members and delegates, Union Education has assisted

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Union Education

some divisions in running online briefings and workshops for members and delegates. The focus of these briefings and workshops has centred primarily around the growing impact of the COVID-19 crisis on our universities, the mass job losses that have ensued, WHS and the Job Protection Framework.

Delegate and activist leadership development through online delegate workshops Union Education has worked closely with some Divisions to develop an online program for delegates and activists who aspire to a greater future role in the Union. This provides more advanced knowledge about the sector, and policy and industrial issues – for example, union history and politics, being an effective workplace leader, along with learning specific workplace intervention skills (e.g. WHS, how to find out what members think) and include the existing general courses.

The SA Online Delegate Training Series is one example which began as a response to COVID-19. Union Education worked with Jess Jacobson, University of Adelaide delegate, and Cheryl Baldwin, SA Division Industrial Organiser, to shape the first series based on delegate feedback. The first series of four workshops ran in May and June and the success of this series prompted the organisers to put together a second series of four workshops ran in July and August.

The aim of this series is to encourage delegates to become more skilled and active in their workplaces and to work collectively to learn from and educate each other. Each one-hour session is run as an interactive workshop encouraging participants to engage in discussion, undertake an activity during the session and a follow up activity after the session. The organisers ensure that future delegate workshops and activities can include both face-to-face and online interaction.

This series acted as a model for other Divisions to take up similar projects. Union education also worked with Emma Gill, Tasmanian Division Industrial Officer and Janine Bryan, Tasmanian Division Organiser to help them develop their own online delegate

series with a focus on the Job Protection Framework Variation to the UTAS Enterprise Agreement.

Featuring delegates and members in NTEU publications Union education has been working closely with publications to feature member and delegate profiles and activist involvement as well as feature articles from member experts in each edition of Advocate, Agenda, Connect and Sentry.

Training on Enterprise Agreement Variations – UTAS, La Trobe, UWA , Monash, Adelaide The National Industrial Unit ran training session for Members of the CTMC (the joint committee established by the variations to the EBA) and officers and staff directly involved in the implementation of the Jobs Protection Framework (JPF).

Union education has been following up with each branch with a second session that identifies and plans organising opportunities in the JPF variations and developing an organising plan. Union education will also run a third session where each Branch involved will report on and evaluate progress and adjust their organising plans.

A mini-series of webinars was also introduced that uses NTEU staff expertise to focus on effective online organising and campaigning with delegates and members. This miniseries is for NTEU organisers, industrial organisers, industrial officers, comms staff and elected officers in Branch Committees.

NTEU Scholarship Program Union Education administers two NTEU scholarships: Joan Hardy Scholarship for post-graduate nursing research ($5000) and Carolyn Allport Scholarship for post-graduate feminist research ($15,000 over three years).

In 2020 Normally a decision is made within two weeks of the closing date.

However, this year we received an unprecedented number of applications – 16 for the Joan Hardy Scholarship and 164 for the Carolyn Allport Scholarship and we had to extend the date to give time to the assessors to read and consider each application. The scholarships were awarded in October 2020. ◆

Induction arrangements for new staff Union Education keeps updated an online induction kit and runs a two-day national induction course to learn about their role and the sector. Two courses were run during this period.

Financial governance training Union Education provided the mandated financial governance training to new officers.

The Friday Sessions – interactive online education sessions The Friday Sessions program, held fortnightly, continued throughout this period and have focused members, officers and staff running briefings and workshops mainly focusing on growing impact of the COVID-19 crisis on our universities, the mass job losses that have ensued, WHS and the Job Protection Framework.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Union Education

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Recruitment & Retention National Organiser (Media & Engagement): Michael Evans National Membership Officer: Melinda Valsorda

One of the few good news stories to come out of 2020 has been the growth in NTEU membership.

For the first time ever membership has passed the 30,000 mark, peaking at 31,002 in June 2020.

The Union has grown because it has demonstrated to higher education staff that it is the organisation that will best try to look after their interests, especially in a time of crisis, which has been the majority of 2020. And members know that the Union is strongest when significant numbers of staff in a workplace are members, and working together.

try to protect as many jobs as possible, and particularly those of casual and fixed-term staff.

NTEU continues to receive support from university staff that is clearly much higher than its membership numbers – as evidenced by the strong supporting vote that the Union’s position has achieved in ballots on proposed variations to enterprise agreements at several universities.

Our challenge is to translate that support into higher and stronger levels of membership and activism, as we move towards another bargaining round starting in 2021. ◆

In the face of serious revenue shortfalls at many universities which are leading to job losses, NTEU’s highest priority has been to

NTEU total membership numbers at 30 June, 2010–2020 32,000

30,953

30,000

27,458

28,000

27,529

27,153

27,187

27,355

27,608

26,111 26,675

26,000

24,279 24,000

24,318

22,000 2010

32

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Recruitment & Retention

Budget & Finance Finance Manager: Glenn Osmand Senior Finance Officer: Gracia Ho Finance Officers: Alex Ghvaladze, Tamara Labadze, Lee Powell, Daphne Zhang

2019-20 Union Expenditure

• Expenditure under budget by about $511,000.

The Defence Fund contribution rose from 3% to 6% this financial year.

The key highlights for the 2020/21 Budget are as follows: • Membership income to increase by about $429k or about 2.0% due to an increase in members, at least in the first part of the financial year.

The Unit also completes all disclosure requirements required by the Registered Organisations Commission.

Defence Fund Allocation 6% Discretionary 7% Operating 12% Branch & Division Salaries 55%

The National Finance Unit oversees all financial processes 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.

National Office Salaries 20%

• Total salaries (including on costs) to increase by about $618,000.

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 all expenditure transactions with three separate levels of authorisation and review.

• Operating and discretionary spending to decrease largely due to limited travel as well as a decrease in meetings and conferences and other COVID-19 related items.

Key features for the 2019/20 financial year are set out in the chart below, and include:

NTEU will publish Audited Financial Statements later in calendar year 2020 in line with regulations within the Registered Organisations Act and International Accounting Standards. ◆

• An operating surplus of $348,000 (against a budget deficit of $226,000).

• Membership income was lower than expected by $24,000.

INCOME Membership Fees Other Income

• A budgeted surplus of about $335,000.

