NTEU University of Sydney Branch July 2018 Edition of the QuadRant Magazine.

Quadrant

Newsletter of the Sydney Branch of the NTEU July 2018

In this Issue Ramsay Centre for Civilisation - Time to Walk Away 1 Casual Wins

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Boiling the Academic Frog

2

Campaign for happy workspaces 2 Right to Strike

3

Bullying Workshop 3 Change the Rules 3 Your Pay Rise

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This is an NTEU Magazine for all staff at the University of Sydney. Non members can join the NTEU by using the membership form on page 5.

Ramsay Centre for Civilisation Time to Walk Away As you might be aware, efforts by the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation to sponsor university courses on western civilisation have generated considerable debate nationally. Ramsay Centre Board Member Tony Abbott penned a piece for the other Quadrant (!) which set out a strongly ideological agenda for such a course, which was to be part of a march through our institutions of higher education to produce a cadre of students who are strongly in favour of western civilisation.

While Ramsay Centre CEO Simon Haines has distanced himself and the Ramsay Centre from some of Abbott’s views, he has nonetheless repeated similar claims that Australian universities are teaching the wrong things about Western civilisation, that they are doing it in the wrong way, and that students are therefore emerging from universities thinking the wrong things (see Sydney Morning Herald, June 22).

The Australian National University and the University of Sydney were two of the institutions that lodged expressions of interest to host Ramsay-sponsored courses.

The ANU has withdrawn from negotiations with the Ramsay Centre.

The Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of ANU have written that they did so

when it became clear that “the centre’s continued demands for control over the program … were inconsistent with the university’s academic autonomy” (The Australian 26 June).

Negotiations between the University of Sydney and the Ramsay Centre are still on-going at the time of writing.

In June, our Member Meeting passed a motion calling on university management to immediately withdraw from any further negotiations with the Ramsay Centre, and to develop a more robust policy framework for dealing with any future proposals to sponsor educational offerings at our university. This motion was recommended to members by the Branch Committee because we believe that we now know enough about the Ramsay Centre’s agenda to know that it is incompatible with the core values of academic freedom, integrity, autonomy and inclusion. They are not seeking to enhance what we do, but to change it in line with their ideological assessment of what we are doing wrong.

You can visit our Branch website to see full text of the motion, our letter to the Vice-Chancellor, and any further updates on this matter: nteu.org.au/sydney/ramsay

Authorised by: K. Iveson, President, NTEU Sydney University Branch, Room 390, Merewether Bldg H04 ph 9351 2827 | sydney@nteu.org.au | www.nteu.org.au/sydney

Casual Wins

casual staff can be downloaded here:

Weeks after starting work for the university at the start of semester 1 this year, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of casuals at the University of Sydney had still not received their contracts so were not getting paid. After raising the issue of delays with the processing of contracts, contracts were expedited for most of the NTEU members whose names we provided to university management. Whilst we will claim this as a win, there are obvious structural issues that need to be addressed before Semester 2, not only for the University to be complying with the Fair Work Act in regard to the employment of casual staff, but more importantly, to ensure that precariously employed staff are not placed into further precarious situations when promised income is not forthcoming.

unicasual.org.au/resources/ smart_casuals

Many of the responses that we received to our all-staff email about this issue noted that delays to contracts are not only experienced by casual staff – it appears that some staff experience delays while waiting for fixed-term and on-going contracts that are not ready in time for start dates.

But does having 40:40:20 mean that academic staff at Sydney Uni have the time they need to do their job? For years the NTEU has heard countless stories from members who say that they cannot fit their workload into a normal working week, or who are unreasonably expected to take on extra work such as massive curriculum changes or administrative work like Concur – work that would have been the responsibility of the General Staff colleagues they lost when their department or school was restructured. Members are also increasingly reporting being subject to Performance Improvement Plans because the extra administrative duties they have taken on are preventing them from achieving research goals.

We do not seek to level blame at any individual staff in human resources or administration for such delays.

The delays are so widespread that they are clearly systemic – as such, we are seeking systemic solutions.

