TEU Annual Report 2014

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Te U 2014 TERTIARY EDUCATION

UNION ANNUAL

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REPORTTEU - THERE’S A PLACE FOR YOU

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TEU Annual Report 2014 Contents National Secretary’s Report

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1) Introduction

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2) Membership

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3) Governance

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4) National committees

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5) Political Activities

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6) Professional and other matters

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7) Staffing

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8) Conclusion

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Te Toi Ahurangi Report

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National Women’s Committee Te Kahurangi Mareikura Report

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Industrial and Professional Committee Report

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National Secretary’s Report South Auckland. MIT’s chief executive referred to the restructuring as being part of ‘refreshing our product line’, and he blamed the job losses on an improving economy.

But we know the reasons are far more complex. These sorts of decisions (replicated throughout the country to a greater or lesser degree) are the direct results of government funding cuts and funding decisions, and internal management choices.

Reviews and restructurings might balance the books but they do nothing to ensure stability and confidence in a sector that has been under attack for several years now.

The strategy of continuous cuts is not attracting new students or enabling universities, wānanga and polytechnics to meet their community responsibilities.

Employers, businesses, staff and students do not want fewer teachers and fewer opportunities for affordable, accessible high quality tertiary education.

Sharn Riggs National Secretary

The other outcome of government underfunding is that more and more of the new jobs created in our institutions are what is known as ‘precarious’. This is not a particular phenomenon to New Zealand, but is a growing global issue which affects workers, societies and economies across the world. Increasingly the use of a casual workforce means there are people working at two, three and even four jobs in order to make enough money to live on.

1) Introduction This year’s conference and next year’s work will focus on growth. Not at the expense of all the other work that we do but as an integral part of all that we say and do. We know that people join our union because we are strong, because we provide a voice where there is none, because we provide protection where there is uncertainty.

We are seeing more and more of this in the tertiary education sector as the health of the sector survey we commissioned bears out. Precarious jobs, zerohour contracts and multiple jobs mean that more and more people are living on the edges of the economy.

And increasingly those people are working in tertiary education. Not only does this impact on the working communities of our institutions – part-time and casual staff are less likely to engage in the wider communities and activities of our institutions - they are also less likely to join a union.

We know that people join our union because they know that what we stand for - as outlined in Te Kaupapa Whaioranga - is what they stand for. We know that members want the union to draw a line in the sand about what tertiary education should look like for staff and students and for the communities in which we work and learn.

People join the union but people also leave, but not because they are dissatisfied with what the TEU does in particular or what unions do more generally. They leave because they lose their jobs, because their positions are reviewed, down-graded, reshaped, no longer regarded as necessary.

It is not coincidental that employers world-wide are moving to more and more casualised work arrangements.

They see that the power workers have as a union member can most easily be diluted by having workers who are too insecure to rock the boat lest this endangers the renewal of a fixed term agreement or the possibility of permanent work. Unions like ours have to respond to this in a meaningful way if we are not to end

As we head into conference this year, MIT management (MIT is one of our biggest and strongest ITP branches) has notified us of a review that could see 60 or more positions disestablished - many of those are jobs that are held by TEU members. This has nothing to do with delivering quality education to the communities of

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up only representing a decreasing number of full time permanent staff.

not actively working on recruiting – but the stark fact is we are not getting new members in sufficient numbers to offset the members who are resigning. This year, in the eight months to August, we recruited 776 new members which was an improvement of over 100 on the previous year to the same period, yet our member numbers declined by around 100 from August 2013 to August 2014. For the first time we are reporting financial members at a level below 10,000.

As we all continue to struggle with the on-going effects of underfunding, continued economic mismanagement, (despite what the government is saying) and yet further attacks on workers’ rights in the form of the amendments to the Employment Relations Act, it is useful to reflect back on the work that the union has done, the activities that members have participated in and the work that the staff have done in conjunction with committed branch presidents and committees and members.

Some of our branches are not declining – Manukau Institute of Technology, NorthTec, Otago Polytechnic, Tai Poutini, TOPNZ, Waiariki, Wintec, WITT, Whitireia, AUT, Victoria University of Wellington, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarāngi and Auckland Institute of Studies. However most of the universities, with almost 70 percent of TEU membership, are in decline, and it is clear we need to be doing things differently.

The annual report is a snapshot of the year that has been. There have been some wonderful forums of TEU members and other workers, some great collective bargaining activities including the activities undertaken by members at UCOL this year to secure a collective agreement, some fantastic collaboration over many professional and political issues. However we cannot underestimate the toll that some of that work has taken on TEU members and staff alike.

This year we have been using an external recruiting company at Victoria University of Wellington and the slight growth in that branch can be credited to their work.

However, their results do not match the recruitment numbers we achieved at that branch several years ago when we used a similar company, and we are continuing to monitor this project. They have very recently started recruiting at Unitec and we are looking forward to see what outcomes they achieve there.

You will be farewelling some colleagues and fellow TEU members in your branches, we will be farewelling colleagues at conference this year and we will be missing some of the people who have been stalwarts of this union over many years. These are hard times to be union but it is so much harder not to be union.

In June this year we repeated our Official information Act request to state sector employers and are able to include this below. There are still gaps as some institutions have not responded, or have given us incorrect or incomplete figures. This year we asked employers to give us the number of staff they employed who fell under our coverage clauses of our collective agreements which give us the most accurate data we have had.

2) Membership This year we are again reporting a decline in TEU members. This is not to say that members and staff are

The highest density is at WITT at almost 76 percent, and the next highest is academic staff at Canterbury (almost 70 percent). As was shown last year, our density figures are lower amongst general staff than academic staff. This information is enormously helpful for branches in their planning and campaigning – it will allow them to target their recruitment efforts and make decisions related to industrial campaigns.

We need to be continually assessing our approach to recruiting new members into the union. TEU must be a place that speaks for all workers in our institutions and must be seen as the natural and logical organisation to join as soon as a new employee begins work. That means we cannot rely just on one-off activities to increase our membership, but rather we must be continually focussing on our recruitment throughout the year.

Campaigning for better pay at UCOL

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Density figures for TEU in institutions as at June 2014 Comparison of Institution Staff with TEU Members as at June 2014 Institution Name

Academic

General

TEU Members

Staff Numbers

Density (%)

Other Union

TEU Members

Staff Numbers

Density (%)

Other Union

Aoraki Polytechnic

97

149

65.10

0

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic

25

177

14.12

0

Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology

143

1057

13.53

395

Eastern Institute of Technology

133

352

37.78

1

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology

73

222

32.88

0

NorthTec

126

230

54.78

0

Otago Polytechnic

282

616

45.78

61

Tai Poutini Polytechnic

50

95

52.63

0

The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

80

119

67.23

0

Unitec New Zealand

238

543

43.83

1

Universal College of Learning

204

463

44.06

0

Waiāriki Institute of Technology

131

239

54.81

1

Waikato Institute of Technology

128

338

37.87

0

Wellington Institute of Technology

139

247

56.28

0

Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki

88

116

75.86

0

Whitireia NZ

118

257

45.91

0

University of Auckland

824

1380

59.71

AUT University

682

1069

63.80

3

473

2308

20.49

57

0

62

1573

3.94

University of Canterbury

399

577

374

69.15

0

435

1067

40.77

89

Lincoln University

145

254

57.09

0

136

320

42.50

2

University of Otago

508

1564

32.48

10

Victoria University of Wellington

494

800

61.75

0

281

901

31.19

26

University of Waikato

352

670

52.54

1

169

713

23.70

61

ITPs

Manukau Institute of Technology

Southern Institute of Technology

UNIVERSITIES

Massey University

WĀNANGA

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa

Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi

Casual staff are not included Note 1 - VUW excludes tutors (502 staff, 11 members) Note 2 - Aoraki, Otago Polytechnic and Massey University have combined general and academic staff figures Note 3 - UCOL, Massey, and University of Otago general staff data supplied but incorrect or not complete Note 4 - MIT and SIT have asked for payment before providing the figures Note 5 – information still required from the wānanga

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3) Governance The council of TEU is the governing body of the union, charged with making decisions between conferences. Led by the TEU national president te tumu whakarae Lesley Francey, council is made up of: • • •

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• • • • • • •

the immediate past-president (for one year only) three vice-presidents, Cat Pausé, James Houkāmau and Sandra Grey, Te Kāhui Kaumātua (advisory), Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, Whaea Kāterina Daniels and Whaea Mere Broughton; two Māori members (Te Tumu Āwhina), Margaret Taurere, Ngaroma Williams until early 2014 when she resigned from that position and the role was taken up by Susan Wātene; one general staff representative ITP sector, Robert Watson who resigned earlier this year and since then that position has been vacant; one general staff representative university sector, Scott Walters; one academic staff representative ITP sector, Phil Edwards; one academic staff representative university sector, Alan Cocker; one member from any institution that is not a university or an ITP, Cheryl Jackson; a staff member who shall have voice but no vote, Shaun Scott; the national secretary (advisory); and other paid staff as deemed necessary (advisory).

George Tongariro

This year council has met four times, one of those meetings being at Unitec’s Te Noho Kotahitanga marae in Auckland. Meeting on a marae once a year is part of the council’s commitment and obligation to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi, to demonstrate that the Tiriti partnership is a cornerstone of TEU, how it functions as an organisation, and to give effect and practical application to the union’s rules. This was TEU’s sixth annual council meeting on a marae. This year, local branch committees were invited to attend the pōwhiri and come to dinner.