Budget 2019/20

Actual June 2020

Variance

$

$

$

23,297,000

23,273,000

-24,000 85,000

5,000

90,000

23,302,000

23,363,000

Salaries, On-costs and Leave

4,747,000

4,703,000

-44,000

Operating

1,053,000

1,084,000

31,000 -366,000

EXPENSES National Office

Discretionary

1,495,000

1,129,000

7,295,000

6,916,000

12,430,000

12,547,000

117,000

1,573,000

1,634,000

61,000

832,000

522,000

-310,000

14,835,000

14,703,000

Defence Fund – 6%

1,398,000

1,396,000

-2,000

SURPLUS/(DEFICIT)

-226,000

348,000

574,000

Branches and Divisions Salaries, On-costs and Leave Operating Discretionary

Summary of 2019-20 Income and Expenditure – Actual vs Budget

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Budget & Finance

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ACT Division www.nteu.org.au/act Division Officers ACT Division Secretary: Rachael Bahl (to Jan 2020), Cathy Day (from Jan 2020) Assistant Secretary: Cathy Day (to Sept 2020) Division President: Marie Fisher (to Feb 20), Matthew King (to Aug 2020) Division Vice-Presidents: Dr Belinda Townsend (Academic), Matthew King (General) (to Feb 20)

Division Staff Division Industrial Officer: David Vincent-Pietsch Division Organisers: Dr Lachlan Clohesy, Dr Simon Dougherty

The ACT Division represents more than 1,100 members at four ACT public universities: Australian National University (ANU) including ANU College (ANUC); University of Canberra (UC), including UC College (UCC); Australian Catholic University (Signadou Campus, ACU); and UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA).

Recruitment & Membership Training and Development The NTEU ACT Division has undergone big changes during the last year, with Dr Cathy Day becoming Division Secretary in January 2020 (having acted in the role since mid2019). During that period, our membership has surged by 9.7% across the Division.

This has been driven primarily by a 13.6% increase at ANU, where we have prioritised creating strong Delegate structures. We have also had a modest increase in membership at the University of Canberra during the same period.

Image (this page): ANU members braved the early morning Canberra cold to get out the vote as part of a Vote No campaign against a non-union Agreement (Lachlan Clohesy).

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Though growth was apparent prior to the pandemic, the ACT Division also experienced strong growth in line with the broader NTEU from March this year. We expect membership numbers to fall as a result of voluntary separations and redundancies in response to COVID-19. Nevertheless, we are in a much stronger position to face future challenges than previously.

Enterprise Bargaining and Industrial Enforcement Our main site of industrial disputation has been the University of Canberra, as we dealt with matters outstanding from the 2018-9 round of Enterprise Bargaining. The NTEU secured a commitment from the University of Canberra to hold an independent review into the controversial Assistant Professor Scheme.

We moved to a dispute after the University withheld the findings of the ‘Independent Review into the Contingent-Continuing Program’, securing its release. We also initiated a dispute which ultimately led to a widening of the number of members eligible to opt-out of the Assistant Professor Scheme.

During the last year we also concluded Enterprise Bargaining with the ANU Student Associations (including the Australian National University Students’ Association (ANUSA), the Postgraduate and Research Students’ Association (PARSA), and Woroni (ANU student newspaper)).

Our bargaining team, led by members Kate Buscombe (PARSA) and Sam Guthrie (ANUSA), managed to secure an Agreement which maintained and extended a number of conditions. Most notable were a number of gains on equity issues, including the explicit recognition of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander staff for the first time (including commitments on A&TSI employment and recognition of cultural and ceremonial leave).

In addition, we’re also bargaining at ANU College, have had an Enterprise Agreement variation at the ANU, and have engaged with various managing change processes NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ ACT Division

including the School of Legal Practice at ANU, UC College, and the ANU Postgraduate and Research Students’ Association (PARSA).

cuts and wage theft, while tending to local issues related to workloads, support for online and remote delivery, and related WHS concerns.

Campaigning and Public Advocacy

Campaigns

Campaign Infrastructure – ANU Delegates

Paid Parental Leave at ANU

The greatest success in campaigning terms has not been any single campaign, but the establishment of campaign infrastructure.

At the ANU we have developed a process for nominating and endorsing Delegates as part of a formal Delegate structure.

Our ANU Women’s Action Network (WAN) continued their campaign, which began on International Women’s Day in March 2019, for improved Paid Parental Leave (PPL) at the ANU. The WAN has been campaigning to extend PPL to staff in their first 12 months of employment, and casually employed staff.

At the time of writing we have 22 endorsed Delegates across the university – a number which we aim to increase before Enterprise Bargaining next year. This is all the more remarkable considering that we had no formal Delegates prior to beginning this process in mid-2019.

UC Cases & Campaigns Committee

In order to broaden organising activity and lay groundwork for the training and development of future delegates, a Cases & Campaigns Committee was established at UC. Members democratically decided to focus on two campaign areas which seek to address crises that have acutely affected the sector in Canberra.

After a summer of smoke, fire, and hail, a Climate Justice Sub-Committee was established to strengthen community partnerships and influence UC’s strategic direction to include goals of fossil fuel divestment and a carbon neutral campus.

Work intensification since the COVID-19 crisis has seen the establishment of a Workloads Sub-Committee where members have been revising and enforcing workload guidelines, protecting leave entitlements, and successfully pressuring Deans to train managers in fair workload allocation.

UNSW Canberra at ADFA

The Sub-Branch Committee has been organised in a more structured way to encourage member-participation in organising activities run remotely from the Kensington campus, and locally at ADFA. This has enabled members to show solidarity with colleagues in Sydney combatting job NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ ACT Division

Their most high profile action was in November 2019. Following ANU’s achievement of Bronze Accreditation in the SAGE Athena SWAN program which promotes women in STEM, the WAN staged a campaign action with ‘Athena the Swan’ visiting Kambri (ANU’s central precinct). The WAN intends to push for greater PPL entitlements through to Enterprise Bargaining next year.

industrial support to resolve member cases often related to workloads and WHS. Fund Uni Fairly Action at Parliament

The NTEU ACT Division sent a delegation to Parliament to protest the Federal Government’s changes to higher education funding. Members recorded a video with a message aimed at Senate crossbenchers, calling on them to block the bill and to fund uni fairly as part of the NTEU’s national campaign.

We have welcomed new officeholders at Branches across the ACT Division, as members have sought to get involved in the democratic processes of their union.

The skills, knowledge and experience of the people who have come on board as Branch Committee members and Delegates (in addition to those who have served for some time) contribute to our strong position to build upon the foundations we’ve established in the previous year. ◆

Vote NO at ANU

NTEU members mobilised against the ANU Executive’s non-union variation to the ANU Enterprise Agreement in June 2020. Facing a popular Vice-Chancellor, our members were heavily engaged in a campaign involving 19 local area meetings in three days and hundreds contacted through phone banking.

Members also braved the early morning Canberra cold to hold signs as staff came to work on the first and last days of voting.

Images (this page): Dinith Adikari (ANU) #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfie, 21 May 2020; ‘Athena the Swan’ visited Kambri at ANU as part of the NTEU Women’s Action Network’s campaign for improved paid parental leave.

