SENTRY Delegate tips
Knowledge, Flexibility & Composure Jobs-ready Graduates package
The devil is in the detail Mary-Louise McLaws
2020: Year of the Epidemiologist The ups and downs of working from home
Published by National Tertiary Education Union
•
SEPT 2020
•
vol. 1 no. 4
•
nteu.org.au/sentry
CONTENTS
The devil is in the detail
Year of the Epidemiologist
Is there another agenda in the Morrison Government's Jobsready Graduates package?
Mary-Louise McLaws reflects on 2020 and the future for university research
03
06 Cover: A woman in Melbourne during the first lockdown. Image: Qicong Lin
Sentry is a free online news magazine for NTEU members and Australian higher education staff. Sentry will be published during the COVID-19 shutdown in between publication of the Union's regular member magazine, Advocate.
10 Campaigning for jobs NTEU is running various campaigns aimed at securing jobs and a beter future for our sector.
12
Sentry will be published in May, June, August, September, October and December (if required). Advocate will be published as usual in July and November.
Knowledge, Flexibility & Composure How to be an effective Delegate.
SENTRY ISSN 2652-5992
In case you missed it... 01 In case you missed it... (Wage Theft edition) 02 Ups & downs of working from home 09 Call for Papers: AUR COVID-19 special issue 14 Current disputes 15 Submissions & Publications 16 Sentry
•
SEPTEMBER 2020
Published by National Tertiary Education Union PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia ABN 38 579 396 344 All text & images ŠNTEU 2020 unless stated Publisher
Matthew McGowan
Editor
Alison Barnes
Production Manager
Paul Clifton
Editorial Assistance
Anastasia Kotaidis
Sentry is available online free as a PDF and e-book at www.nteu.org.au/sentry
CATCH UP
NEWS & CAMPAIGNS
In case you missed it... Bluestocking Week 2020 National Seminar: Women, Work & COVID Friday 4 September 2020 at 12:30pm (AEST) NTEU will host an online seminar as part of our annual Bluestocking Week. Speakers Professor Rae Cooper (University of Sydney), Dr Alison Barnes (NTEU National President) and Sarah Mosseri (University of Sydney) will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on women across the workforce, particularly in higher education.
Register for the event File-Signature 31 Aug–4 Sept nteu.org.au/bluestockingweek
NTEU members call on the crossbench to Block the Bill! On Monday 24 August, NTEU members in Canberra converged on Federal Parliament to get this message across: the Liberals' plan for fee hikes and funding cuts will throw our sector into chaos! Check out our video of members asking the crossbench Senators to Block the Bill and #FundUniFairly.
Watch the video M
NTEU elections delayed Democracy is central to the way our Union operates. In normal election years, nominations for most positions open in late May. However, the Australian Electoral Commission has advised that, due to all the circumstances surrounding COVID-19 in Australia, it will not be recommencing the conduct of industrial elections before the end of September. We can give you no clear advice about when the Unions elections will commence, but we can now advise that it is now impossible that elections will be conducted (even if declared unopposed) before the expiry of terms of office of all those offices which expire on 15 October, such as your Branch President and other positions on your Branch Committee. Members will be advised by email as soon as the Union has any definite information. Despite the delays, NTEU urges all members to consider getting involved in their local Branch, including seeking election when the elections are called. You can ask questions by contacting your local Branch, or your Division.
vol. 1 no. 4
•
nteu.org.au/sentry
1
CATCH UP
NEWS & CAMPAIGNS
In case you missed it... (Wage Theft edition) The recipe for Wage Theft Pre-lockdown, NTEU held a sausage sizzle at the University of Melbourne to discuss the recipe for wage theft with staff and students.
Watch the video M
Briefing for Casual members: 'Understanding Casual Academic Rates of Pay – an introduction to the rates and how they are supposed to work' Thurs 3 Sept, 12.30 pm (AEST). Presented by Linda Gale (Senior Industrial Officer) This briefing will explain the peculiar structure of the casual academic rates found in university enterprise agreements. As so many Universities fail to apply the rates of pay properly, many casual workers have been misinformed about what they are entitled to. It is more important than ever to understand how the system is supposed to work, as well as to identify priorities for changing that system.