The executive committee (a subcommittee of council) is made up of the president, three vice-presidents, the immediate past-president and two members elected by council who this year were Scott Walters and Ngaroma Williams. Ngaroma resigned her national roles at the beginning of this year and was not replaced on this committee. The executive has met three times this year to advance work during the periods between council meetings and also to work with the national secretary on financial, budgetary and staffing matters.

Another important subcommittee of council is Te Tiriti o Waitangi Partnership Working Group. This important subcommittee is co-chaired by Bill Rogers and Cheryl Jackson, who replaced Eric Stone earlier this year.

The committee meets face-to-face twice a year and by conference call in between times.

Another meeting of the union that is now enshrined in our rules as a result of the review of the structures is an annual meeting of branch presidents. This recognises that branch presidents and branch committees are the backbone of the union. While much of their work is done at branch level, it is important that this is done not only within the framework of a national context but that

Branch Presidents’ Forum

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a) Te Pou Tūara – Lee Cooper is the staff member who supports, develops and actions much of the work of Te Toi Ahurangi.

branch presidents are able to share with each other ideas and strategies that have worked in their own branches.

This is a critical meeting of the union which allows branches to touch base with each other and also with the work plan and goals of the union.

The new structures of the union which took effect at the beginning of 2013 are now well embedded in the flow of the union’s governance and policy-making processes. The purpose of those new rules was to see us move from an amalgamation of two unions into a truly coherent single union that represents the interests of all workers across the whole tertiary education sector.

Te uepū membership Te uepū membership decreased slightly this year for the first time from 879 to 868, or 8.7 percent of all TEU members. However that is up 1 percent from the 2013 figures. Te toi ahurangi and Te Uepū members will discuss and recommit to the Māori recruitment strategy Kotahi Mano: 1000 Māori, at their first meetings in 2015. The strategy will also have its first regional focus as work in the Hamilton region is undertaken next year.

As we go into conference we will have completed the round of elections for the new officers of the union for the 2015 – 2016 cycle. We will farewell experienced faces and welcome new faces to guide the union through the next two years which promise to be challenging not just for the TEU but for workers generally and unions in particular. We can only function as a democratic and member-driven organisation with the help and significant time commitment that elected members on TEU committees and governance bodies both at branch and national level give to the union. This is done over and above the not insubstantial workloads that people already carry and as people find it harder and harder to get leave to attend to TEU business we will have to start having some discussions about the timing of our meetings. I would like to thank each and every one of you for the work you do for the TEU.

Hui-ā-Motu The 6th Hui-ā-Motu (annual national hui) of Te Uepū members was held this year at Te Puna o Te Mātauranga marae at NorthTec. Delegates from 18 institutions, including two indigenous representatives from our Australian sister unions, NTEU and AEU, attended.

The hui was very productive and included presentations from local kaumātua, te tumu arataki Hēmi Houkāmau and ngā tumu āwhina Ngaroma Williams and Margaret Taurere. There was also a political panel on Te Kaupapa Whaioranga: the blueprint for Māori tertiary education, workshops on industrial bargaining, the Māori recruitment strategy Kotahi Mano, and the work of Te Toi Ahurangi.

And finally acknowledgement and thanks must go to Te Kāhui Kaumātua, Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, Whaea Kāterina Daniels, and Whaea Mere Broughton for their continued wisdom and guidance to council, all the national committees, and TEU generally. Without them we would not be the union we are today.

Constitutional transformation review

4) National committees

Both Te Toi Ahurangi and Te Uepū members have worked with Moana Jackson, initially as part of the iwi Māori enagement and report back process.

There are three national committees in the union with responsibility for developing, guiding and overseeing the work programmes of the union as they relate to their respective areas. These are reported separately by the respective vice-presidents. This section will deal with the work the staff do in relation to those committees and the broader roles they play within the union and the wider union movement.

Industrial strategy The efforts of Te Uepū members has led to the inclusion of te reo and tikanga Māori recognition into the strategy implementation paper. An audit of the collective agreement clauses will be conducted with the aim of focusing on implementing and enforcing these provisions.

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Project whitestream Te tumu āwhina Margaret Taurere worked on the issue of identifying the impact of specialist Māori groups or positions being disestablished and/or rolled into generic services. This development has a greater and more detrimental impact on Māori staff and students because institutions are not taking account of their Tiriti obligations. An advisory paper around the issue of whitestreaming is being prepared to help members in these positions with arguments regarding the benefit of Māori specialist positions. Te uepū branch committee members were contacted requesting preliminary information. This exercise showed the effect of whitestreaming was more widespread than expected.

Work on this will continue into next year.

Te reo rangatira policy

Des Coad

The development of this policy was begun at Hui-ā-Motu 2013, where te uepu members from the University of Canterbury shared their negative experiences of being questioned, and generally unsupported by management, about their teaching of the compulsory te reo Māori classes on a degree programme. Through the leadership of Te Toi Ahurangi a wider discussion was held amongst Te Uepū members, and TEU national committees, resulting in the development of the te reo rangatira policy which willl be discussed at conference this year.

rangatira policy. Te Tiriti partnership group has also had preliminary discussions with Moana Jackson to carry out the Tiriti and TEU audit of the union in 2015 which will also include a review of the Tiriti policy. The Tiriti partnership group at its October meeting adopted the 20 criteria Tiriti check list developed and used by Moana in his last Tiriti audit of the union.

Survey of Te Uepū members Te toi ahurangi initiated a survey in 2013 seeking feedback from Te Uepū members to establish the effectiveness of current industrial, professional, and other services for Māori members, and to obtain feedback on options for enhancing our services in the future.

The survey asked a number of questions of members ranging from “have you used or recommended others

Case work Te pou tuarā, with the support of TEU organisers, has supported many of the 868 Te Uepū members with their individual cases this year. These cases have varied in time and complexity, including individuals, groups, and employer breaches of the Employment Relations Act 2000.

Te Hau Tikanga o Te Tiriti Te pou tuarā supports, develops and actions the work of the Tiriti partnership group who have had two face-to-face and one conference call this year. The work plan of the group has included contributing to the creation of the Running an Inclusive Branch, A Guide to Branch Committee Positions, and Union Song Book publications, utilisation of te reo Māori within the national committees of the union, the development of te reo

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use TEU’s services?” to “What forms of communication do you prefer?” and “Do you feel that Māori are well represented in TEU’s democratic structures?”. The survey was a valuable exercise and the findings will be used to form the basis of the 2015-2016 work plan for Te Toi Ahurangi.

(CAs), submissions on the proposed changes to the Employment Relations Act and the further development of the industrial strategy approved at last year’s conference. The increasing number of personal cases and constant surplus staffing/management of change proposals are all covered in this section of the report.

Strategic relationships

The union currently negotiates 68 collective agreements (CAs) in the form of single employer collective agreements (SECAs) and multi-union collective agreements (MUCAs).

A key part of Lee’s role is also developing, maintaining and strengthening relationships beyond just the world of the TEU. He continues to work on the strategic relationships that have been forged by Te Toi Ahurangi, on behalf of Te Uepū members generally. These range from work with other unions including the PSA, NZEI and PPTA to work with NZUSA, NZCER and the Māori Party MPs. As well as these Lee works with other MPs and departmental officials, Ako Aotearoa and its Māori caucus Te Rūnanga o Ako Aotearoa.

His work with the CTU NAC, Rūnanga and Te Ture Whakawhanaungatanga Relationship Meeting, Komiti Pasifika and the Residential Leadership Programme Reference Group has been invaluable.

During the last 12 month bargaining round, we have been involved in 40 negotiations and have settled 27 collective agreements. The majority of these settlements have been for two year terms with no loss of conditions, a modest salary increase and at some branches they have been successful in achieving union only deals, improvement in casual appointments and we have started to make some progress in achieving our Living Wage claims for our lowest paid members, as part of the TEU commitment to the wider Living Wage campaign across the country and internationally.

TEU Industrial Strategy 2014 to 2017

b) Deputy secretary – Nanette Cormack and national industrial officer – Irena Brorens are the staff members who support, develop and action much of the industrial work of the industrial and professional committee.

At last year’s conference the overall TEU industrial strategy was approved and this has guided branches and bargaining teams in this year’s bargaining. The strategy sets out a process for the development of new national claims, and records previously developed national claims.

The strategy also sets out a process to protect agreed core conditions of employment that cannot be reduced during bargaining, to ensure that we maintain, as much as possible, consistency of terms and conditions with similar collective agreements across the sector.

The bulk of the union’s industrial work has been the continuation of bargaining of collective agreements

As reported in the IPC vice-president’s report of the Industrial and Professional Committee, a major piece of work this year has been the development of the Implementation paper on the industrial strategy 20142017 which has been approved by Council. This is an operational paper which will guide all of TEU’s bargaining into the future. Some of the background data and information in this report comes directly from the implementation paper.

Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) This year the ITP bargaining has not been as difficult as in past years, the exception being a major industrial dispute

Tina Smith

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University sector bargaining

at UCOL, where the employer initially only offered a lump sum payment and was seeking to reduce sick leave entitlements, professional development entitlements, and to introduce a total remuneration system. Also, at Otago Polytechnic the initial employer proposals were seeking to change the pay scales to move to a total remuneration system, team and individual rewards, more flexibility of terms and conditions for new staff and changes to how the parental leave grant would be paid.