Ultimately the campaign for the ‘No’ vote failed by just 39 votes (out of almost 7000 eligible voters). Nevertheless, we were able to use the campaign to build longer term power and shock a management team who expected an easy victory without substantial opposition. The close result was a product of the growing strength of the ANU Branch, and particularly the role of our Delegates network.

ACU Signadou Campus

Members have contributed to the central campaign against ACU’s so-called “COVID-19 Recovery Plan” in order to protect jobs and pay from being used to prop up ACU’s surplus. Local NTEU staff continue providing 35

NSW Division www.nteu.org.au/nsw Division Officers NSW Division Secretary: Michael Thomson Division Asst Secretary: Damien Cahill Division President: Nikola Balnave Division Vice-Presidents: Terri Mylett (Academic), Kate Mitchell (General)

Division Staff Industrial Coordinator: Joshua Gava Senior Industrial Officer: Jeane Wells Senior State Organiser: Kiraz Janicke Division Industrial Officers: Lance Dale (to Mar 2020), Kobie Howe, Simon Kempton, Bradley Beasley, Samantha Ramsay (from May 2020) Comms & Campaigns Organiser: N Clark (to Jan 2020), Richard Bailey (from Feb 2020) Branch Organisers: Josh Andrews, Kaylene Ayers, Richard Bailey (to Feb 2020), Sharon Bailey, Martin Cubby, Stevie Howson (from July 2020), Rhianna Keen, Amity Lynch, David Mallard, Sean Mountford (from Oct 2019), Sean O’Brien, Kevin Poynter, Lisa Roberts, Sheryl Vine (from Feb 2020), Jenny Whittard Executive Officers: Kerrie Barathy, Sharon Muddle

The NSW Division represents almost 9,000 members at 11 NSW public universities: Charles Sturt University (CSU), Macquarie University, Southern Cross University (SCU), University of New England (UNE), University of NSW (UNSW), University of Newcastle, University of Sydney, University of Wollongong, University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Western Sydney University (WSU), and two Australian Catholic University (ACU) campuses.

The NSW Division has had a busy year.

Like others we have had to adapt to a COVID-19 world. This has meant working from home for NTEU staff and most NTEU members. A new way of working and organising. It has meant big member meetings by teams. It has also changed the way we relate to management proposals.

Overall, we have adapted well.

introduced. University managements have taken no responsibility for their system and financial planning. They have attempted to shift the blame to university staff.

At SCU we beat a non-union variation. Thanks to the work of SCU activists and NTEU staff.

All Branches have had growth in membership and across the Division we now sit around 9,000 members – up 1,000 in twelve months.

The NSW police are using the pandemic to ban public protest and demonstrations. We called a protest and applied for permission.

We submitted a COVID-19 safe plan as part of our application. The police refused our request and took us to the Supreme Court to ban the rally. In a big win the court approved the rally and the protest went ahead. It was important in that it set a precedent and will allow other rallies to go ahead.

Branches have begun preparing for the next round of bargaining. Campaign plans are being drawn up. ◆

The Division has been fighting for jobs at all Branches. The business model that university management relies on – fees from overseas students – has taken a big hit. It shows the fragility of a higher education system based on student fees. One that all university management welcomed and allowed to be

Image (this page): Michael Thomson, Damien Cahill, Kurt Iveson (USYD), Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi and Mark Morey (Unions NSW Secretary) protesting against jobs cuts and also for the right to protest, October 2020 (Richard Bailey).

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NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ NSW Division

Images (this page):Social media graphic for the NTEU Car Convoy, a socially distanced part of the National Day of Action, May 2020; USyd Casuals Network at the rally against jobs cuts and for the right to protest, October 2020 (Richard Bailey); Compilation of selfies from NSW Division members from the National Day of Action, May 2020.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 â—† NSW Division

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NT Division www.nteu.org.au/nt Division Officers NT Division Secretary: Rajeev Sharma Division President: Darius Pfitzner Division Vice-Presidents: Alan Berman (Academic) and Sylvia Klonaris (General)

Division Staff Division Industrial Officer: Heinz Schmitt Division Organiser: Susan Bandias

The Northern Territory Division represents 423 members at Charles Darwin University, Batchelor Institute and research institutes.

In the last year, NT Division has witnessed changes at many fronts. Our Division Council was revamped by co-opting new executives including Dr Alan Berman, Hemali Seneviratne and Amanda Brain. Susan Bandias also joined as an Organiser.

COVID-19

Image (this page): NT Division Bluestocking Week event, Sept 2020. L–R: Susan Bandias, Heidi McDonald, Debra Dank, Janine Oldfield, Sylvia Klonaris (Amanda Brain).

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Membership Despite the turbulence, in the past 12 months the NT Division has utilised every opportunity to engage new and prospective members over the issues currently facing CDU, Batchelor Institute and Flinders Medical Centre and the university sector in general.

A high Union presence on campus, regular communication with our members, a successful National Day of Action and Bluestocking Week cemented the valuable role of NTEU in the Northern Territory.

Things changed drastically with COVID-19 induced restrictions in the Northern Territory.

We engaged with Charles Darwin University (CDU) management to address staff concerns including working from home options.

Compared to other jurisdictions, we have been lucky in the NT as most restrictions were lifted much earlier with the spread of the virus brought under control in a reasonable period.

As at 8 October 2020 there were 423 members in the NT. This is slightly short of our all-time high of 435 members in November 2019. Constant restructuring and numerous rounds of redundancies initially eroded our membership total. However, the Division continues to recruit new members and our numbers are currently trending upwards.

We have been proactive in engaging with CDU management to deal with a COVID-19 induced restructure and its impact on staff numbers. After many rounds of deliberations, CDU decided not to opt for the Jobs Protection Framework, conceding that the adverse financial impact on CDU was not as severe as initially anticipated.

Some of the key developments to mention for Batchelor Institute include: a large number of redundancies last year, the beginning of EBA negotiations this year and changes in management (a number of serial temporary appointments and management staff leaving) which meant that Batchelor remained in limbo with no concerted effort to recruit students leading to a dramatic drop in student numbers.

While we have successfully managed the COVID-19 crisis, a much wider restructure was initiated last year resulting in the loss of many positions. We are currently dealing with the second phase of restructure that predominantly involves staff and positions in the VET sector.

Batchelor Institute

WAC Sylvia Klonaris attended International Women’s Day event ‘Hurdles’ to promote union activism.

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ NT Division

Similarly, an NT Division Bluestocking Event was organised in September 2020. The event highlighted the impact of mental health and wellbeing issues recognising the effects on women who are left to work full time, care for their children and work from home with the normal responsibilities including dealing with partners who were also impacted by COVID-19.

The Division Council along with Division staff have worked diligently for members’ rights and we are mindful of the challenges ahead. For example, CDU will soon have a new management team with current the VC and Provost leaving shortly and dealing with a new Education Minister in NT following the recent elections.