Register for the event File-Signature
Wage Theft report form
Wage Theft survey for Casual staff
The NTEU has set up a Wage Theft Report Form for workers in the higher education and tertiary education sectors who have experienced or are experiencing wage theft.
NTEU's wage theft survey is for casual university staff is currently running online. Its intent is to obtain information about your particular circumstances to determine whether you have been underpaid, and to form the basis for any subsequent application for compensation NTEU may complete on your behalf.
More details here Book-Open
2
More details here Book-Open Sentry
•
SEPTEMBER 2020
The devil is in the detail
Is there another agenda in the Jobs-ready Graduates package?
JOBS-READY GRADUATES
POLICY & LOBBYING
When the exposure draft of the Morrison Government’s Jobsready Graduates package was released a few weeks ago, there was much to digest in a very short timeframe. While the headline issues included the Government cutting overall funding per student (by around 15%) and the unbalanced and unfair revisions to the HECS-HELP bands would result in a far larger proportion of students (over 40% compared to about 25% currently) paying the highest student fees, closer examination of the package's fine print reveals a number of hidden details that are both puzzling and concerning.
PUZZLE OVER VET PROTECTIONS One of these seemingly incongruous additions is around a number of ‘student protection provisions’, which appear at first glance to be an extension of the VET FEE-HELP protections that were put in place following the disastrous rorting that occurred when the VET sector
was deregulated and opened up to private for profit providers. Their inclusion in the Jobs-ready Graduates bill, however, has left many baffled, as these may either not be relevant to universities, or are requiring universities to act where they already have established policy and processes. continued overpage...
Terri MacDonald Policy & Research AuthorOfficer Name
vol. 1 no. 4
•
nteu.org.au/sentry
3
JOBS-READY GRADUATES
POLICY & LOBBYING
CUTTING STUDENT SUPPORT The provision that has garnered most attention is around prohibiting universities from enrolling a student in a Commonwealth supported place and accessing a Commonwealth supported student loan (HECS-HELP) if: • In a bachelor degree or higher qualification, the student has undertaken eight or more units and not successfully completed at least 50% of them. • In any other case, the student has undertaken four or more units and not successfully completed at least 50% of them.
Were these measures required or appropriate, their inclusion could be justified. But many are not, and some are even unenforceable.
4
The reason given is to prevent students from remaining enrolled if they have more than a 50% failure rate resulting in students needlessly incurring HELP debts and failures on their academic record. The policy reason given is that it is about ‘managing risk’; and on the face of it this sounds reasonable– students that are not engaged in their studies may be doing themselves a disservice and incurring significant debt by remaining enrolled. However, the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015 already requires universities to have processes that identify students at risk of unsatisfactory progress and provide support to these students. As a result, all universities have policies concern-
Sentry
•
SEPTEMBER 2020
ing academic progression aimed at ensuring students who are unable to complete a course do not continue to enrol (usually through a ‘show cause’ process). Yet ,unlike the Jobs-ready Graduates legislation which has a very limited list of exemptions, the university processes take into account the circumstances of the student and refer students who want to continue to programs and support mechanisms that will assist in their progression through their course, irrespective of their educational background, entry pathway or place of study. The university experience is not always straight forward or smooth running; life events can easily derail the most dedicated of students. As a given, students who continue to meet a university’s academic progression requirements should remain eligible for Commonwealth support and HELP loans. But the Jobs-ready Graduates legislation would effectively deny many of these students from completing their studies, especially where there is no full fee paying option available.
HIGHER COSTS TO UNIVERSITIES This is not the only concern with the student ‘protections’ in the proposed legislation though. The universities have expressed concern that the additional measures will require
further administrative costs at a time where the sector is already under severe financial stress. Were these measures required or appropriate, their inclusion could be justified. But many are not, and some are even unenforceable. One notable example is a requirement that universities assess the academic suitability of a student to undertake a unit of study before enrolling them. While universities currently assess a student’s capacity for admission to a course, this is not done at unit level outside of set pre-requisites where these apply (usually when specific knowledge is required). Instead, the current approach of academic progression and support where needed is a preferable way of ensuring students continue to be academically suited to their studies. However, the Jobs-ready Graduates package ignores this, and instead opts for an impractical framework that cannot be effectively monitored or enforced by regulators.