The strategy in the university sector has been to continue to protect core conditions and to progress national claims as and where we can, including the living wage claim. Universities continue to feel pressure from reduced funding and this is particularly noticeable at the University of Otago.

This employer typically offers salary increases at the top of the range of settlements and this year they are seeking a flat rate (not on the rates) settlement. At time of writing the bargaining was not concluded. This may be a signal of the bargaining to come in 2015. Universities involved in bargaining for both their academic staff and general staff collective agreements this year were AUT, Lincoln, Waikato, Victoria and Otago.

These changes were resolutely rejected by members at a stopwork meeting and they voted for industrial action.

However, this action was not required and a settlement was successfully reached, without these changes. The key issue in both these sets of bargaining was highly unionised and committed union members.

There will be a heavy bargaining load for the ITP sector soon, as we have 15 CAs to negotiate which are due to start later this year and into 2015. It will be interesting to see if the employers take the same aggressive line on attacking terms and conditions as they have done previously, particularly with the proposed changes to the Employment Relations Act, referred to later in this report.

The salary increases for the 2013/2014 settlements have been between 1.3 percentand 1.5 percent.

Ngā wānanga Te Wānanga o Aotearoa CA was settled with a salary increase of 0.5 percent. This was consistent with the TUIA (in-house union) collective agreement. Initiation has occurred for the renewal of the 2014 collective agreement. With a new chief executive and senior management team this may lead to a more productive and positive bargaining round for our members. Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi settled for a two year term with increases of 1.5 percent plus 2.2 percent, and a six-month union only deal.

We expect employers to continue to cite the State Services Commission (SSC) bargaining parameters document, which requires employers in the tertiary education sector to consult with the SSC over their bargaining strategy and any proposed settlement. The main purpose of the parameters has been to encourage salary restraint, limit any back pay and seek changes that demonstrate productivity gains. This coupled with the EFTS cap and the significant changes in funding for the sector, in particular the performance funding which has been introduced have continued to make bargaining in this sector very difficult.

Rural Education Activities Programme (REAP)

This year most ITP CAs have settled with a two year term and a modest salary increase. The salary increases for the 2014 settlements have been between 0.5 percent and 2.0 percent. We have also achieved union only benefits and where appropriate extended coverage for allied/general staff into existing CAs or initiated for this in new ones.

Our strategy with allied staff bargaining is to initiate bargaining when we are legally able to and when we have sufficient allied staff members at a branch. We already have agreements that cover allied staff at Aoraki, MIT, UCOL and Otago.

West, Marlborough, Tairāwhiti, and Ruapehu settled for a two year term with a salary increase of 2.0 percent in 2014 and CPI for 2015, plus an increase in the notice period for any surplus staffing review.

Other Tertiary Education Providers (OTEPs) We currently have eight collective agreements in private training establishments, as well as at Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa - The New Zealand Childcare Association and NZCER.

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Trend for 2014 /2015 1.2 percent to 1.5 percent for ITPs and universities,

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REAPs and TWWA have achieved the higher increases of 2.0 percent - 2.2 percent

Broader fiscal environment and salary trends impacting on bargaining Over the past year the government has commented on the growing economy with the implication that workers will see the flow on effects in real and higher wages and salary growth.

However, as most workers in New Zealand are well aware, the benefits of this claimed high growth economy have not been passed on to them. Further, as the CTU1 reported this growth in the economy was never more than a blip and the economic growth had peaked in August 2014. Following the recent general election, the Reserve Bank is forecasting that wage and salary growth will be even lower than Treasury’s pre-election forecast, meaning real wage and salary increases will be under 1 percent a year despite a growing economy.

Campaigning for better pay at UCOL

The CTU economic bulletin has recently reported the important fact that workers who are covered by collective agreements have received better wage and salary increases than those who are not covered by collectives.

In some cases, the collective agreements have not been renewed because the PTEs have closed down, or we no longer have members at the work sites.

Union only benefit – pass on agreements

Below is a table that will assist in setting our salary claim level nationally. The factors we should consider are: the increases in the cost of living (recorded as increases to the CPI); the Labour Cost Index (LCI) which measures increase in wages and salaries of workers who have had increases; wage and salary increases in our own sector, in comparable sectors and for all employees in NZ.

Even though many employers will not agree to union only benefits, TEU continues to achieve settlements that do include them. This means that union members receive the benefits of pay increases earlier than non-members do. This is in recognition of the fact that union members work and pay for the improvements to the collective agreement. Employers usually pass those benefits on to non-members who have not contributed to the bargaining process.

Table 1 shows the consumer price index (CPI) and (LCI) compared to the TEU collective agreement settlements from 2012 to 2016. Also included are the collective agreement settlements for the Public Service Association (PSA), plus data from the Victoria University of Wellington Centre for Labour, Employment and Work (CLEW).

Overall salary increases summary Salary increase – 2013- 2015 bargaining round •

Overall range from 0.5 percent to 2.2 percent per year

•

Mid-point has been approx. 1.3 percent

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B Rosenberg CTU economic bulletin - July 2013 and September 2014

Pink Shirt Day at the University of Auckland’s Tamaki campus

Table 12 Data

2012

2013

2014

2015 2016

CPI – March ytd LCI – all LCI – public sector TEU increases ranges PSA increases

1.6%

0.9%

1.5%

2.3%

2.0%

1.7%

1.6%

1.6%

1.5%

1.2%

1.2% 2.5%

1.0% 2.0%

0.5% 2.0%

0.75% - 2.0%

1.0% – 2.5%

1.0% – 0.5% 2.0% - 2.5%

CLEW

2.2%

2.1%

1.8%

Annualised all employees CLEW

1.8%

1.6%

1.2%

The clear trend in the collective agreements settlements over the recent years of not matching or exceeding the CPI is directly linked to the reduction in funding and the tighter controls imposed by the Tertiary Education Commission over the sector.

2.4%

Employment relations legislation

1.2% - 2.2%

The most pertinent issue with regard to the legislative framework surrounding our industrial strategy is the proposed changes to the Employment Relations Act which are currently before parliament.

With the re-election of the National Party this Bill will be passed within the first 100 days of the new parliament being sworn in. This will see major changes to the bargaining and employment law framework into the future.

Core Govt sector

The main proposed changes in the Employment Relations Bill that will impact on collective bargaining within TEU are as follows:

From data that has been collected by TEU (previously ASTE and AUS) over the past 19 years 1996 to 2014 the collective agreements settlements at the highest range have been well ahead of the CPI during this period and at the lowest range, only slightly behind. The compounded CPI over this period is 51.2 percent compared to the lowest collective agreements settlements of 49.3 percent and the highest collective agreements settlements of 97.6 percent. During this period some collective agreements settlements did not achieve percentage increases and the higher increases were partly achieved as a result of the university settlements when there was a tripartite process.

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Removing the duty to conclude bargaining for a collective agreement

Currently there is a duty of good faith to conclude a collective agreement as an agreement unless there is ‘a genuine reason, based on reasonable grounds, not to’.

The current provisions say that a genuine reason does not include opposition to, or objection in principle to collective bargaining or being a party to a collective agreement.

This change will mean that an employer could simply say ‘we do not agree with collective bargaining’ or ‘we don’t agree with concluding a collective agreement unless we achieve changes to the collective agreement’. If the

Employment Agreements: Bargaining Trends & Employment Law Update 2013/14; Stephen Blumenfeld, Sue Ryall and Peter Kiely August 2014

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employer seeks a determination from the Employment Relations Authority that the bargaining has concluded, and this is granted, then the impact of this is that all members covered by that collective agreement will be deemed to be on an individual agreement based on the collective agreement. However, there will be no rights to initiate for a new collective for 60 days and once bargaining is initiated there is no right to take any industrial action until the parties have been bargaining for 40 days. This effectively means there is 100 day industrial action ban.

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Under the current law, only essential services are required to give notice of strike action. This does not apply to the majority of TEU members. This change would require TEU to provide our employers with notice of when the strike action will occur and when it will end, who will be involved and what the location will be for each strike.

Personal case trends The number of personal cases continues to be a large part of the organisers’ workloads and, as the data indicates below, there is a constant stream of cases. The table below shows the numbers from February to September for 2013 to 2014. Often members have asked that TEU share the successful outcomes from the casework, but this is difficult to provide, as usually these are confidential settlements.

Remove the protection for new employees in the first 30 days of employment where there is an applicable collective agreement

Currently new staff members must be offered the terms of the collective agreement at the start of their employment for the first 30 days unless they join the union. Removing this will undermine collective agreements. New staff could be employed on employerdrafted individual agreements with terms and conditions that the employer could not achieve in the collective bargaining process with the union.

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Council receives a report on the numbers and trends in the personal cases. One of our aims is to start tracking trends on the types of cases and provide information on specific branch trends; this is a work in progress.

Below are some of the trends we are starting to see in the types of personal cases:

Allow deductions from pay in a partial strike and requiring all unions to give notice of strike action

Fixed term appointments

Under the current law, the employer does not have the ability to make any salary or wages deduction on a partial basis. They do have the ability to suspend or lock employees out completely.

This change will mean that employers will be able to deduct for partial strike action such as lightning strikes of short duration; not attending meetings, or working outside the normal hours of work, or not returning marks, for example (which TEU has successfully used in the past). The government intends to give employers the power to deduct a proportionate amount of the pay for the period that any strike action occurs.