NTEU members met on April 18 to develop solutions to this untenable situation. We are seeking a serious commitment to solving this issue, so that this will be the last semester when hundreds of casual staff find themselves working without a contract for weeks at a time.

NTEU casual members developed a guide for any staff who employ casual staff at the university, in order to foster a university-wide culture that protects casual rights instead of exploiting these insecure workers. Please contact the Branch Office for a copy of the Guidelines.

The NTEU branch has also developed a handbook for casual staff at the university, to understand their rights and how to navigate a pathway out of precarious employment. Copies of the handbook for Sydney Uni 2

Boiling the Academic Frog The 40:40:20 academic workload calculation has been the envy of most academics from around the country who work at Universities where such an entitlement has never been won. The Sydney Uni branch can be proud of the position it fought for last year during the enterprise bargaining campaign, when management threatened the 40:40:20 workload allocation and quickly backed down when the Union launched a visible campaign to combat any change.

The NTEU campaigned hard last year to win improvements to the way academic workload is developed in each Faculty or School. Clause 323 of the new EA says that workload allocation policies “will be developed by a collegiate committee involving members of the academic staff including a representative of casual academic staff.” This presents a real opportunity for academic NTEU members to take action in their workplace and use these new structures to ‘turn down the heat’ and reverse the trend towards overload.

How can you participate?

Get in touch with the NTEU Branch to indicate that you are interested to be involved in the committee process to develop your Faculty/ School’s workload policy going forward.

Academic members from every Faculty/School are encouraged to attend a NTEU a meeting on 15 August at 1pm in New Law LT 024 to discuss the workload issues at this time, and to develop a concrete plan for how the new committees and consultation in each Faculty/ School can be used to influence better outcomes for academics.

Campaign for happy workspaces There are cranes all over the University, at several campuses, constructing new buildings in which many of us will work over the coming years. But does ‘new’ also mean ‘improved’? The NTEU is concerned that management is configuring work spaces in several of these new buildings in ways that are dehumanising and detrimental to the health and wellbeing of staff.

We are also concerned about ongoing problems and maintenance issues in existing buildings.

As a first step in our campaign to address these workspace issues, in June the NTEU organised a ‘Town Hall’ meeting open to all staff.

Issues that were raised at that meeting included: • Lack of genuine consultation with staff over the design of new workspaces and buildings; • Open plan offices and activity-based spaces are being designed without due consideration for the need for privacy, personalisation, or the ability to escape from distractions; • Cramped workspaces and proposals for some support staff to ‘float’ without a fixed ‘base’; • Large backlogs of maintenance issues in older buildings relating to issues like climate comfort, toilets, and water leaks.

NTEU members moving into the new F23 administration building, and the ‘floating’ tech staff in AV Services, have already had local wins when they have organised and collectively asserted their needs and rights. We will

continue to collect information on workspace issues in the coming weeks, and will be taking these issues up collectively with Campus Infrastructure Services as part of our on-going campaign.

If you would like to get involved in this campaign, contact the branch organisers by emailing sydney@ nteu.org.au. This information will be useful to our broader campaign, and we can also connect you with union members experiencing similar issues to help you make positive changes to your workplace.

If you have immediate concerns over workplace health and safety, it is vital that you make use of the University’s RiskWare system to report such matters: sydney.edu.au/whs/report/ about_riskware.shtml

Right to Strike

From the “Fair Work” Commission upholding the termination of Enterprise Agreements (such as at Murdoch University and Port Kembla Coal Terminal) to ruling the Sydney train drivers’ strike illegal due to potential “economic damage”, to cutting penalty rates - Australia’s industrial rules are clearly broken.

The anti-strike laws passed by successive Labor and Coalition governments since the 1990s have led to a sharp decline in industrial action and union membership.

Australian workers face more restrictions on the ability to withdraw our labour than any other OECD country. Strikes are only legally “protected” during periods of Enterprise Bargaining. Workers who vote to take “protected” industrial action during Enterprise Bargaining can have that action over-turned – as both train drivers in Sydney and university staff at Monash University have experienced.

