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