Personal Cases 2013 and 2014 February

March

Personal Cases 2013 Personal Cases New Cases Resolved Cases

136 45 21

132 37 11

Personal Cases 2014 Personal Cases New Cases Resolved Cases

159 55 32

208 70 22

•

Issues around ‘genuine reasons’ and noncompliance with s66 of the Employment Relations Act. An increase in the number of members who have had their positions converted to permanent after union intervention.

•

Claims for severance at the end of the appointments.

Performance/warnings/disciplinary/dismissal •

Inappropriate use of emails

•

Performance issues regards research and/or PBRF outcomes

April

May

June

July

August

September

175 34 22

186 56 36

150 39 19

174 52 16

192 38 21

193 47 27

172 34 15

185 40 20

210 53 33

157 42 18

182 53 20

169 32 21

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•

Performance management reviews

•

Confirmation procedures

•

Workload

•

Excessive workloads

•

Changes in duties

•

Cuts in hours of work

•

Long-term sick leave

comply with the provisions in the relevant collective agreements and the provisions of the Employment Relations Act and recent case law in redundancy dismissals.

There is a trend developing which is seeing academic work “outsourced” which has occurred at Unitec in the Art and Design School, Lincoln in the Law School and is currently being proposed at the Open Polytechnic.

Complaints •

Increased numbers of cases around bullying or harassment. Some have led to the employers requiring independent medical advice and claims of incapacity.

Process issues following reviews/restructuring •

Outcomes for individuals, mainly about notice periods, redeployment, selection process, severance payments or whether or not the outcomes have been a genuine redundancy.

Reviews and restructuring Jasmine Liew wins for joining TEU

There continues to be a consistent demand on organisers’ and branch committees’ time dealing with reviews and restructuring. Over the last 10 months have been 181 confirmed redundancies. At the highest point there were 65 reviews occuring at the same time affecting over 250 members.

The table below shows a monthly comparison from 2013 to 2014. Note that the number of reviews has remained at the same in trend terms over the past 12 months while employers continue with constant demands for restructuring and reviews that have a significant impact on our members who find themselves in the scope of any review/restructuring, and the devastating impact on our members who are made redundant. In addition, in many cases the workload increases for the members who retain their positions needs to be factored in. TEU national office is now reporting to council on the areas that are under review and where reviews are being undertaken, so

TEU works hard to ensure that these reviews are managed in a truly consultative way and only result in the need for genuine redundancies after there has been a fair and transparent selection process.

However, there has been an increased use of legal challenges in recent reviews to ensure that employers

Reviews/Restructuring 2013/2014 Reviews 2013 Number of Reviews Total Number Affected Reviews 2014 Number of Reviews Total Number Affected

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

54

43

36

23

40

41

45

45

580

500

400

500

335

200

250

150

58

59

65

62

60

44

49

46

300

250

250

300

300

200

300

300

15

organisers and branch presidents can share information and submissions.

The posters and bookmarks that TEU produced have been well received and used by members in workplaces.

We will consider developing a new poster in 2015.

Feedback has indicated that other union organisers make good use of our website and find it very helpful.

Legal issues The TEU retains Peter Cranney from Oakley Moran who works with the union staff dealing with legal cases. It is important to note that our organisers are dealing with many other cases that are regularly settled without the need for legal recourse.

In February 2014 the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) produced Guidelines on Preventing and Responding to Workplace Bullying. This is a good resource with useful on-line tools for members.

TEU workshops now incorporate material from these guidelines.

---

The women’s officer has continued to provide feedback and assistance where institutional policies which have geneder implications are being reviewed, one of the strategies identified in the national women’s committee’s workplan.

As well as the constant caseload for organisers and branch officials, one of the major tasks for branch committees, organisers and elected officials in TEU is the bargaining process. It is always a great recruitment and organising opportunity that takes a lot of preparation and commitment from the members of the bargaining teams.

We want to thank all of the members, elected officials and staff who have been involved in the bargaining over the last year.

Branch women’s representatives A range of communications have been sent to the branch women’s representatives providing information, access to women’s organisation newsletters, and encouragement to organise local events for women at their branches.

Many have been active in the Get out and Vote campaign.

At WelTec, branch women’s representatives, with the support of the women’s officer, organised a shared lunch at the Petone campus and drinks and nibbles at the city campus to mark International Women’s Day. A women@ weltec network was established and a second event held for members.

c) Women’s Officer – Suzanne McNabb is the staff member who supports, develops and actions much of the work of the national women’s committee.

Dignity and respect at work – preventing bullying and harassment

Unitec women organised a second successful annual breakfast to mark International Women’s Day with guest speaker Carmel Sepuloni.

Fostering collegial, equitable and inclusive workplaces is one of TEU’s six goals with the associated strategy of reducing bullying and harassment. Branch workshops have continued to be held throughout 2014 at the Open Polytechnic, Victoria, AUT (series of three), Waikato, Wintec, and the Medical School in Christchurch. At Waiariki we held a series of workshops as a joint venture with Waiariki management, and all staff were invited to participate. In conjunction with Unions West Coast we provided a cross-union workshop in Greymouth that a number of TEU members from Tai Poutini and the local REAP attended.

UCOL women joined with local groups and held a community event in Palmerston North.

At Canterbury, an inaugural women’s breakfast was held in August with women from CPIT, Lincoln and Canterbury attending. A second breakfast was held on Suffrage Day and we hope it will become a regular event.

Paid parental leave TEU has continued to be an active member of the 26 for Babies Coalition and local activities to promote increasing paid parental leave to 26 weeks. TEU members responded positively to a call to submit an on-line petition calling on the government not to exercise a power of veto, as well as signing many postcards.

Members will be aware that although there were

One of the strategies identified under this goal was to ensure that questions relating to experiences of bullying were included in the State of the Sector survey.

Responses confirmed that bullying is an issue for staff in tertiary education.

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Protesting FAR at the University of Auckland

A proposal by the national government to abolish the role of EEO Commissioner and the Race Relations Commissioner was opposed by TEU with both a written submission and an oral presentation to the select committee by Te Pou Tuarā and the national women’s officer.

sufficient numbers in parliament to pass the legislation, the national government prevented this happening by filibustering tactics.

However, one outcome of all the campaign activity was that MBIE prepared a discussion document aimed at ‘modernising’ the Parental Leave Act. TEU women’s officer was part of a small group that prepared the CTU submission as well as a TEU submission. Key aspects identified in our submission focused on increasing access to those on casual and fixed term agreements and improving conditions for parents returning to work and seeking flexible working arrangements, including parttime work. TEU is meeting with MBIE to discuss these issues.

Victoria University of Wellington held its annual promotions workshop for academic women. The University of Waikato held one for academic women as well as a workshop on progression for general staff members.

Pay equity

We distributed an electronic women’s newsletter to all women members in September. Suzanne continues to work with organisers and some individual members around issues relating to parental leave, flexible working arrangements and bullying.

The Pay and Employment Equity implementation team at Massey has continued its work of systematically addressing recommendations from the 2010 review report. During the year the team reviewed the recommendations to see which had been completed and what remained outstanding and relevant. New priorities are being established for 2014/2015 including addressing persistent gender pay gaps between women and men science technicians. TEU women’s officer, the organiser and Cat Pausé are members of the team.

As the CTU representative on the International Trade Union Confederation - Asia Pacific women’s committee, Suzanne has attended international workshops and meetings focused on actions to achieve gender equality in the region and within trade union affiliates. She has also been the representative on the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women (NACEW) which advises the minister on employment issues relating to women, for the past six years but recently passed this role to another member of the CTU Women’s Council.

TEU contributes to the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition including supporting fundraising for the equal pay case. The case taken by the SFWU on behalf of Kristine Bartlett, a caregiver, is a significant challenge to the Equal Pay Act 1972 and has implications for many TEU women members. A judgement from the High Court is pending.

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5) Political Activities

Both our Twitter and Facebook followers continue to grow steadily. We now have enough followers that some posts are circulating widely. Our social media is also driving an increasing number of visitors to our website.

Stories about academic issues at universities continue to perform well - partially this reflects where the bulk of our membership is, but it may also be that it reflects an area where we have something unique to say, different from other unions, other media and from other tertiary education institutions.

The tertiary education spokespeople from all the major parties except for the National Party meet regularly with us. This supports our view that this government has no interest in the voice of one of the major stakeholders in the sector and therefore justifys our serious concerns about ‘voice’ being shut down. However the recent announcement of the appointment of an associate minister for tertiary education (Louise Upston) may give us an opportunity to re-engage with the government next year.

The general election

We have regular meetings with the executive director and the president of NZUSA and have continued to work closely with them on issues of concern to students. The impact of the voluntary student membership legislation has made it very difficult for students to continue to have an effective voice. It is clear now that the changes planned for university and wānanga councils will be passed by parliament, probably before the end of this year. These will take effect in 2016. We are in discussion with NZUSA as how best to mitigate the effects of this loss of voice and democracy.

On the campaigning front, Stephen plays a key role in many of the CTU campaigns that we support but do not necessarily lead ourselves. Notably the Get Out and Vote campaign was one our members vigorously supported.

However given the outcome of the election council will need to consider the effectiveness of the use of our resources this year.