In closing I want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all NT Division Council members and staff including Darius Pfitzner, Sylvia Klonaris, Sue Bandias and Heinz Schmitt. ◆

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ NT Division

Images (this page): Amanda Brain (CDU) #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfie, 21 May 2020; Darius Pfitzner and Rajeev Sharma; NT members at a rally.

39

Queensland Division www.nteu.org.au/qld Division Officers Qld Division Secretary: Michael McNally Division Asst Secretary: Brad Astbury (to Feb 2020) Division President: Andrea Lamont-Mills Division Vice-Presidents: Leonie Barnett (Academic) (to Aug 2020), Garry McSweeney (General)

Division Staff Division Industrial Officers: Noeline Rudland, Rohan Hilton, Rob Rule, Kyla Johnstone, Alex Cousner Senior State Organiser: Michael Oliver Division Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Organiser: Phil Mairu (to Feb 2020) Division Training & Recruitment Organiser: David Szumer Branch Industrial Organisers: Peter Whalley-Thompson, Angela Scheers Branch Organisers: Erin Campbell, Kate Warner, Stewart de Lacy-Leacey, Patsy O’Brien, Melissa Webster.

Image (this page): Griffith Branch Vote No zoom party, September 2020.

Images (opposite page): Adam Stodden (GU) #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfie, 21 May 2020; Ramsay Centre protests at UQ.

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The Queensland Division represents more than 4,100 members at the seven Queensland public universities. The Division also has members at the Brisbane (Banyo) Campus of the Australian Catholic University, Bond University, and various higher education private providers across the state.

Pre-COVID-19 It’s hard to believe that there was a time before COVID-19. The second half of 2019 was very positive for the Queensland Division. Our priorities of Agreement implementation through collective campaigns, member training and development and an improved communications strategy were bearing fruit.

Membership continued to grow, so much so that we avoided the usual dip in membership that occurs each year in February/March.

The final Agreement in Round 7 Enterprise Bargaining was achieved at the University of the Sunshine Coast in September. Industrial action taken by members was key to the improvements gained in the Agreement.

One of the key development strategies that we planned for 2020 was to use the ‘EBfree’ year to build our organising capacity through our elected leaders. The first stage of this was a planned workshop with all of the Branch Committee members from across the state in Brisbane in early April. This was the first thing that we cancelled as a Division due to COVID-19.

COVID-19 The impact of the global pandemic has been terrible on the Division’s members and staff.

Key challenges for the Division have been: • Initial uncertainty of members in their workplaces about health and safety due to the possibility of coronavirus infections on campus.

• Massive workload increases with the transition of student services and teaching and learning to on-line delivery in very short time frames.

• The loss of insecure employment and its impact on casual and fixed-term staff and members.

• Large scale redundancies and severances that have decimated many work places.

• The complete abandonment of the sector by the Federal Government.

On the other hand, there have been many positives: • The ability to connect to large numbers of members (and non-members) via Zoom.

• Member engagement in collective campaigns around Health and Safety, Workloads, Insecure Work, University Funding and Right to Information.

• Demonstrations of solidarity by members showing a willingness to sacrifice their pay and leave entitlements to save the livelihoods of colleagues.

The staff of the NTEU Queensland Division have done a fabulous job during this time with Division Council passing the following motion in July:

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Queensland Division

This meeting of Queensland Division Council notes the amazing efforts of the staff of the Division. All staff have done an amazing job with huge workloads and transferring to working from home. As a Division, we have been able to maintain the exceptionally high levels of industrial support we provide to members while increasing our campaigning around many issues critical to the membership. Our staff have worked brilliantly in extraordinary circumstances and the Division Council thanks them for their efforts.

Job losses, Job Protection Framework, voluntary redundancies & variations It is impossible to reflect on the 2019-2020 year without looking at the efforts of the NTEU to secure improved job security for members through a nationally-negotiated, nationally-agreed Job Protection Framework.

Facing the reality of tens of thousands of job losses in the sector, the national leadership of the Union sought to negotiate a framework of Enterprise Agreement Variations to prevent stand downs and limit redundancies and create rights for insecure workers which they had previously never enjoyed.

In return, university management representatives sought concessions around pay and leave. In the end, just as agreement was being reached on a framework, the coalition of Vice-Chancellors splintered and the national framework fizzled.

Subsequently, in Queensland we have negotiated Variations at QUT. The Variations provide for no forced redundancies before July 2021, the creation of 40 fixed-term retraining positions to allow staff at risk of redundancy to change careers and stay at QUT, and the retention of some fixed-term and casual work for insecure workers. In exchange, staff will forego the 2% pay rise due in December for 12 months, forego their annual leave loading in 2021 and will have a 4-day closedown between Christmas and New Year. More than 90% of the QUT staff who participated voted in favour of the Variations.

Management tried negotiating Variations at both Griffith and James Cook, but were unable to come up with the commitments we required for job security and/or external

oversight. We campaigned against both those variations. Griffith are not able to proceed after academic staff rejected the Variation to the academic Agreement. Unfortunately, we narrowly lost the Vote No campaign at James Cook 51% to 49% and management are proceeding with the Variation there (after having to give various undertakings to the Commission to remedy their ‘inelegant drafting’).

At CQU, where management decided to cut staff rather than negotiate a Variation, we have seen 200 staff depart with voluntary redundancies and another 100 made forcibly redundant. That equates to roughly 15% of the continuing workforce at CQU and does not include all the insecure workers who have simply lost work. The impact of these losses will be far-reaching and ongoing not just for the remaining staff at CQU but also the regional towns that the university serves.

Managements at the Universities of Queensland, Southern Queensland and the Sunshine Coast have all indicated that they will not be pursuing variations to their Agreements. However, they like all Queensland universities are going through rounds of voluntary resignations/ retirements/redundancies/severances. The fallout for the membership as a whole is yet to be felt, but has already been felt at the CQU Branch.

Campaigns & lobbying During the second half of 2019 the Division was campaigning on a number of fronts.

At the political level, we campaigned hard and successfully to defeat the ‘Ensuring Integrity Bill’ with the support of Queensland crossbench Senators.

The Division was actively engaged with the student strikes for climate campaign with many members and Division staff attending rallies in Brisbane. Members set up an NTEU Climate Change Action Network with a goal of lobbying our institutions to divest from fossil fuels and support other climate change actions. The Queensland Division building also went solar.

and the implications for academic freedom in our universities. The initial decision that Ridd’s employment was unlawfully terminated and then the award of nearly $1.2 million in damages/compensation have unfortunately been overturned on appeal to the full Federal Court.

Members at UQ and across the Division campaigned strongly against the creation of a Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation.