PREPARATION FOR PRIVATISATION It is interesting that these ‘student protections’ are being applied now, particularly when previously the Government indicated that the integrity provisions developed for the VET sector would not apply to universities. Clearly, this position has changed – and the question as to why must be asked.
JOBS-READY GRADUATES
POLICY & LOBBYING
These measures appear to be addressing issues that either do not exist in higher education, or are minimal at best. Furthermore, universities were not advised that these provisions would be included as part of the Jobs-ready Graduates legislation, and there was no consultation undertaken with the sector. Which leads to the question, who are these provisions really intended for? While there are a wide range of civil penalties included in these provisions and universities would certainly be required to adhere to them, it may be that the real purpose of setting up these regulatory requirements (which considerably extend the Minister’s power) is to establish the framework needed to ensure integrity in the system should it be opened up completely to private, for profit higher education providers.
... to establish the framework needed to ensure integrity in the system should it be opened up completely to private, for profit higher education providers.
Indeed, given that these provisions were put in place for the deregulated VET sector, it would make perfect sense to apply them in a deregulated higher education sector, where private providers are given free reign – and public funding – to operate as ‘universities’.
•
vol. 1 no. 4
•
nteu.org.au/sentry
5
EPIDEMIOLOGY
MEMBER EXPERTS
2020: Year of the Epidemiologist! I joined UNSW Sydney in 1992 as a lecturer and over the years I was promoted to Professor of Epidemiology, Hospital Infection and Infectious Diseases Control. I have been privileged to represent Medicine on the Academic Board and have held the role of Deputy President for the last 2 years. I am also the Water-Health Leader of the UNSW Global Water Institute. I was very fortunate to have the choice of free university education. My mother was a single parent and my brother and I were the first to attend university since my mother’s family arrived from Europe where her grandfather was a professor of music. So the privilege of a free university education was a highly treasured opportunity that sadly is no longer available to Australians. My research career began during my Masters of Public Health at the University of Sydney in clinical epidemiology under the guidance of eminent Professors Geoffrey Berry and Les Irwig; both were exceptional biostatisticians and clinical epidemiologists and generous mentors while I performed the first surveillance study of surgical sites and other infection complications in Australian hospitals. An opportunity of a life time came up when I was offered a position with Professor David Cooper at UNSW as a PhD candidate in Australia’s first HIV research centre. Professor Cooper was a generous and innovative mentor encouraging me to think big and along with Professors Berry and Irwig, I was mentored across two universities and given the skills to become an all-round academic focusing on teaching, research and social responsibility.
Mary-Louise McLaws UNSW
I returned to researching patient safety associated with hospital associated infections and developed the first automated surveillance system for public hospitals as a pilot for the NSW Ministry of Health. The World Health Organization (WHO) offered me a position as
To tell your COVID-19 story to the NTEU member community, please contact Helena Spyrou
6
Sentry
•
SEPTEMBER 2020
WHO Advisor to China and Malaysia for short missions over several years and UNSW, with its strong support of social responsibility, enabled me to undertake this role. I have focused on this aspect of mentorship and translational research with WHO as opposed to grant supported research over a long association with WHO as an expert advisor to several of their patient safety projects. The Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 in China and Hong Kong was an outbreak that transfixed the world, although from a safe distance, believing these outbreaks would never leave the shores of Asia. With a team of Beijing experts, we reviewed the response to SARS and the response for the safety of healthcare workers in Hong Kong. I learnt that their approach to a novel disease with unproven control strategies was world’s best practice and included mental well being of healthcare workers and the role of humans in the spread of SARS. I see today during our COVID-19 approach that failing to account for human behaviour is our failure. The arrival of COVID-19 outside of Asia was received with surprise yet many parts of the world had experienced other zoonoses diseases such as Ebola and MERS, that had jumped from animal to humans with help from human behaviour and poor public hygiene practices. I was invited to a WHO meeting in February 2020 along with 400 other scientists to discuss a roadmap for
COVID and was appointed to a WHO Health Emergencies group and have the privilege of working in a group of dedicated scientists for infection prevention and control.