We invested most of our campaign energy during the last quarter in supporting the CTU’s Get Out and Vote campaign. Our goal was to encourage a significant number of the enrolled non-voters to vote, increase turnout and, hopefully, generate a swing toward those parties that more closely supported the CTU’s and TEU’s policies.

The union has continued to have a significant public profile this year. Lesley Francey has continued the tradition of our two previous presidents in being available to speak on a variety of issues in various media forums.

Our three vice-presidents, James Houkāmau, Cat Pausé and Sandra Grey have also enjoyed a good deal of media exposure this year.

There was an increase in voter turnout from the previous election’s historic low. About 160,000 more people voted this election than in 2011. As a percentage of enrolled electors turnout was 77.9 percent (2011 – 74.2 percent).

However the enrolment rate was down one percent from 94 to 93 percent.

Continuing to use Te Kaupapa Whaioranga as the catalyst and basis for multiple conversations about tertiary education and the role staff play in ensuring that quality tertiary education is available across the country in our ITPs, wānanga, universities and OTEPs has formed much of the basis for our work this year.

Compared to most other unions we managed to sign up a significant number of volunteers from within our membership to help with the GOAV campaign, but we were well short of the 1 in 20 target we set ourselves at the beginning of the year.

Stephen Day in his role as communications and campaigns officer has continued to build TEU’s communication channels, improving its website so that it is now a widely and regularly read medium attracting thousands of unique visitors each year. The union is continuing to build its use of social media and networking to reach out to members and the tertiary education community in as many ways as possible.

Anecdotal evidence was that there was strong early voting at university and polytechnic campuses and that those votes were disproportionately in favour of parties more closely aligned to our policies.

We have also publicly and financially supported the Living Wage campaign and become an accredited Living Wage employer ourselves. We support the CTU’s Fairness at Work activities and its UnionAID project which Nanette Cormack is very active in.

A major part of Stephen’s work is producing Tertiary Update which gets roughly between 2,500 and 3,300 people opening it each week and about half of those click through to read one or more full stories on the website.

Our open and ‘click through’ rates remain significantly ahead of the average for non-profit organisation emails to which we compare ourselves.

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Insecure Work

funded through unions’ affiliation fees, which are based on our membership numbers. If our membership falls not only does our own income fall but so too does that of the CTU.

Council identified this as a significant area of work and an action plan was drawn up, led by Lesley Francey and supported by Irena Brorens and Suzanne McNabb. A lunchtime session aimed at casual and fixed term workers has been developed and hopefully will be piloted this year. It includes a focus on the experiences of those employed as casuals, their rights at work, protections in legislation and collective agreements. The website will be updated and we have engaged in discussion with our colleagues at NTEU on the issue of casualisation.

6) Professional and other matters A significant amount of work undertaken this year by our policy analyst Jo Scott, has been writing the blueprints which are part of Te Kaupapa Whaioranga. She has been working collaboratively with a number of national office staff as well as Charles Sedgwick, a researcher at Victoria University on these papers and to date has completed the following:

Council of Trade Unions We have very active engagement with the CTU in other areas as well the general election. Being part of and supporting the work of the CTU continues to be a priority area of work for the national office staff through giving feedback to their submissions, as well as being part of the CTU structures. Irena Brorens and Nanette Cormack are active members of the CTU legal group and Jo Scott, our policy analyst works closely with CTU staff on many of their submissions. TEU women’s officer, Suzanne McNabb until recently has been one of the coconveners of the CTU women’s council and Lee Cooper in his role as Te Pou Tuarā provides significant support to the rūnanga as do our kaumātua. We are also active in the CTU’s international, state sector and tertiary education committees and networks. The president and I both represent TEU on the national affiliates’ council and I am on the governance board of the CTU’s PTE. It should be noted that the CTU does an enormous amount of work and has an enormous presence publicly and nationally on many issues including health and safety. This work is

Getting Out and Voting!

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•

Governance

•

General staff

•

Institutes of Technology and Polytechnice (ITPs)

•

Adult and community education (ACE)

•

Funding

•

Māori tertiary education

•

Women in tertiary education

•

Academic freedom

•

Workforce development

•

Student support (with NZUSA).

Another piece of work coming out of this is the “Using Te Kaupapa Whaioranga” booklet which will be available to branches after conference.

We continue to work alongside NZUSA to support them in their representation of the multitude of issues facing students. The voluntary nature of students’ associations now makes that voice more and more difficult to coordinate. The inevitable loss of the student voice through the changes to university and wānanga councils will make it almost impossible for the student voice to be heard in a coordinated way.

In 2013 the union commissioned a group of researchers from AUT University to undertake a “health of the sector” survey. This has been completed and the findings will be presented at thhis year’s conference. Jo worked closely with the research team on the survey and provided feedback on draft report of findings.

Jo also meets with Ministry of Education officials and with ACE Aotearoa. She also represents the CTU on NZQA’s advisory group aligning the NZ qualification framework with international frameworks.

Jo also researches and writes not only our own submissions, but makes substantial contributions to CTU submissions. There has been a lighter load in terms of submissions this year (probably because of the election).

Mini- conferences This year for the first time we ran two dedicated events for members who fall outside the mainstream of the meetings and activities of the TEU. These were proposed, planned and run by one of our Dunedin organisers, Kris Smith. The first was for cleaners, trades, kitchen, hostel and security staff and the second included REAPs, Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa, Plunket PAFT and PTE staff. The main purpose of meetings was to provide an opportunity for the members represented in these areas to have input into, and a greater understanding of, how the union operates and to open the avenues for communication for the representatives of this diverse group at the various levels of governance within the TEU. Feedback from members who attended has been overwhelmingly positive.

National TEU submissions this year have included: •

Education Amendment Bill no.2 on university and wānanga governance and the Teachers’ Council (written and oral submission)

•

A discussion paper from MBIE about enforcing employment standards.

•

Changes to the Employment Relations Act (ERA)

Jo has also contributed to and commented on a number of branch submissions in various areas.

The policy analyst’s work also involves supporting teacher education and ensuring that this important voice is not lost in the union. An annual meeting of those involved in teacher education is an important platform for the union to be developing and refining its position on teacher education. Jo also plans and coordinates all the work associated with and the outcomes of the annual TEU general staff day.

Talanoa Following the Pacific Forum in 2012, TEU established a Tangata Pasifika Advisory Group to focus on our work with Pasifika members. Staff members Lee Cooper and Suzanne McNabb and recently, Dayna Kosega, have been active in supporting Pasifika members and advancing the workplan. This year TEU’s biennial Talanoa was held at Victoria University with around 26 members from 14 branches participating. The theme was Pasifika in Tertiary, Communities and Unions – Active, Leading and Contributing. The Talanoa had three aims: to discuss how Pasifika members can become active within the tertiary education space; to advance Pasifika issues; to consider what Pasifika leadership is in Aotearoa communities and back in the Islands; and to identify how Pasifika members’ contribution to the TEU and wider union movement can be most effective. TEU’s Te Kaupapa Whaioranga – the blueprint for Pasifika tertiary education will be developed from the Talanoa. The Talanoa also included a session looking at recruitment of Pasifika staff.

Jo has worked extensively with Te Toi Ahurangi on developing a policy document for Te Reo which will be considered at this year’s conference. She has also worked with Te Pou Tuarā pulling together the data from the survey of Māori members.

We meet regularly with staff at Ako Aotearoa to discuss teaching and learning in the sector as well as with sister unions NZEI and PPTA. Camille Nakhud from AUT stepped down from her role representing the TEU on the Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards panel where she has served for a number of years. I would like to thank her for the work she has done in helping the sector adequately recognise and support teaching. Rikke Betts from Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa will take over this role next year.

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TEU has a staff of 34 which includes 12 administration staff, 15 organisers and 7 professional/advisory staff. The staff are located as follows: Dunedin office

3 staff

1 administrator and 2 organisers

Christchurch offices

5 staff

1 administrator and 4 organisers

Wellington office

13 staff

5 administrators, 2 organisers and 6 professional/advisory staff

Palmerston North office

3 staff

1 administrator and 2 organisers

Hamilton office

2 staff

1 administrator and 1 organiser)

Auckland office

7 staff

2 administrators, 4 organisers and 1 professional/advisory staff

TEU staff are all union members and are covered by a collective agreement. This year that was renegotiated for a two year term.

U35

After some major changes in staff in 2013 we have now settled into a staffing mix that is providing the stability the union needs when so much else is changing around us. We have only seen one resignation this year, which was the IT administrator. We are covering that work with a contractor at present as we assess the IT needs of the union heading into next year.

Another new initiative the union has launched this year is U35. Dayna Kosega and Cassandra Pierce in the National Office along with members of the national women’s committee have been planning and researching the need for a youth network within the TEU - this included a nationwide survey to our under 35 members.

The main findings from this survey include issues around precarious work, parental leave and career progression.

We are establishing a steering group that is representive of all regions to address these issues and to encourage more active union participation by youth in the tertiary education sector.

This year saw us complete a significant investigation into the professional and industrial staff resourcing of the union. After the structures review and the review of administration staff in 2012, council asked that there be an investigation into whether or not the professional and industrial staffing mix was at the right level and effectively located. That report was completed in August this year and council was provided with the report last month.

The report contained a number of recommendations ranging from short term suggestions through to longer term proposals which might only be implemented should additional funding be available. Staff engaged positively with this process and contributed considerable thought and context to the final report.