Our Branch of the NTEU has committed to playing a role in campaigning to restore the right to strike in Australia.

As part of that campaign, we hosted a well-attended public forum on the right to strike in June.

Prof John Buchannan from the Sydney Business School made a strong case for the problems with

the current laws around industrial action – especially the limitations on taking action in between enterprise bargaining, and the prohibition of secondary action in support of other unions/issues beyond the immediate workplace.

Erima Dall, a member of the Maritime Union of Australia at the Hutchison container facility at Port Botany, spoke powerfully about the daily threats to the health and safety of workers there, as well as on-going job insecurity, and the need for unions to actively push back against those problems using industrial action as well as other means. And Branch President Kurt Iveson talked about the longer history of limitations on unions’ rights to strike, and the ingredients of successful challenges to those limitations in the past.

A lively discussion followed, focusing not only on the problems with existing laws, but also on the recent experiences of unprotected industrial action in places like Sydney Buses and Fairfax, and on ideas for how we could continue to build a co-ordinated campaign on this issue.

Watch this space!

Bullying Workshop The NTEU Sydney branch is offering Lunch & learn sessions on workplace bullying over the next few months. We recognise bullying as a serious health and safety issue – people who experience bullying behaviours at work can suffer sleeplessness, ill-health, family tension, loss of income and career detriments.

Raising awareness about the problem is the first step, we feel, to ending the silence about bullying in the workplace. Please register your interest with the branch office to attend the workshop, which will cover these topics: • What is bullying behaviour?

• Anti-bullying strategies including: • Educating and organising for safety at work • Collective action • Changes in the law to allow the Fairwork Commission to make orders to stop bullying in certain circumstances.

Change the Rules Australian Unions around the country are encouraging all members to participate in a ‘Change the Rules’ campaign, to build a strong movement of workers demanding more secure jobs across all industries, fairer pay rises and so that working people are put first, not big business. In our own industry, insecure employment has reached epidemic proportions. It has grown to be the norm rather than the exception in our institutions.

Over 50% of all university teaching is now performed by casual staff, and casuals comprise about 40% of the university workforce (on a full time equivalent basis).

Insecure fixed-term contracts are also rife, particularly among research staff.

Indeed, many fixed-term staff report being employed on short contracts of a year or less despite having worked for their institutions for several years, and in some cases decades.

The situation has become so bad that ongoing permanent employment now comprises less than 45% of total university employment, with some data suggesting that figure is even less.

That percentage translates to tensof-thousands of people forced to contend with uncertainty around continuing job prospects, and all the stresses in life that come with insecure employment – planning a family, getting a mortgage, worrying when the next job might come.

Ongoing employees are not immune either. University managements have subjected, and continue to subject, institutions to wave after wave of wasteful and destructive reviews, restructures and redundancies.

University staff need and deserve steady work and clear and simple pathways to more secure positions.

Until we change the rules the shadow of insecure employment will continue to hang over all staff in the sector. The situation as it stands is unacceptable.

But we don’t have to accept this raw deal. Together, we can change the rules.

The best way to start is by joining your union. Contact the branch to join the NTEU or to find out how Sydney Uni NTEU Branch is joining with the broader Union movement to campaign and secure commitments from federal politicians ahead of the 2018/2019 federal election.

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Xmas inRiseJuly from Your Pay the NTEU

17% supe staff rannuat io to be intro n for fixe life o d d-t uced f the over erm Agre the emen t.

Love

NTEU achieved your pay rise this month after negotiations* last year for a collective agreement that delivered a range of key improvements in staff working conditions, such as: Casual Claims: 4 hour payment on commencement and each year for casuals to review and understand policies and procedures; Improved rights of conversion; Payment for all academic work and representation on workload committees to ensure work is fairly allocated; Payment for academic casuals for preparation work undertaken when they are unable to attend class due to illness.

STFs: Reduced maximum teaching loads; Options of 40:40:20 loads; Improved pathways to 40:40:20.