UQ management proceeded despite the objections of the majority of staff and the Faculty Board of HASS that rejected the proposal. The Branch has continued to pursue the matter and is currently awaiting an external review of UQ management’s decision not to release the Philanthropic Agreement with Ramsay in response to our Right to Information application.

Membership growth & development As reported above, membership continued to grow steadily over the second half of 2019 into early 2020. The figure as at 30 June 2019 was 3,680 and had grown to nearly 3,800 by February. There was a massive increase in membership as the impact of the pandemic became clear with an almost 10% increase in membership in three months meaning we finished the year with an all-time high membership of 4,150.

Pleasingly, despite significant membership loss at CQU where 15% of the workforce were made redundant voluntarily or forcibly, the Division is holding steady.

The Division will continue to stand strong in the face of continuing uncertainty. Building upon a strong foundation of solidarity, the Division is well positioned to continue the fight for members’ rights and for a better sector for all. ◆

The Division sought to raise awareness amongst university staff of the Ridd decision

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Queensland Division

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SA Division www.nteu.org.au/sa Division Officers SA Division Secretary: Ron Slee Division Asst Secretary: Nick Warner Division President: Peter Cardwell Division Vice-Presidents: Virginie Masson (Academic), Katerin Berniz (General)

Division Staff Division Industrial Officers: Annie Buchecker, Kathy Harrington Division Industrial Organiser: Cheryl Baldwin Division Organisers: Juliet Fuller, Rebecca Galdies Administration Officer: Donna Good

The South Australian Division represents over 1,950 members at three public universities: University of Adelaide, University of South Australia and Flinders University.

assistance of national officers. In 2019 and for the early months of 2020 these were held face-to-face including an all-day Cultural Competency Education session conducted

by Adam Frogley with Uncle Lewis O’Brien providing valuable local knowledge and inspiration.

Recruitment & Membership, Training and Development

Katerin Berniz, Flinders Branch Secretary and National Councillor, was supported to attend a 4-day Advanced Training Intensive for union delegates at SA Unions. SA Unions held its annual Organising Conference in November 2019 – we attended along with 100 other officials. Three QUTE caucus members (Suzanne Edwards, Liz McNeill and Peter Cardwell) attended NTEU National QUTE Conference in Melbourne this year.

Over the last 12 months, membership increased by 3%.

Adelaide Branch increased membership by 5.5%, UniSA by 3.9%, Flinders by 1.4%. At Flinders, we lost many long-term members including seven Branch Committee officers, as a university-wide restructure impacted on hundreds of academic and professional staff.

Across all Branches, we monitored all resignations and while most who left the Union had retired or left the sector we minimised attrition by contacting every member whose membership lapsed because their fee payments had fallen behind.

Recruitment and retention plans are in place to rebuild membership density at each Branch.

Adelaide Branch has an active Campaign Committee, tasked with planning campaigns to recruit new members from amongst staff who feel apprehensive about their future employment especially in light of the financial hit to international student revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Federal Government’s legislation to further cut public funding to universities.

Image (this page): Mobile billboard created to convince Centre Alliance to #BlocktheBill, parked outside the University of South Australia, October 2020.

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We conducted a series of training sessions for delegates and Branch officers with the

In March, the two Division Organisers (Juliet Fuller and Rebecca Galdies) and the Division Secretary attended a training session conducted by Kristy Jones from the ACTU Behavioural Insights Unit. This turned out to be the last face-to-face training conducted by ACTU in SA this year.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Division Forums in SA were held on-line this year as was the National Forum and this enabled all invited members to participate.

Division Industrial Organiser, Cheryl Baldwin, led the coordination of 2 series of training sessions for Branch committee members and delegates. The first in May covered ‘becoming a delegate’, COVID-19 and the workplace, mental health at work, and the Fair Work Act and policy interpretation.

The second in July dealt with ‘neoliberalism and universities’, having a recruitment conversation, campaigning collectively, and NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ SA Division

how to organise ourselves and our members.

These sessions were attended by delegates from all Branches and facilitated by National Office staff Helena Spyrou, Linda Gale, Terri MacDonald and Kieran McCarron as well as local activists including Victoria Fielding and Kent Getsinger. Adelaide Branch Committee member, Jess Jacobson, devoted hours, energy and good humour to ensure these sessions were a success. Cheryl continued to provide new Branch committee member training at Adelaide.

Following Fair Work Commission approval of the Enterprise Agreement Variation at the University of Adelaide, NTEU members of the COVID-19 Temporary Measures Committee (Nick Warner, Virginie Masson and Cheryl Baldwin) received Job Protection Framework training organised and conducted by Helena Spyrou, Ken McAlpine and Kelly Thomas.

In June, three Branch Delegates and our two Division Organisers, Juliet Fuller and Rebecca Galdies, participated in training conducted by the Centre for Australian Progress.

In March, Donna Good enrolled in a 5-day Health and Safety Representative training program run by SA Unions.

Many of our delegates, members and staff attended training and briefing sessions conducted this year by National Office staff from Industrial & Legal, Policy & Research, and Campaign & Organising Teams. Not only were these sessions very informative but being on-line enabled greater attendance than would normally be possible.

Public Advocacy and Campaigns Much of our focus was directly linked to national campaigns. We worked to defeat the Ensuring Integrity Bill, which was successful although in SA we were unable to persuade Centre Alliance Senators to oppose it. We joined the campaign to expose and redress wage theft in higher education and the ‘Stand with Gerd’ campaign.

We fought the Fund Uni Fairly campaign which, in the short term, failed to block the Job-Ready Graduates Bill (in SA our attempts to persuade Senator Griff failed although Senator Patrick voted against the Bill).

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ SA Division

Of course, this campaign had its origins in our attempts to save jobs in universities hit harshly by the COVID-19 pandemic. We gave top priority to the Jobs Protection Framework (JOF) campaign and to pressuring the Federal Government to provide a financial rescue package for universities. In SA, the University of Adelaide agreed to a temporary Enterprise Agreement variation in accordance with the JPF but the other two public universities declined.

We are members of Labour History SA and participated in their monthly events and annual conference. We plan to hold our annual Bluestocking Dinner as a live event later this year, celebrating historic struggles and achievements of women in higher education, canvassing current challenges and raising funds for Catherine House, which provides accommodation for women experiencing homelessness. ◆

We also urged the State Government to provide financial support to universities.

NTEU was one of a group of unions that met weekly with the SA Economic Recovery Reference Group to push proposals to save jobs in SA, including a range of measures designed to rebuild higher education.

In addition to national campaigns, our Branches conducted local campaigns around workloads, student evaluation surveys, restructures, health and safety issues for staff working from home and on campus, academic role statements, on-line teaching as well as breaches of their Enterprise Agreement. Following an ICAC investigation and the subsequent resignation of Peter Rathjen as Vice Chancellor, the Adelaide Branch campaigned around governance and related issues canvassed in the ICAC report.