In the coming year, we will be focussing on recruitment and how we can adapt our communications to become more relevant with our youth members. This will include developing TEU resources that are more youth-oriented and a TEU Youth Corner on our website.

7) Staffing

TEU staff have faced a number of challenges this year.

While we continue to refine and improve our processes and services it would be a mistake not to recognise that much of the day-to-day work of the organisers in particular is dealing with members who are losing their jobs through no fault of their own, dealing with members who are being bullied and/or mis-managed, and constantly working with members to resolve professional and industrial problems. Many of these issues arise out of the underfunding of the sector and

This year has continued to be challenging for TEU staff as they have faced the on-going problems our members face with ever-increasing funding issues in the sector and the related increase in workloads. As will be noted later, the bargaining environment has not been conducive to settlements with significant gains for our members.

Decreasing staff numbers sees increasing workloads for our members, which brings with it additional stresses and a rise in such issues as workplace bullying. All these factors affect TEU staff members’ workloads as well.

21

valued ITPs struggle to thrive, resulting in more reviews, more redundancies, and more people being employed on insecure work arrangements; universities being underfunded so they struggle to keep up in the international arena and where research is increasingly narrowed to reflect only an economic paradigm; increased workloads resulting in more bullying and ineffectual management practices; and the list goes on.

The voice of TEU must be loud across all the forums we operate in, and we cannot allow that voice to be diminished in the face of excessive workloads and the acceptance of a management model that cuts across our members’ rights and responsibilities and voice with regard to academic freedom. Te Kaupapa Whaioranga is a key tool for us that we will use alongside the solidarity and commitment that members and staff have to this union, ensuring that high quality tertiary education is accessible, available, affordable and a legitimate right and expectation of all citizens.

Lesley Fracney and Peter Malcolm

the negative management styles that some institutions have adopted. The TEU has a great set of people working for it – everyone working for our union believes in the importance of unionisation and in the value of high quality accessible and affordable tertiary education. They are a committed, hard working and dedicated group of people (and fun too!) and I would like to thank them all.

Two things on the agenda for this government for its first 100 days will be the changes to university and wānanga councils and the implementing the changes to the ERA. In different but equally significant ways, these changes will impact on our members negatively. The one thing we can and must do is to keep talking about our values and what we stand for.

8) Conclusion While unions need to understand that a worker-friendly government is not necessarily the panacea for all the problems that beset workers in New Zealand, I am sure I was not alone in hoping that this year’s election would return a government that would at least engage with us in a meaningful way and who would view tertiary education as more than a commodity whose only benefit is seen as being an economic one.

We must reiterate again and again that the only way to deliver a fairer, more equitable and more just society is to have strong unions. That is not just the task of TEU council, it is not just the task of TEU committees, and it is not just the task of TEU staff, it has to be the task and responsibility of all of us.

Instead not only can we look forward to more of the same, but it will be delivered by a government who now has a mandate that will allow it to move on some matters that at least in the past it would have needed to discuss with some coalition partners. More of the same will look like this: a continued funding environment that encourages the private sector to compete and move into spaces where under-funded and under-

Sharn Riggs National Secretary November 2014

22

23 Lesley Francey representing TEU at Education International

Te Toi Ahurangi Report Why we exist So here we are; the Māori, the brownies, Māori caucus, Māori watch dog group, the Harawiras whatever label one chooses to attach to us. We’re here because Te Toi Ahurangi represents the interests of tāngata Māori in te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership, provides advice to the council and annual conference on issues of concern to Māori, organises Māori members at local level, ensures that the union is representing the interests of Māori members in governance, policy and industrial spheres and conducts national and local hui of Māori members of the union (rule 17.1). We are also here due to those same academic minds who believe that Geoffrey Palmer’s three Ps – partnership, protection and participation – can work without any fuss or bother and we’re proud of that. As Māori we’re proud to be part of a union that in the words of Professor Sir Mason Durie allows us ‘Whakapiri’ engagement, ‘Whakamārama’ enlightenment, ‘Whakamana’ empowerment. Because of this recognition of Māori TEU must surely be world leaders in terms of its commitment to the partnership between two Tiriti partners – tāngata Māori and Pākehā – how this is reflected in the rules, given effect and practical application through its structures, polices, and processes.

James Houkāmau, Te Tumu Arataki

Some of you may or may not know that active, legitimate participation in unions by Māori has not always been accepted as it is within TEU. I won’t dwell on the negative past but I do want to accentuate the positive and that is; the philosophy, concept and value statements that underpin unionism do not preclude anyone from becoming a union member based on race, creed, religion or sexual orientation. Add to that the intelligent and experienced minds that permeate our union membership and it would be a very brave person indeed, or a complete fool, to deny Māori a legitimate place in the structure of our union – Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa.

24

What we set out to do?

Ahurangi to repay the faith that Te Uepū had placed in us, basically let’s get busy. So this year’s highlights include:

Like the Industrial and Professional Committee (IPC) and National Women’s Committee Te Kahurangi Māreikura (NWC) we’re tasked with looking at issues, governance and management, staffing and membership, celebration, and at whatever it is to do with our union but through Māori lenses. We consider what impact there might be for Māori membership, whānau, hapū and iwi.

We have kaumātua to guide us through the maze of te reo and tikanga Māori, should we need it and there have been many times when their intervention was crucial to positive outcomes. We consider how we participate in campaigns, industrial action, remits and policy amendments. We’re obliged to support the NZCTU,

•

Te Kaupapa Whaioranga Blueprint for Māori tertiary education

•

Te reo rangatira policy

•

Māhere mahi – communication and recruitment

•

Participation

How have we done?

The Hui-ā-Motu launch of Te Kaupapa Whaioranga (Māori) at NorthTec was unfortunately a media fizzer, even with our scheduled Māori political panellists, due to having to compete with Cyclone Lusi which hit Northland on the same weekend. The launch, however, of Te Kaupapa Whaioranga at TEU’s Council meeting on Unitec marae received better media uptake with both Te Karere and TV One News crews there to interview Dr Margaret Taurere and me. Te Kaupapa Whaioranga - Māori is gaining momentum and I will continue to promote it when addressing branches in the coming weeks and months.

Stu Larson

Māori staff at the University of Canterbury had become concerned about their right to choose when and where they could use te reo Māori when marking and teaching of classes/lectures. Te Toi Ahurangi believed the University’s insistence to determine when and where te reo Māori be used breached article two of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and further ignored the fact that te reo Māori is an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand. Subsequently Te Uepū decided at Hui-ā-Motu to develop a te reo Māori policy for the union. During the initial stages of drafting the policy it was decided that TEU should also ‘walk the talk’ so what you have seen before you today has been the culmination of that work and acknowledgement needs to go to Jo Scott and Lee Cooper for their leadership and expertise in bringing together the comments, feedback and ideas from Māori and non-Māori alike to produce the te reo rangatira policy.

sister unions in Australia, across the Pacific and even world-wide. As Tiriti partners we must ensure what is special to us and our Tiriti partners is protected for all posterity lest they be consigned to oblivion.

Te Toi Ahurangi has realised how important their designated positions in different fora within TEU are and have shown a quiet determination to participate as equals whilst acting as advocates for Māori membership by looking through Māori lenses – shall we say ‘bi-focals’.

Having seats on the executive committee, council, Tiriti partnership group, IPC and NWC has allowed us to use the kūmara vine to good effect. Invitations to attend and participation in TEU fora like Rainbow Te

What have we done?

As a Te Toi Ahurangi member in 2009 I felt we weren’t moving forward as expeditiously as our fellow members on the NWC and IPC committees. So, if you think you can do better you step up or shut up. I stepped up and immediately sought firm commitment from Te Toi

25

Kahukura, Branch Presidents’ meeting, Talanoa and OTEP meetings has kept us in the loop, profiled Māori, and once again provided opportunities to feed in and out. Te Toi Ahurangi has represented TEU nationally and internationally. We are seeing the effects neo-liberal right wing policies are having on tertiary education but more frightening for us is the effects of those policies on Māori.

disputes belies his youth. His professionalism and decorum in transcending two worlds with aplomb is testimony to his passion for things Māori, albeit in the big wide world.

Te Toi Ahurangi believes the parameters of Te Pou Tuarā position may have reached full capacity; however, we still want further growth and development in order to advance Māori within the union, our jobs, the tertiary sector and communities. This should not come at the expense of workload. All TEU staff work extremely hard, so it is critical the current structure of TEU remains intact and staffing levels of Māori remain without further increasing the scope and workload of Te Pou Tuarā.

The lower end of the socio-economic ladder has been populated by Māori for far too long and education, as you know, is the best way to get off those rungs. It makes absolutely no sense to commodify tertiary education as baby boomers retire in their thousands. History has shown us that restructuring invariably means job losses so Te Toi Ahurangi has tried to ensure Māori are not over represented in job losses, redundancies or casualisation. Our union is faced with the stark reality of dwindling membership across all sectors; however, Māori membership has remained relatively stable due in part to our kūmara vine being alive and well. The sector representatives on Te Toi Ahurangi – academic, general, wānanga and women – have been in regular contact with their respective members. This has been of immense value to know what the issues are that affect Māori and how we can assist them in finding solutions.