EPIDEMIOLOGY
MEMBER EXPERTS
My passion is mentoring the next generation of researchers and have enjoyed the opportunity to supervise many talented research candidates through their training who have returned to Asia, the Middle East or remained here to become our future leaders in patient safety. I am fortunate to be in contact with most of them through Facebook (yes, it is for old people) and Instagram. I sometimes work with my former students in building capacity in their countries. COVID-19 has impacted academics on many fronts – working off campus and adapting to web teaching and online mentoring and research meetings. For academics working from home has advantages (no traffic, easy access to the fridge) and disadvantages (absence of the serendipitous chats with our lovely colleagues, the expense associated with home offices, poor internet connections and a strain on our IT expertise). We are now teaching mostly online and this mode of teaching requires far more hours than face-to-face teaching. Staff are also suffering anxiety from the years of declining research funding and general support of universities in Australia and this is now heightcontinued overpage... Mary-Louise McLaws on SBS News instructing Australians how to properly wear a mask (SBS News/Twitter)
vol. 1 no. 4
•
nteu.org.au/sentry
7
EPIDEMIOLOGY
MEMBER EXPERTS
ened by the financial pressures from COVID-19.
Staff are also suffering anxiety from the years of declining research funding and general support of universities in Australia and this is now heightened by the financial pressures from COVID-19.
Future online learning must have increased funding to enable coteaching with two academics or an academic and a professional staff to respond to the reasonable expectations of our students of a value-for-money education experience.
8
Students pay for tuition and have the right to expect faster return of their work, more detailed responses, and improved teacher to student ratios. My experience teaching our postgraduate program Health Services Management offshore in Hong Kong gave us the opportunity to co-teach courses with the academics who were at the offshore residential schools, giving students a wider perspective of the subject matter. As a consequence, I adopted the same approach to Outbreak Investigation, teaching it with a colleague who had a very different fieldwork experience. It also allowed one of us to answer written Q&A while the other continued to interact with the students and we would swap around our roles. It was a very enjoyable teaching experience. A COVID-forced online mode of delivery would have been a great opportunity to mentor junior academics through co-teaching, but reduced funding may mean this is unlikely as all staff will be stretched for time. Future online learning must have increased funding to enable co-teaching with two academics or an academic and a professional staff member to respond to the reasonable expectations of our students of a value-for-money education experience. This is especially true for postgraduate students who usually learn after hours and on the weekend.
Sentry
•
SEPTEMBER 2020
The erosion of university funding has been pernicious and resulted in further reductions to professional and academic staffing. The public may not be mindful of the value that university education provides. Imagine a COVID pandemic without a sound investment in education? Without university training there would be no designers, scientists and engineers to produce life-saving facemasks, alcohol-based hand rub and environmental cleaning products. There would be no engineers to ensure the airflow is safe in hospitals to clean air of COVID, or trained frontline nurses, doctors, and allied healthcare workers. Education is one of Australia’s top export products and our international students are invaluable for the cultural and intellectual value-add to our society. We love them. The last 5 months has highlighted to me the additional burden academics with childcare and carer responsibilities have associated with working from home during COVID. COVID has also exposed the unacceptable inequities in society. Examining hotspots for COVID has highlighted that in the same suburbs there is poverty living alongside the more fortunate in society. Those with poorer opportunities for education and earning power have also been at a greater risk of infection with COVID. It is my hope that post-COVID we will redress all these inequities in our society. It is also my hope that university education never becomes an opportunity only for the financially privileged.
•
WORKING LIFE
MEMBER STORIES
Ups & downs of working from home Overall, my four-month working from home stint was relatively positive. As a Digital Marketing Officer within the International Unit at UniSA, I felt comfortable adapting to the technological change that was a big part of the move from the office to home. I was lucky that the IT infrastructure worked well and that I live in a household with a good internet connection. Initially it was very exciting. It was refreshing to skip the drive into town and commence work first thing in the morning. Our weekly unit ‘Kitchen Catchup’ moved to Zoom and everyone had fun displaying their favourite kitchen backgrounds, both real and virtual. I enjoyed seeing more of my family and having the ability to do the ‘school run’ and alleviate some pressure from my partner who was still required to go to the office.