Parental Leave: Introduction of 22 weeks paid partner leave; Reduced requalifying period (from 24 months down to 12 months); Increased paid partner leave from 10 days to 20 days; Guaranteed right to return part-time until child is School age.

Professional Staff Flexibility: Extended right to request flexible work from closed group of those with caring responsibilities to all staff; Strengthened the provisions to ensure flexible work requests are accepted; Improved Flexitime.

Union fees cost 1% of your salary.

These wins only happen with member support. Do your bit to help the Union continue its important work. Join your colleagues, join the NTEU.

NTE

U XX X

Local A cademic worklo develop ad polic ed by re ies to be p resenta and mu tive com st be en mittee dorsed by staff .

Love NT EU XXX Professional st aff in HEO Leve ls 1 – 7 have redeployment period extend ed from 12 weeks to 9 mon ths until 31 Dec ember 2019. Improved processes for reviews and appeals on Pro fessional Staff workloads.

Love NTEU XX X

Hope you enjoy the

2.1% payliferoifsthee EA) (9.3% over the

salary! r ou y to in y tl ec ir d s Goe

For more information contact the branch Phone: 9351 2827 Email: sydney@nteu.org.au Branch Office: Room 390, Merewether Building H04

* The NTEU Bargaining Team included Branch President, Kurt Iveson, General Staff Vice-President, Mark Johnston, Branch Committee Members, Linda Connor and Laura Wilson, Casual BC rep, Claire Parfitt, and Industrial Officer, Simon Kempton.

Authorised by Kurt Iveson, NTEU Branch President, University of Sydney

 I want to join NTEU  I am currently a member & wish to update my details PLEASE COMPLETE ALL SECTIONS. Information on this form is needed for aspects of NTEU’s work. Privacy statement: nteu.org.au/privacy

A YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS

B YOUR EMPLOYMENT DETAILS

TITLE

INSTITUTION/EMPLOYER

|SURNAME

GIVEN NAMES

CAMPUS

HOME ADDRESS

FACULTY/COLLEGE

DATE OF BIRTH

/

|STATE | MALE

/

|POSTCODE  FEMALE

DEPT/SCHOOL MAIL CODE/BLDG CODE

 OTHER

INCL ROOM NO.

WORK PHONE

POSITION

INCL AREA CODE

MOBILE PHONE

EG: LECTB, HEW4

WORK EMAIL

STEP/INCREMENT

OTHER EMAIL

YOUR EMPLOYMENT GROUP

HAVE YOU PREVIOUSLY BEEN AN NTEU MEMBER?  YES. AT WHICH INSTITUTION?

 CASUAL/SESSIONAL

HR PER WK OR FRACTION (EG: 0.6) ___________

 FIXED TERM CONTRACT

DATE OF EXPIRY ______________________

D PAYMENT METHOD

 Under $20,000  $20,000–$29,999  $30,000–$49,999  $50,000 or more

INDICATE YOUR ANNUAL SALARY RANGE

Office use only: Membership no.

CHOOSE ONE ONLY

CASUAL/SESSIONAL: CHOOSE EITHER

1 PAYROLL DEDUCTION AUTHORITY

1 2 OR 3

2 OR 3

FEES = 1% GROSS ANNUAL SALARY for all staff, except casual/sessionals.

CASUAL/SESSIONAL FEES are based on the estimated annual salary range indicated in Section C (at left).

Periodical payments as at 19 March 2018 are:

INSTITUTION

SIGNATURE

AVAILABLE TO ALL MEMBERS

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

|ACCT NO.