Images (this page): Nicholas Glover (UniSA) #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfie, 21 May 2020; Flinders Branch Heart of the University, Dec 2019; ‘We are the University’ recruitment poster.

All of the national campaigns and some of the local campaigns provided opportunities for the NTEU to lift its public advocacy profile on important political, social and environmental issues. Some of our participation was limited to virtual engagement.

Events SA Division is affiliated with the May Day Collective and this year May Day celebrations were conducted by zoom; our QUTE caucus met to commemorate International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia on 17 May albeit not in the same room as they had at the Qute Queeries quiz night in previous years.

However, not everything was restricted

by COVID-19. We celebrated International Women’s Day, marched with 10,000 others in Adelaide at a climate strike rally and spoke at NUS and SA Union protest events.

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Tasmanian Division www.nteu.org.au/tas Division Officers Tas Division Secretary: Kelvin Michael Division President: Darren Turner Division Vice-Presidents: Natalia Nikolova (Academic), Rob Anders (General)

Division Staff Division Industrial Officer: Emma Gill Division Organiser: Shannon Harwood (to July 2020) Branch Organiser: Janine Bryan (from Feb 2020)

The Tasmanian Division represents over 750 members at the University of Tasmania (UTAS).

very rapid pace, and the proposed Variation was approved by National Executive, and by members at UTAS. The Variation entered into force in July 2020.

Like every other Division, the last year has been dominated by the impact of COVID-19 on international student arrivals. Our members at UTAS have been bent, but not broken, by the demands of rapid shifts to online delivery and working from home, while at the same time coping with changes to both academic and professional structures.

Since that time, weekly meetings of the COVID-19 Temporary Measures Committee (CTMC) have been convened to provide oversight of the Variation. The greatest impact thus far has been the removal of a 2% pay rise scheduled for July 2020 and a round of voluntary redundancies which will see an expected 150 staff depart from the university’s employment before the end of 2020.

The industrial focus remained on implementation of the UTAS Staff Agreement, culminating in the negotiation of a variation to the Staff Agreement.

The organising activities were centred around member training and delegate recruitment.

In February 2020, Matt McGowan visited the Tasmanian Division and partook in the annual Division Council planning process. He spoke to the Division Council about the National leadership’s plans for the direction of the Union. Later in the same month, Division staff met over 2 days to draw up the 2020 work plan based on the priorities expressed by the Division Council.

Division leadership continued to hold some meetings with various levels of UTAS management to discuss global or localised issues.

Bargaining & Enforcement

Image (this page): UTAS members at a Fund Uni Fairly Zoom meeting, 24 Sept 2020.

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In June 2020, UTAS management approached the Tasmanian Division seeking a possible variation of the UTAS Staff Agreement to manage the financial challenges posed by COVID-19. Negotiations were conducted at a

On a different note, bargaining for the TUU Staff Agreement, which affects a small number of members employed by the Tasmanian University Union, was concluded after an extremely drawn-out process. The finalisation of the Agreement overlapped with change management applied by TUU management, in response to reduced funding from UTAS to the TUU. Academic workload remains a perennial source of discontent at UTAS. The Tasmanian Division continues to promote the creation and revision of academic workload models across all colleges of UTAS, however the overall sentiment among our academic members is discontentment – which can be traced to dissatisfaction with an existing model and/or frustration re lack of progress towards a new model and/or lack of confidence in the application of any model by line management.

In this vein, the Tasmanian Division was successful in re-convening the Academic Workload Consultative Committee, which is

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Tasmanian Division

established under the UTAS Staff Agreement to guide the development of workload models and documentation.

Organising Membership growth within the Division has been strong ~ 6.5% for the year, mostly delivered in the second quarter of 2020 – with similar growth patterns for both academic and professional members.

The Division is bracing for increased membership losses associated with voluntary redundancies as well as other structural changes in the wind at UTAS. In October 2019, the Division ran a series of member training workshops on academic workloads under the Staff Agreement.

These sessions were very useful in terms of explaining the way that the treatment of academic workloads had changed since the previous Staff Agreement, and seeking to empower members to work collegially to the greatest degree possible to achieve positive outcomes.

Staff of the Division attended the Unions Tasmania-sponsored Organising for Growth Conference in March 2020 to learn about effective organising strategies and initiatives.

Fortuitously, there was a focus on online organising, which quickly became highly relevant as the country entered different stages of lockdown in the ensuing months.

Campaigning The Jobs-Ready Graduate Bill brought by Dan Tehan and the Liberal/National Government placed the focus on the crossbench senators.

From August to October 2020, the Tasmanian Division encouraged members and the broader community to contact Senator Jacqui Lambie (Tas) and ask her to block the Bill.

Members participated in a zoom meeting with ALP politicians Tanya Plibersek and Senator Louise Pratt, holding large print versions of a national petition with over 16,000 signatures.

Members also turned out for a snap action via zoom meeting which encouraged social media contacts with Senator Lambie’s office.

The leadership of the NTEU at both national and state level were successful in holding a

meeting with Senator Lambie – the meeting took place one day after she had declared her opposition to the Bill (hooray) and also involved Michele Dowlman (NTEU member) as well as a student activist (Miranda Bennett) and a parent and teacher from the Tasmanian community (Simone McManus).

As the sad reality of the Bill’s future became apparent, members of the Tasmanian Division also turned their campaigning energy upon politicians from the South Australian Centre Alliance whose support in the end allowed it to pass – a pox be on their houses!

Media Various sections of the media have been keenly interested in the goings-on at UTAS over the last 12 months.

The impacts of COVID-19 on the finances of the University made headlines, as did the idea of a negotiated variation to the Staff Agreement to address some of the financial stressors. UTAS management have persisted with the moves of campus infrastructure into the centres of Burnie and Launceston, but deferred similar moves into the Hobart CBD due to the current economic situation.

The media have also been enthralled with our previous Vice-Chancellor, Peter Rathjen, following his fall from grace at the University of Adelaide and the subsequent revelations of patterns of sexual harassment, including proven allegations from many years earlier and prior to his arrival at UTAS. As the current UTAS Vice-Chancellor seeks to distance himself and other senior staff from the shade of Rathjen, it must be said that his legacy remains, and will continue to affect the operations at the University of Tasmania for many years unless there is a dramatic change in outlook, attitude and direction – which seems very unlikely in today’s world of corporate higher education.

Images (this page): Fiona McCarthy (UTAS) #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfies, 21 May 2020; UTAS members displaying the Union’s Fund Uni Fairly petition, Sept 2020; Social media graphic thanking Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie for voting against the Job-Ready Graduates Bill.