Conclusion Te Toi Ahurangi and Te Uepū membership acknowledge the collective belief of the TEU leadership, staff and its membership in equity as prescribed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi three Ps. Underpinning the contributions has been the fantastic work done this year and in previous years by Te Pou Tuarā. It would be an absolute travesty if Māori members’ partnership, protection and participation in TEU were to come to a grinding halt because of burn-out. We reiterate the need for the TEU leadership and membership to continue to value and support Te Toi Ahurangi, and Te Uepū members generally, in their endeavours to build membership, promote Te Kaupapa Whaioranga and retain taonga.

Looking forward Te Pou Tuarā has been the catalyst for an amazing growth of confidence in Te Toi Ahurangi and TEU amongst Māori membership. Te Pou Tuarā has had to grow the position as well as grow into the position. His competence and confidence with tikanga and kaupapa Māori during bargaining and dealing with individual

James Houkāmau Te Tumu Arataki

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National Women’s Committee Te Kahurangi Mareikura Report Contributions to the Sector Submissions to parliament TEU and individual members of the NWC made submissions on the proposed changes to the Employment Relations Act, highlighting how the changes would disproportionately harm women in the workforce. NWC also provided feedback on drafts of the TEU’s PBRF Submission and signed postcards and electronic messages in support of 26 weeks paid parental leave.

Lobbying Requests were submitted to meet with the women’s representatives from the five major parties. Jo Goodhew (National) declined our invitation. Members met with Carol Beaumont (Labour) on 17 July in Auckland, and Tracey Martin (NZ First) and Jan Logie (Greens) attended our 15 August meeting.

Cat Pausé, Women’s Vice-President

The role of the National Women’s Committee is to promote the objects of the union, in particular the commitment to and promotion of gender equity and equal employment opportunities for staff in tertiary and further education, provide advice to the council and annual conference on issues of concern to women, organise women members at national and local level, ensure that the union is representing the interests of women members in both policy and industrial spheres, and conduct national and local conferences of women members of the union. (TEU Rules)

In the meetings, we discussed gender equity issues in the tertiary sector. Conversations included: •

Women’s participation & leadership – The percentage of women participating in the senior leadership has not reflected the increasing participation of women in the tertiary sector.

Audits are needed to highlight the issues and the EEO must be strengthen by including quotas to achieve proportional representation

•

Pay and employment equity – Women do not enjoy pay and employment equity in the sector.

Pay and Employment Equity reviews must be required for every institution in the sector with a commitment to implementation of the findings.

•

Access – Women were disproportionately affected by the 80% funding cut to ACE. Funding must be restored to demonstrate commitment to a culture of lifelong learning.

Introduction Across the past two years, the National Women’s Committee Te Kahurangi Māreikura has worked to address the priorities of our workplan, as established in our first meeting of the term. NWC priorities and subsequent planning evolved from our consideration of the TEU Strategic Plan, and which goals and key strategies we felt best in position to address. Our priorities for this term have included establishing a young workers’ network within TEU and lobbying MPs on gender equity in the tertiary sector .

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General Election

only benefit claim to the industrial strategy that provides for an employer payment of a student loan allowance as an alternative to, and on the same basis as, the employer superannuation payment as provided for in the relevant collective agreement. The provision in the collective agreement would require that there is an existing student loan and it is an alternative to the superannuation payment; there is nothing additional for the employer to pay than what would be required under the superannuation provision of the collective agreement.

After a student loan had been repaid, an employee could of course then take up a superannuation option.

The NWC worked on promoting voting among women for the 2014 election. We decided on a campaign that encouraged women to vote on (or before) Suffrage Day. Events were held at Victoria University, Canterbury University, Lincoln University, Waikato University, AUT, Wintec, Massey University and in Greymouth and Hokitika.

We designed a button badge to promote the celebration of suffrage, and distributed them far and wide (see below). TEU women named ‘Kate’ (or similar) participated enthusiastically in early voting events

Many younger (or not so young) members with student loan debt do not take up the option of superannuation as they are unable to repay both the individual superannuation contribution as well as meet their student loan repayments. While this is very understandable, it means these members forfeit the opportunity of the employer contribution to their salary, often for a number of years.

This is especially problematic for women.

Preventing Workplace Bullying and Harassment Workshops Bullying continues to be an important issue for the NWC. Workshops have been by the Women’s Officer at Victoria, Manukau Institute of Technology, Waiariki (3), Open Polytechnic, AUT (3), Medical School and Greymouth with very good participation from members and others. A notable feature resulting from the workshops is a focus on collective action that can be taken in the workplace to prevent bullying. At Massey University, the Women’s Officer has worked with Employee Relations to provide workshops to train Massey University staff to coordinate future workshops on promoting positive working environments.

Other claims prepared by NWC and the women’s officer address domestic violence and the workplace, and salary sacrificing for campus childcare centres.

NWC members contributed to both the National Industrial Strategy and the Implementation Strategy.

Union U35 At Conference 2013, the NWC ran a workshop to explore the potential for the development of a youth network in TEU, as an expansion of NWC’s original goal to establish a young women’s network. The workshop

Contributions to TEU Te Kaupapa Whaioranga The NWC worked across 2014 to produce a Te Kaupapa Whaioranga broadsheet on gender equity. The main themes of the broadsheet are women’s participation & leadership in the sector, pay & employment equity, and women’s access to the tertiary sector. We have found this document to be extremely useful as we met with MPs to discuss gender equity in the tertiary sector.

Industrial Strategy The NWC asked the Industrial and Professional Committee to add to a member-

Submitting on the Education Amendment Bill

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Areas where more work could be done:

was well attended, and participants worked on addressing the following questions: • • •

What are the key issues facing young workers in the sector?

How best can TEU engage with these young workers? How should we communicate?

Name one thing that would help young workers in their career, in the union?

Resolutions sent to council 2014 The NWC submitted two remits to Conference 2014, focused on increasing the participation of young workers and Pasifika workers in the governance and leadership of TEU.

The NWC updated the TEU Gender Equity Policy, which was presented and passed at Conference 2013.

Reflections from NWC over 2013 and 2014 Suffrage campaign

•

Lobbying women’s representatives of three major parties

•

Incorporating Te Reo into every meeting

•

Union U35

•

Contributions to TEU Industrial Strategy

Review impact of Canterbury earthquakes on women in TEU and their employment

•

It was good to take time out from frantic workplace to focus on gender issues in the sector

•

There are passionate people on the committee

•

Breaking into groups for discussion worked well

•

Excellent to have Māori perspective on issues

•

Good to be on the same page with other women

•

Members often struggled to be released from work to attend meetings

•

Members have found it difficult to make connections with the women’s representatives on branch committees

Te Kahurangi Māreikura, National Women’s Committee Members Cat Pausé, (Massey) Women’s Vice-President; Susan Watene (Unitec) Māori women’s representative; Melanie Lewis (Otago), Frances Matheson (Victoria), Tracey Morgan (Waikato), Emma Kelly (AUT) general staff reps; Susan Bennet (Wintec), Anne-Marie Brady (Canterbury), Francie Oberg-Nordt (CPIT) and Alex Sims, (University of Auckland) academic staff representatives.

Areas we are proud of: •

•

What could have worked better:

Gender Equity Policy

Te Kaupapa Whaioranga on gender equity

Casualisation of the workforce and how it impacts women in the sector

What worked well:

From this workshop, a steering group was formed to progress work on a young workers caucus within the TEU. A logo was developed with the support and assistance of the communications officer.

•

•

Cat Pausé NWC Vice-President 2013-2014

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Industrial and Professional Committee Report means our union is able to act strategically, to plan, to run workshops and activities which address the issues of most concern to members, and to respond to institutional and political changes quickly and effectively.

So what did the IPC members achieve over 2014?

The inaugural Industrial and Professional Committee

Sandra Grey, Industrial and Professional Vice-President

The IPC was set up following the restructuring of the TEU completed in 2012. Its membership covers the major sectors and industrial groupings of our union.

The first term of this committee covered a wide range of issues – from research projects on tertiary teacher accreditation to the 2014 election; from ways to campaign against casualisation to our vision for industrial relations in the sector for Te Kaupapa Whaioranga.

Introduction At our final meeting for 2014 we took time to reflect on what we did to get to the IPC meetings in Wellington.

For many the first thought was the 5.00am starts to get to airports, for others it was the piles of work left behind; we spoke about how we had to squeeze our union activities into the corners of very busy live and chuckled about fighting a half asleep state from the late night catching up on work and the early morning start; one of the Industrial and Professional Committee even revealed they were actually on annual leave but had joined us for the meeting anyway.

It is impossible to do justice to the full range of activities undertaken by the Industrial and Professional

Our conversations also turned to the importance of being with other passionate union members, of the great conversations at meetings, the excitement about our union and sector, the laughter and life that we experience in the meeting rooms, and the sense of belonging achieved. All great reasons why we are all part of the TEU and active on committees both at our branches and nationally.

What was demonstrated in these brief thoughts that centred us in our place – TEU – is the major commitment we make regularly as members to our democratic structures and to our colleagues. A commitment which

Pink Shirt Day at Aoraki Polytechnic

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Submissions to parliament

Committee over two years, but here is just a snapshot of the work undertaken.

TEU and individual members of the Industrial and Professional Committee made submissions to the Science and Education Select Committee about the changes to university and wānanga council.