Anna McCarron University of South Australia
To tell your COVID-19 story to the NTEU member community, please contact Helena Spyrou
However, over time, I found it difficult to walk away from my computer and I felt an obligation to be at it throughout the entire day in case a team member needed me. On some occasions it took a stern reminder from my 8-year-old daughter that the workday had ended and that it was time to move onto household activities. It was also hard not to feel some fatigue at times when participating in back to back Zoom meetings. After conducting a few of these it quickly became clear that these meetings were cognitively demanding and required more concentration than the usual face to face meeting. It was made more tiresome with the
vol. 1 no. 4
•
nteu.org.au/sentry
Slack messages that continued to appear in the background. It did not help that I couldn’t resist the urge to quickly respond to them even while I was in Zoom. I found that by following a routine as if I was going to work proved helpful and kept me in the right mindset. I was lucky to have a direct line manager that cared about my wellbeing and made the time to meet with me and check in over Zoom each week. She also made the effort to organise the occasional Friday Zoom social catchup for our team as it was the team culture that I missed the most. I believe that if anything can be gained from this experience it is that employees can work competently from home. If the work can be done well then employees should be offered the opportunity to work from home in some capacity if they wish to do so. Hopefully in the future, when we are no longer fighting COVID-19, the University will spend some time reviewing its work from home policy and make some changes that will allow greater flexibility.
•
9
FUND UNI FAIRLY
NEWS & CAMPAIGNS
Campaigning for jobs & a better sector Throughout the pandemic, your union has been steadfast in our campaigns against the Morrison Government's heartless and destructive policies for our sector; from denying JobSeeker, raising fees and starting cultural wars to the ongoing issue of wage theft.
WAGE THEFT RAMPANT The Union continues to confront widespread wage theft in higher education, with at least 10 universities either repaying millions of dollars to staff who have had their wages stolen, or are under investigation for wage theft breaches.
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes told Guardian Australia that students’ education would suffer as class sizes balloon and staff are either moved to insecure work or let go.
Michael Evans National Organiser (Media & Engagement)
10
We have consistently said that the sector’s chronic reliance on casual and fixed-term employment creates the ideal environment for exploitation. The power imbalance in the relationship between employer and employee lends itself to casual and fixed-term staff being squeezed by management to reduce costs and maximise profits. The campaigning and organising by NTEU members against wage theft has involved pushing universities to undertake audits, lodging collective disputes, and included surveying our casual members in August. The survey demonstrates that exploitation remains rife amongst casual staff, and widespread across the sector. But wage theft is common not only in our universities. Our investigations into private higher education
Sentry
•
SEPTEMBER 2020
providers, where almost every employee is employed insecurely, demonstrate that for many employers, wage theft is the business model of choice.
SECTOR IN CRISIS With the Government still refusing to recognise how serious the sector’s jobs crisis is, more job losses have been announced. La Trobe University has started a second round of voluntary redundancies following the 239 who left earlier, Victoria University has announced up to 190 jobs will be lost, while the University of Melbourne has signalled up to 450 jobs to go. At the University of Sydney staff were asked to prepare options for coping with up to 30% of staff. NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes told Guardian Australia that students’ education would suffer as class sizes balloon and staff are either moved to insecure work or let go. She said fewer permanent staff would have a negative effect on course quality, student support and course delivery.
NEWS & CAMPAIGNS Universities will be forced to increase numbers of domestic students in order to avoid a decrease in the level of government funding, Dr Barnes said. The higher education changes see a fall in the level of funding per student, so institutions are essentially being told to teach more, with less funding.
BLOCK THE BILL The short term fate of Education Minister Dan Tehan’s Jobs-Ready Graduates package should be known this week (beginning 31 August), with the legislation likely to pass the House of Representatives early in the week, to be then considered by the Senate. The bill’s immediate fate will be determined by the crossbench Senators, with the ALP and Greens already signalling they will vote against it. NTEU has been campaigning under the banner of #FundUniFairly to have the Senate defeat the Bill, or at the very least refer the legislation to a Senate inquiry, where the package (which decreases overall funding for the sector and makes many courses, particularly humanities, more expensive for students) can be examined in more detail. The legislation has come under strong criticism ever since Tehan announced it on 19 June. Nationals MP Andrew Gee, the Regional Education Minister, was critical of the legislation before reaching a compromise
with Tehan, which now sees social work and mental healthcare courses spared from the proposed fee increases. Over 1500 members have signed the NTEU's petition, 'Education for all – Stop fee hikes', with over 15,000 signatories, which will be presented to South Australian Senators Rex Patrick and Stirling Griff and Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie, by the Union calling on them to block the bill. The Government’s own Education Department officials told a Senate hearing that they had not conducted any modelling on the effect the fee hikes will actually have on student course choices, which is the Government’s stated aim for the fee changes. However, modelling done by the independent Parliamentary Library for the Greens shows that some students will take up to 20 years to pay off university debts under the Government’s proposed fee changes, twice as long as the current system.