Leadership Renewal After 6 years in the role of Division Secretary, Kelvin Michael will step down prior to 2020 National Council. During the last year, Division Council has been considering the succession process and will make interim arrangements until elections are run. ◆

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Tasmanian Division

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Victorian Division www.nteu.org.au/vic Division Officers Victorian Division Secretary: Mel Slee Division Asst Secretary: Sarah Roberts Division President: Mark Shier Division Vice-Presidents: Christian Haesemeyer (Academic), Cathy Rojas (General)

Division Staff Senior Industrial Officer: Linda Gale Division Industrial Officers: Joe Nunweek, Rob Binnie, Clare Danaher, Margaret Maloney, Serena O’Meley, Corey Rabaut, Rhidian Thomas Division Industrial Organisers: Janet Bourke, Jesse Page, Linda Cargill, Lisbeth Latham, Colin Muir, Garry Ryan Senior State Organiser: Chloe Gaul Division Organisers: Aimee Hulbert, Simon Linskill, David Willis, Rifai Abdul, Frank Gafa, Roberta Stewart, Amelia Sully (on parental leave), Cal Parsons (parental leave appointment), Ben Kunkler, Trevor Miller Campaigns & Communications Officer: Toby Cotton Admin Officer/Executive Support: Adrienne Bradley

Image (this page): Deakin staff led by Branch President Kerrie Saville protesting in response to the University’s decision to cut jobs (Alison Wynd).

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The Victorian Division represents over 10,600 members at nine public universities: Deakin University, Federation University Australia (FUA), La Trobe University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, RMIT University, Swinburne University, Victoria University (VU) and two campuses of Australian Catholic University (ACU) and many TAFE sites and smaller education providers, such as William Angliss and Navitas.

It is safe to say 2020 has been challenging, particularly in the Victorian Division where the state has been in prolonged lockdown.

Nonetheless, the Victorian Division has continued its focus on organising – remotely as required! The Division is dedicated to building our organising capacity through grassroots campaigns, identifying and training new delegates and membership growth.

Recruitment & Membership, Training and Development The Division has resourced its strategy of building organising capacity by increasing its organising team. Following a major change process, one outgoing Industrial Officer was replaced with an Organiser.

The Division also experimented with appointing Member Organisers and successfully appointed one of those Member Organisers to an ongoing Organiser role.

However, there was discomfort with appointing staff on insecure contracts. This approach has therefore been abandoned.

The Division has also invested considerable resources in formal training and development for our organising team through the Australian Trade Union Institute.

In turn, the Organising team has conducted regular training sessions for delegates and members in organising, recruitment and campaigning. With the advent of COVID-19, these sessions were successfully moved online. The Division has also hosted online talks and seminars of general interest to the membership.

COVID-19 The advent of the pandemic and its devastating impacts on student enrolment and in turn university finances put the Division under considerable pressure as we campaigned for a government support package and against redundancies and aggressive management cost-cutting measures.

Campaigning for a government rescue package Despite being in lockdown, Victorian Division worked closely with the National Office to deliver a number of very successful National Days of Action to demand the Scott Morrison Government extend JobKeeper to the university sector and fill the more than $4.5 billion shortfall.

The campaign included social distancing pickets of Dan Tehan and Josh Frydenberg’s offices, mass online meetings and a social

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Victorian Division

media campaign which saw the NTEU’s hashtag of SaveHigherEdJobs trend second in Victoria (after COVID-19, of course).

The failure of the Federal Government to defend the sector saw the NTEU focus on the Branches to prevent senior managements from forcing staff to bear the brunt of the funding shortfall.

Melbourne Uni The University of Melbourne Branch successfully mobilised members to defeat a non-union ballot. 64% of all staff voted “NO” to reject management’s proposal to vary their Enterprise Agreement. The proposal would have seen a pay cut of 2.2% without any enforceable guarantees on job security.

Management withdrew from national negotiations with the NTEU to pursue a variation that would avoid scrutiny and financial transparency.

During an online meeting with the biggest turnout in a generation, NTEU members voted 97% to launch the Vote No campaign.

In a huge mobilisation effort over the course of two weeks, members, delegates and NTEU staff spoke to over 2000 people in open meetings across all faculties.

Volunteers from the membership and NTEU staff with support from staff in the ACTU chipped in to make thousands of calls to bring out the vote.

Monash Monash NTEU Branch successfully secured a Jobs Protection Framework in line with the NTEU’s national COVID-19 strategy. 83.6% of NTEU members at Monash voted in favour of the framework and 89.3% of all Monash staff subsequently endorsed the approach. Up to 140 staff joined the NTEU in the fortnight leading up to the NTEU ballot.

Using the framework, the NTEU was able to save fixed term and casual jobs and campaigned to secure up to one day per week of paid carer’s leave for home-schooling parents (ACU and La Trobe secured similar outcomes for carers).

The Monash NTEU Branch met workplace by workplace to ensure a fair and reasonable approach to voluntary redundancies. There

were no involuntary redundancies. Monash Branch continues to grow.

La Trobe The NTEU secured a Jobs Protections Framework at La Trobe. However, La Trobe University continues to struggle financially and recently announced 400 redundancies.

minutes to mark assessments. RMIT has also had some success in prosecuting unfair pay for casuals.

Coming out of this crisis, the Victorian Division will continue to fight for a university system built on reliable government funding and fair, secure jobs.

The struggle continues! ◆

Mass redundancies Managements at Deakin and RMIT were the most aggressive in pursuing mass redundancies in response to the pandemic.

Deakin university was the first to pursue 400 forced redundancies with no option for voluntary redundancies. It was accompanied by a major restructure of the campus.

NTEU successfully prosecuted Deakin management in the Fair Work Commission for their failure to appropriately consult with the NTEU and staff. Unfortunately, improved consultation did not abate management’s plans.

Meanwhile, RMIT lost 355 staff in voluntary redundancies and then 345 in forced redundancies. A mix of voluntary and involuntary redundancies are planned for 190 jobs to go at VU. A voluntary round of redundancies is currently underway at Swinburne. Countless casuals and fixed term contract staff on all campuses did not have their contracts renewed.

Images (this page): Retired member Patrick Hutchings #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfie, 21 May 2020; UniMelb casuals rally on campus demanding to be paid isolation sickleave so that they would not be forced to choose to go to work and spread #COVID-19, March 2020 (Toby Cotton); NTEU Victoria’s COVID-19 scorecard from 17 March 2020.

COVID-safe workplaces Although staff and students have not returned to the campuses in Victoria, the NTEU has taken action to train our staff and in turn to train HSRs and delegates throughout the State via Victorian Trades Hall Council and the ACTU’s Australian Trade Union Institute. OH&S will continue to be an important focus for the Division.