 MONTHLY  QUARTERLY  HALF-YEARLY  ANNUALLY

ACCOUNT NAME

|DATE

SIGNATURE

3 CREDIT CARD

AVAILABLE TO ALL MEMBERS

| | EXPIRY |DATE

5% DISCOUNT FOR ANNUAL DIRECT DEBIT

— — — —

— — — —

— — — —

SIGNATURE You may resign by email (national@nteu.org.au) or by written notice to your Division or Branch Secretary. Where you cease to be an eligible member, resignation shall take effect on the date the notice is received or on the day specified in your notice, whichever is later. In any other case, you must give at least two weeks notice.*

E MEMBERSHIP DECLARATION

$104 $156 $208 $260

— —

 VISA /

— —

 MONTHLY  QUARTERLY  HALF-YEARLY  ANNUALLY

* FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE, ALL SMALL PRINT ON THIS FORM IS ONLINE AT WWW.NTEU.ORG.AU/JOIN/SMALL_PRINT

PLEASE SIGN & DATE

I HEREBY APPLY FOR MEMBERSHIP OF NTEU, ANY BRANCH & ANY ASSOCIATED BODY ESTABLISHED AT MY WORKPLACE DATE

I hereby authorise the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) APCA User ID No.062604 to arrange for funds to be debited from my/our account at the financial institution identified and in accordance with the terms described in the Direct Debit Request (DDR) Service Agreement.* Full text of DDR at www.nteu.org.au/ddr

Processed on the 16th of the month or following working day

 MASTERCARD

NAME ON CARD — — — —

$52 $78 $104 $130

Annually

Processed on the 15th of the month or following working day

| NAME |&BRANCH ADDRESS

I INSERT YOUR NAME — — —

$26 $39 $52 $65

HalfYearly

I hereby authorise the Institution or its duly authorised servants and agents to deduct from my salary by regular instalments, dues and levies (as determined from time to time by the Union), to NTEU or its authorised agents. All payments on my behalf and in accordance with this authority shall be deemed to be payments by me personally. This authority shall remain in force until revoked by me in writing. I also consent to my employer supplying NTEU with updated information relating to my employment status.*

IF KNOWN

2 DIRECT DEBIT

Monthly Quarterly

Under $20,000 $8.67 $20,000–$29,999 $13 $30,000–$49,999 $17.33 $50,000 or more $21.67

|STAFF PAYROLL NO. |HEREBY AUTHORISE |DATE

OF YOUR ADDRESS

SIGNATURE

MEMBERSHIP FEES

NOT AVAILABLE TO CASUAL/SESSIONAL MEMBERS

I INSERT YOUR NAME

CARD NO.

 ACADEMIC STAFF  TEACHING & RESEARCH  RESEARCH ONLY  TEACHING INTENSIVE

Salary range

FULL TIME, CONTINUING/PERMANENT, PART TIME, FIXED TERM CONTRACT: CHOOSE EITHER

— — —

IF KNOWN

Members are required to pay dues and levies as set by the Union from time to time in accordance with NTEU Rules.

Casual/sessional rates are adjusted on 1 March each year.

Further information on financial obligations, including a copy of the Rules, is available from your Branch or online at www.nteu.org.au/rules.*

C YOUR EMPLOYMENT CATEGORY & TERM

 FULL TIME  PART TIME

FULL TIME EQUIVALENT

 GENERAL/PROFESSIONAL STAFF  RESEARCH ONLY  OTHER: __________________________

ARE YOU AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL OR TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER?  YES USE MY HOME ADDRESS FOR ALL MAILING

BSB

|GROSS ANNUAL SALARY NEXT |MONTH INCREMENT DUE

CLASSIFICATION LEVEL

OR HOME PHONE

F SCAN & EMAIL TO: national@nteu.org.au JOIN ONLINE AT NTEU.ORG.AU/JOIN National Tertiary Education Union, National Office PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia ph 03 9254 1910 • fax 03 9254 1915

I hereby authorise the Merchant to debit my Card account with the amount and at intervals specified above and in the event of any change in the charges for these goods/services to alter the amount from the appropriate date in accordance with such change. This authority shall stand, in respect of the above specified Card and in respect of any Card issued to me in renewal or replacement thereof, until I notify the Merchant in writing of its cancellation. Standing Authority for Recurrent Periodic Payment by Credit Card.*

FOR ASSISTANCE IN COMPLETING THIS FORM, PLEASE CALL 03 9254 1910

OR POST TO: NTEU Univ. of Sydney Branch Merewether Bldg H04, Room 390, University of Sydney NSW 2006 T (02) 9351 2827 E sydney@nteu.org.au