Unfortunately despite there being virtually no support for the government’s actions of removing

Reflections from IPC on the activities of the TEU over 2013 and 2014

Areas we are proud of: •

Te Kaupapa Whaioranga

•

Industrial strategy policy approved by conference 2013

•

Our work on the Employment Relations Bill changes

•

Bargaining outcomes without any loss of conditions

•

Growing work on the living wage

Areas where more work could be done: •

A space for branch presidents on the website

•

The area of inductions for new TEU members, new conference attendees, and new committee members

•

Working out ways to get more senior academics involved in TEU activities

•

Recruitment

•

Supporting branches during surplus staffing reviews/change management proposals

staff and student representation (at least the legislated requirement for this) and many critiques of how the changes will mean more state and big business control over our universities and wānanga, the Government will push through with this anti-democratic act.

It is important to briefly reflect on this new committee – the Industrial and Professional Committee. TEU should never shy away from thinking about whether we are getting what we need out of meetings. From my perspective as the VP Industrial and Professional the membership of the Industrial and Professional Committee – drawn from all corners of our union – has made this a very effective group. At times we have divided into sub-groups, for example general staff members have sat and debated the issue of general staff salary remuneration while academics work on a PBRF paper. These small group discussions with those most closely connected to a topic have been crucial, but so too have been the cross-sector and cross-profession/job type conversations. The strength of the Industrial and Professional Committee is its diversity of membership, which ensures we think broadly about all parts of the union.

Resolutions sent to council 2014 On redundancy and review panels: The TEU does not support TEU members and TEU staff being members or observers on redundancy and/or review panels that have been constituted to:

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i.

decide the number of staff to be made redundant

ii.

select individual staff for redundancy

When any TEU member is on such a panel they are not representing the union.

We also propose four blocks of activities aimed at empowering members though workshops and local campaigns.

Groundwork done

1.

Prevention of bullying and harassment

We have completed papers for presentation to council and conference on a range of topics during 2013 and 2014.

2.

Casualisation and insecure work

3.

Workloads and stress

National industrial strategy implementation paper

4.

Te Reo and Tikanga recognition

This has been a major piece of work for the IPC, so it’s important to reflect on the major proposals within the paper (which is being sent separately to Council and Conference delegations). The paper was developed after consultation undertaken at the Branch Presidents’ Forum, Council, the National Women’s Committee, and Te Toi Ahurangi; and was work-shopped at each of the IPC meetings in 2014. The core ideas of the national industrial strategy implementation paper are that we face a difficult few years ahead and should focus on the following priority national claims: 1.

We will commit to ensuring that coverage clauses cover all aspects of work at the workplace, and include provisions to ensure that any new positions and/or titles will be in coverage within the term of the collective agreement.

2.

We will commit to ensuring that salary and wage increases are a combination of percentage increase on personal and paid rates combined with a minimum dollar claim linked to specific salary rates for lower paid members. We will make claims for a Living Wage until they are achieved.

3.

4.

Te Kaupapa Whaioranga broadsheets As well as providing feedback on a range of broadsheets written as part of our Te Kaupapa Whaioranga series, the IPC work-shopped two papers –The Blueprints for Employment Relations and Academic Freedom.

We will commit to ensuring that all collective agreements include coverage of casual and fixed term employees and that there are clear claims that limit the use of fixed term and casual appointments.

Coverage clauses in TEU collective agreements It is important to ensure our coverage clauses are encompassing of the diversity of roles in the sector. As such the IPC worked on developing a set of principles around which we can lay out a national model clause; against which branch bargaining teams can evaluate their own coverage clauses and any changes sought by employers.

We will commit to working with branches on strategies aimed at achieving the inclusion of all terms and conditions of employment into collective agreements. This would include salary scales, promotions process, disciplinary processes, leave entitlements etc. that may be in the employer’s policies.

After significant debate the following principles were agreed:

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•

We must not let staff working in the sector fall out of coverage or be miscategorised.

•

That naming all titles included under coverage is counterproductive unless they sit alongside a clause which states something like “Any other academic staff titles created by the employer during the life of this Agreement will be subject to negotiation and agreement between the TEU and the employer to assign to an appropriate point on the salary scale in Schedule A or to develop a new salary scale for the position/s.”

•

We must not let jobs be ‘Taylorised’ by being broken into their constituent parts. Across North and South America there has been a trend to break academic roles into two parts – teaching only academics who have insecure work; and research stars who have permanent and well supported jobs.

•

Based on these principles the IPC has used workshops at the Branch Presidents’ Forums and a range of other meetings to try to develop a broad ‘list of tasks’ which are carried out by the two categories of staff in the tertiary education sector – academics and general staff. While the final paper may not be ideal, after more than six years debating this issue and having our roles/names decided for us by our employers, it is seems crucial we take some firmer steps ourselves.

Some of the ideas shared and questions posed at IPC meetings

•

Put up clear out of office notices

•

Turned off the notifications on my smart-phone

•

Turned off the work computer on the last day of 2013 and didn’t turn it back on until the first day back at work for 2014

•

Cleaned up office on the last day of 2013 and made sure there were sticky notes saying what needed to be done next on each pile of work still to be completed in order that the tasks didn’t enter brain space over the holiday.

•

How the structure and committee work together

•

How IPC members communicate with members after the meetings

•

Where does the work go – does it form policy – who makes the policy decisions

•

New members need an appropriate Māori welcome and this should happen each time we have a new committee after elections

•

What is my role

•

How is my role linked to the women’s officer and Te Pou Tuarā roles and the other committees

•

How can this committee support branches

•

How do we share information between meetings

At many meetings we discussed rising workloads and the difficulty of finding time for union work. The committee posed two questions from these discussions:

The importance of taking breaks was discussed and IPC members shared what they do to protect their holiday time: Made it clear to colleagues and students that I was away

Told everyone I was out of town

The need for inducting new members into TEU and into national meetings was discussed and members felt that it was important to have an induction in which we shared:

We must protect categories of workers and how they see the job, not how the job title is interpreted to mean.

•

•

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•

If we find it difficult to get time off for meetings during the week, will we need to move to weekend meetings?

•

Can we overcome some of the problem by trying to notify in a letter from TEU nationally the meetings which nationally elected representatives are expected to attend?

There were also discussions at the IPC on a range of ongoing work areas for the TEU including: •

The proposed employment law changes

•

The TEU’s casualisation campaign

•

The 2014 election and the “get out and vote” campaign

•

The contracting out of teaching roles

(L1). I am currently a Senior Lecturer at Victoria University. Personally I have not had any problems getting promotions, internal grants, or getting support for my teaching work. I have won a Marsden Fast Start grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand, been awarded government research contracts, and have speaking invitations from organisations as diverse as the Council of Trade Unions to the Chinese Government. Earlier in the year I noted that the vice-president role has opened up a number of professional avenues for me in recent months. I am part of a research team which won a TEC contract – the other researchers are Liz Gordon (from Pukeko Research Christchurch) and Charles Sedgwick (who is doing work with the TEU on Te Kaupapa Whaioranga). Our project is to look at the youth guarantees scheme. Also because of my work with the TEU as a vice-president, I was invited to write a chapter for a book People before profits edited by David Cooke and his colleagues. It is exciting to think that amongst the issues which will feature in the book is an analysis of the impact of neoliberalism on the tertiary education sector.

Drawing it all together Thanks to everyone who has supported me over the last year. In particular, thanks to all the members of the IPC for your enthusiasm, passion, and hard work. You have been prepared to challenge each other and me, to debate the core issues with open minds, laugh at the absurdity, and rage over the harm being done to our sector. You have truly been a joy to work with.

Industrial and Professional Committee membership 2013-2014 (note some members had to step down during their term and so we used processes of election and co-option to ensure full membership:

The point of sharing this story is to note that even in a world where there is some hostility to unionism, you can wear you unionism proudly and still be accepted in professional spaces. Much more than this, I think my engagement with the TEU – the people I’ve met, the lessons I have learned from you all, and the opportunities to develop my leadership skills – have made me a better researcher, a stronger teacher, and a more engaged academic citizen.

ITP academic representatives: Phil Edwards and Tina Smith; women’s representatives: Susan Bennett; Māori representatives: Ekara Lewis and Gina Colvin; university general staff representatives: Annie Barker and Grant Bush; university academic representatives: Megan Clayton and John Prince; ITP general staff representatives: Carol Soal and Melissa Wright; Wānanga representative: Maria McCarthy; and REAP/OTEP/ PTE/other representative Rikke Betts.

I think it is important that we reflect on how our union work also advances the core work we are employed to do in our institutions. More importantly in an environment when there are concerted efforts by those in positions of power to discourage us from working collectively, from being part of a union, from being outspoken on issues of concern, it is crucial we share with each other our experiences and successes.

From all of us on the IPC, a huge thank you to the staff who support us – Jo Scott, Irena Brorens, and Nanette Cormack. TEU members are lucky to have committed and skilled staff who help guide us through very troubled waters.

Sandra Grey IPC Vice-President 2013-2014

And some final thoughts In this closing, I also want to reflect on interesting conversations I have had over the past few months about whether union activity has ‘hindered’ my career – in part reflecting on the ‘chilling effect’ that new public management with all its counting and measuring of outputs has had on the tertiary education sector. I thought it was worth making a brief comment, and proposing an action.

I completed my PhD in 2004, having joined Victoria University in the middle of 2003 as a fixed-term lecturer

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36 Talanoa 2014