Justice for casuals: Wage theft campaign The NTEU ensured that Melbourne Uni made headlines with its scandalous wage theft with around 1500 academic casuals owed millions of dollars in backpay. Casual academics were being paid around a half and a third of what they should have been paid including a piece rate system that saw casuals paid just three

NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Victorian Division

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WA Division www.nteu.org.au/wa Division Officers WA Division Secretary: Jonathan Hallett Division Assistant Secretaries: Richard Hamilton (Academic), Corinna Worth (General) Division President: Catherine Moore Division Vice-President: Sam Green

Division Staff Senior State Organisers: Donna Shepherdson, Paul Benson (leave coverage, April to June 2020) Industrial Officers: Katherine Morison (to March 2020), Simona Grieco (to April 2020), Joe Fiala (from April 2020), Nashell Ireland (from June 2020) Division Organisers: Eileen Glynn, Raechel Smith, Ryan Costello (to July 2020), Beth Cole (on extended leave from Dec 2019), Claire McKinnon (from Dec 2019), Phil Chilton (from April 2020), Henry Booth (from Oct 2020) Member Services Officer: Jayne van Dalen

The Western Australia Division represents just over 2,600 members at the four public universities in WA: Curtin University, Edith Cowan University (ECU), Murdoch University and the University of Western Australia (UWA) as well as the University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA).

The Division also represents members at Student Unions at all the four public universities, Research Institutes (largely affiliated with UWA) and private providers such as Navitas.

A year of extraordinary change, challenge and growth We have continued the reorientation of the WA Division towards an organising model at Branches and bedding down the new staffing structure and roles adopted mid-2019. We completed a review of industrial servicing in the Division with outcomes including changes to databases and file management processes, realignment of some workplace issues to Branch-based staff and transition to new referral processes.

Individual member queries for industrial advice and representation are now increasingly being directed towards our Member Services Team, freeing up our Organisers located on campus to work with delegates and members to take collective action and support local campaigns. Other staff professional development has included Mental Health First Aid and workplace

health and safety training. In addition, most Branch Presidents have completed training on deep organising, and this has continued to be rolled out further among other elected officers.

The impact of COVID-19 and the loss of international student revenue has reverberated throughout the sector and Union. Responding to COVID-19 meant diverting much NTEU work online and internal adoption of new software and systems to maintain member support and activism. Staff and officers have rapidly developed new skills in digital organising and online collaboration.

WA was fortunate to be able to implement return to campus COVID-19 Safety Plans ahead of the rest of the country with a comparatively short period of lockdown with NTEU staff working from home.

The membership of the WA Division has significantly increased this last year in part due to a large boost during the initial stages of the crisis and then continued growth over recent months with Branch activity on poorly thought through change processes, excessive workloads and other attacks by management on jobs and working conditions.

ECU Branch has done significant work in reviewing university policies and supporting members through challenges in working from home and returning to work post COVID-19 shutdowns.

University of Notre Dame Australia enterprise bargaining progresses slowly in fits and starts and work with private providers has had a national focus on wage theft.

Image (this page): UWA Branch members, Feb 2020.

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NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 â—† WA Division

Events for Bluestocking Week, Wear it Purple Day and IDAHOBIT were held online and innovative socially distanced campus events.

WA Branches supported national campaigns against the Federal Government’s reforms to higher education including local actions, lobbying mobilisation and joining with Student Guilds at UWA and Curtin in rallies.

Win for whistleblowers and academic freedom Murdoch University withdrew all legal claims against whistleblower member Gerd Schröder-Turk in February and will no longer attempt to prevent Gerd from serving on the University Senate. This brought to a close almost a year of campaigning and legal action.

In the final settlement of the case Murdoch agreed to an ‘independent review’ of Senate procedures/protocols. Subsequently TEQSA also reported that “Murdoch had been at risk of non-compliance due to an inconsistent application of its own Admissions practices, which resulted in the admission of some international students (in 2018) who were ill-equipped to progress through their course of study” further vindicating the whistleblowers’ actions.

Protecting jobs at UWA: If the work stays, the job stays The extreme financial pressure stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic required extraordinary measures to avoid mass job losses. NTEU negotiated a Jobs Protection Framework at The University of Western Australia to maximise job security during this time of crisis for our sector with temporary variations to UWA’s Enterprise Agreements, in conjunction with a Memorandum of Understanding.

The proposal involved staff making temporary sacrifices in return for an enforceable commitment to protect jobs to substantially reduce forced redundancies, prevent unpaid stand-downs, minimise potential job losses in 2020-21, and provide greater security for casual and fixed term staff.

The variations were supported in June by 79% of voting members in an internal ballot NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ WA Division

followed by 77% support in a vote of all UWA staff.

A new Our Workload Commitment campaign has subsequently rolled out across the University, with the purpose of building unity, monitoring workloads and collecting data for any industrial disputes that may be necessary to enforce the University’s Workload Framework or the job protection measures of the temporary variations.

Major wins against non-union ballots attacking pay and conditions While the COVID-19 crisis has had a financial impact on Curtin University, the hard work of the staff accompanied by the University’s accrual of a large investment reserve over the past decade has meant that Curtin is one of a very few universities across the country capable of weathering this storm relatively unscathed.

against their and their colleagues’ best long-term interests. Staff didn’t fall for it and the tremendous rejection of Murdoch’s Senior Executive drive to attack staff pay and conditions tells the University that NTEU members are a united and powerful voice.

In a tragic end to this reporting period an incident on a construction site at Curtin University on 13 October resulted in a loss of life and injury to others. We send our sympathies to these families, our solidarity to our CFMEU WA colleagues and continue to pledge our support for the labour movement’s continuing efforts to ensure every worker returns home from work safely. #StandUpSpeakOutComeHome. ◆

The 55% majority rejection in September of Curtin management’s proposal to freeze salaries sends an important message that staff were not convinced of the necessity to give up a pay increase in order to preserve jobs, and value the delivery of quality education over protecting investment reserves and a profit at any cost.

Following the ballot result to not forgo the 2% pay increase due 30 June 2021, the premature and unnecessary step taken by Curtin University management to press forward with its program of mass voluntary redundancies, painted a disappointing picture of disingenuous consultation and disregard to the constructive views offered up by staff and the Union to date.

Images (this page): Becky Ioppolo (UWA) #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfie, 21 May 2020; Members painting the WA Division’s Save Higher Ed Jobs banners; Social media graphic celebrating the Union win at Curtin University, Sept 2020.

Murdoch University staff also voted in September to overwhelmingly reject management’s attacks on their pay and leave conditions with 73% voting no to a proposed variation to their Enterprise Agreement.

Murdoch management had failed to be transparent in their dealings with staff and NTEU about university finances and refused to provide any commitment to the protection of jobs.

Murdoch even tried to exploit the vulnerability of their most insecure workers by offering a $500 inducement to vote 49

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