...some students will take up to 20 years to pay off university debts under the Government’s proposed fee changes, twice as long as the current system.
The modelling found that the new fee regime would have a disproportionate effect on women, who would be likely to take years longer to pay off the debt than men studying the same courses.
•
www.nteu.org.au/wagetheft www.nteu.org.au/fundunifairly
vol. 1 no. 4
•
nteu.org.au/sentry
11
DELEGATES
MEMBER STORIES
Knowledge, Flexibility & Composure Tips on being an effective NTEU Delegate I am a Lecturer with the Centre for Aboriginal Studies (CAS) at Curtin University in Perth, coordinating the Indigenous Australian Mental Health Principle and Practices Major program (IAMHPP). I was elected as the NTEU Academic Delegate for CAS in my first year of employment. The previous delegate had resigned from the position. Issues started to emerge within the workplace after I was elected; they are not unique to CAS as I have seen them in other workplaces. Firstly, there was a lack of trust between management and staff. I acknowledge that the stance between unions and management is mostly adversarial, but no trust in the workplace has a devastating effect on social and emotional wellbeing of our members, which then reduces productivity. Secondly, I noticed a lack of open and honest communications between workers and managers. Unfortunately for some management teams they decide not to take on the feedback and ignore it, which leads to the eroding of trust between both parties.
Fred Yasso Curtin University
These two features of a workplace create an environment that can set back organisation for years if left to fester. To tell your COVID-19 story to the NTEU member community, please contact Helena Spyrou
12
Sentry
•
SEPTEMBER 2020
MEMBER STORIES
ROLE OF A DELEGATE
FLEXIBILITY
As an NTEU Delegate, trying to navigate a workplace where your fellow workers feel untrusted and undervalued is like trying to untangle a fishing line. The new world with COVID-19 is about to bring many changes to all our lives as Delegates and I can see that many of our workplaces may become environments where there is no trust and little open communication.
Pick your battles. As the Kenny Roger’s song goes: You've got to know when to hold 'em know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.
When reflecting on my own experiences my best advice is to other delegates is to remember: Knowledge, Flexibility and Composure.
KNOWLEDGE Study not only your Enterprise Agreement but your organisation's policies, in particular any related to HR and Code of Conduct. These are important tools to arm yourself with when you are going to fight for your members. It may seem strange advice, but over the years I have realised that most management teams don’t take the time to read their own organisation's policy. They often get it wrong – or just make it up – and this information can be used in many ways.
COMPOSURE Keep a cool head. Working in mental health for many years has taught me when you get caught up in everything that is going on at your workplace sometimes you lose sight of context and perspective.
... most management teams don’t take the time to read their own organisation's policy. They often get it wrong...
Am I reading too much into a situation and missing the context? In reality if this action was done by anyone else would I react the same? Is this really something I am passionate enough to fight for? Not paying attention can save you many sleepless nights but it also ensures that your actions don’t misfire or you complicate things with collateral damage. A Delegate who remains calm in the face of the storm is best placed to protect their members from said storm.
•
NATIONAL TERTIARY EDUCATION UNION
Delegates
Become an NTEU
Delegate! vol. 1 no. 4
•
Delegates are a vital part of the NTEU, maintaining visibility, supporting recruitment & building the strength of the Union. If you’re interested in becoming a Delegate in your work area, contact your Branch today.
D E L E G AT E S . N T E U. O R G . AU
nteu.org.au/sentry
13
AUR SPECIAL ISSUE
PUBLICATIONS
Call for Papers: AUR special COVID-19 issue Guest editors Associate Professor James Roffee and Nic Kimberley are calling for papers for a special issue of Australian Universities’ Review, the NTEU's refereed academic journal, entitled 'Coronavirus and the crisis of higher education: Post-pandemic universities'. Papers should centre around the impact of COVID-19 and:
• Building public support for higher education.
• Areas of priority for reforming Australia’s higher education sector.
• What this crisis means for the future of neoliberalism in universities.
• What the future higher education sector should look like. • How to bring about the changes needed to make universities work for the social good. Papers are welcome that focus on any aspect of responding to COVID19 and its impact on higher education, including (but not limited to): • International students. • Workloads. • Secure work. • Teaching, research and/or service. • The role of universities in society. • Higher education funding. • The role of the NTEU in shaping the future of higher education. Since 1958, the Australian Universities’ Review has been encouraging debate and discussion about issues in higher education and its contribution to Australian public life.
We welcome submissions from contributors at all levels, and particularly encourage early-career academics and professional staff to participate.
KEY DATES Abstracts due: 31 October 2020. Notification of acceptance: 20 November 2020. Papers due: 15 March 2021. Publication date: September 2021.
CONTACT For further information, or to submit an abstract, please email nicholas. kimberley@mymail.unisa.edu.au. For AUR submission information, please refer to the AUR website.
AUR is published twice a year by the NTEU. NTEU members are entitled to receive a free subscription on an opt-in basis . If you are an NTEU member and would like to receive AUR, please email aur@nteu.org.au
www.aur.org.au 14
Sentry
•
SEPTEMBER 2020
Current disputes DEAKIN CONSULTATION DISPUTE In the last issue of Sentry we reported on the then-pending decision of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) regarding a dispute about Deakin’s method of consultation about cutting roughly 400 jobs. We are pleased to report that the Commission agreed with the NTEU that consulting on 15 separate proposals which form one large proposal is not true consultation, and ordered Deakin to go back to the drawing board. This is an important win regarding what it means for management to consult with staff, and shows that management must give workers genuine input into changes that will affect their working lives no matter how they try to structure the change process.
that a review had been conducted seeking feedback from a wide range of groups, and following the review the bulk of assignments would now be receiving less paid time for marking.
INDUSTRIAL
NEWS & CAMPAIGNS
Despite professing to have consulted widely on the new framework, management forgot to tell the casuals – the one group required by the Agreement to be consulted. The Union has notified a dispute and following unsuccessful negotiations with management, the dispute has been referred to the FWC. The NTEU is aware of cases of wage theft perpetrated against casuals in the sector, and is preparing to launch further disputes.
•
Campbell Smith, National Industrial Officer
CASUAL WAGE THEFT In August, the ABC ran a series of stories exposing the casual wage theft crisis in Australian universities. In addition to underpayment issues at UniMelb, UWA, USyd and UNSW, the Union is now in dispute with RMIT over its failure to properly apply the terms of the Enterprise Agreement in paying its casuals in the School of Management. Earlier this year, casuals in the School of Management were told
vol. 1 no. 4
•
nteu.org.au/sentry
15
PUBLICATIONS
POLICY & ADVOCACY
Policy briefings and fact sheets NTEU submissions and fact sheets produced in the last month.
NTEU Response to Jobs-ready Graduates Exposure Draft
Wage Theft Fact Sheet: Long Service Leave
WHS Fact Sheet: COVID Safe Checklist and Safe Return to Campus
NTEU Response to the Exposure Draft of Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Bill 2020.
Many members – especially those who work as long term casuals – do not realise that they are entitled to long service leave if they have sufficient years of continuous service.
A handy checklist for HSRs for a safe return to campus. Note there are 3 separate PDFs: one for Victoria, one for WA and one for the rest of the country.
Download the PDF FILE-PDF
Download the PDF FILE-PDF
Download the PDFs FILE-PDF
Please update your NTEU membership details if:
OR
Your work address details change.
OR
Your Department or School changes its name or merges with another.
Office, building, campus etc.
OR
You move house. Required if your home is your nominated contact address.
You change your name.
nteu.org.au/members
Update online at Please note that your Member Tools login is different to your Member Benefits login. For help call 03 9254 1910.
Please email the National Office if:
OR
You move to another institution.
Your employment details change.
Transfer of membership between institutions is not automatic.
Please notify us to ensure you are paying the correct fees.
OR
Your credit card or direct debit account details change.
OR
You are leaving university employment.
national@nteu.org.au
Deductions will not stop automatically.
Send an email to
If your payroll deductions stop without your authority, please urgently contact your institution’s Payroll Department
16
Sentry
•
SEPTEMBER 2020
