TEU Annual Report 2015

ANNUAL REPORT

2015

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TEU - THERE’S A PLACE FOR YOU

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CONTENTS National Secretary’s report

4

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Introduction 4

•

Governance 5

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National committee work

6

•

Industrial and professional committee

6

•

Te Toi Ahurangi

10

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National women’s committee, Te Kahurangi Māreikura

12

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Membership 14

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Staffing 15

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Political Activities

16

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Living Wage

18

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Insecure Work

18

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Council of Trade Unions

19

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Talanoa 21

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Rainbow Te Kahukura

21

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Professional, policy and other matters

21

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U35 22

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Conclusion 23

Te Toi Ahurangi report

24

National Women’s Committee Te Kahurangi Māreikura report

26

Industrial and Professional Committee report

27

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NATIONAL SECRETARY’S REPORT INTRODUCTION This year’s conference focuses on implementing our goals and ensuring that members understand and advance the industrial basis of our work.

Since amalgamating, we have developed a clear view of the future direction for the tertiary education sector in the form of Te Kaupapa Whaioranga (the blueprint for tertiary education).

It will also focus on our members’ successes.

We have developed and implemented a national industrial strategy. This gives us a national framework for developing claims and defending conditions. We have maintained the employment conditions of our members even though some employers confront advocates and members on negotiation teams with more and more hostile claims.

We see these successes in the number of collective agreements that we continue to negotiate and settle without any losses to conditions. We see them when we move members from insecure work into permanent work covered by a collective agreement. We see them in the myriad places where TEU has a voice; at Academic Board, outside a vice-chancellor’s office protesting, at Living Wage events, at protests across the country against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). We see them when members gather to support other workers over issues such as zero hours contracts or industrial disputes over pay and conditions for workers in other unions. At this conference, we will be seeing our wins, seeing our successes, seeing how the union makes a difference.

We have created new collective agreements for allied and general staff at five polytechnics as well as AUT, and more allied staff have joined our union.

Since amalgamating, we not only do more, we have also improved our financial and resource base. Our executive has managed the union’s resources prudently while remaining committed to action.

We struggle with the on-going effects of underfunding, continued economic mismanagement, (despite what the government is saying) and yet further Sharn Riggs attacks on workers’ rights in the form of the amendments to employment law. 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.

The union’s goals now guide all the work that the union does. This allows us to set priorities for staff and members.

Underpinning this of course is the need to keep recruiting new members. We can do very little if we do not have the backing and the authority of people across the whole spectrum of our sector, joined up and engaged in the work that we 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 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. Moreover, we know that members want our 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 live and work.

We will not always agree, we will not always succeed, but together we can make this a better world for our communities and kids.

TEU has done a great deal since we formed in 2009.

Since amalgamating, we have continued to develop and mature as the union for all tertiary education employees.

While we have not succeeded yet in becoming the only union in our sector, we have proceeded with advancing this goal in a principled and professional manner recognising that even if people belong to a union that is not TEU, it is still better than not belonging to a union at all. Having said that, we know that inter-union rivalry is not conducive to presenting the united front to the employers and to government that we need to succeed.

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GOVERNANCE The council of TEU is the governing body of the union.

It makes our decisions between conferences. TEU national president Te Tumu Whakarae Sandra Grey leads the council. Council also includes, the immediate past-president, Lesley Francey (for one year only) three vice-presidents, Cat Pausé, James Houkāmau and Phil Edwards, Te Kāhui Kaumātua (advisory), Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, Whaea Kāterina Daniels and Whaea Mere Broughton; two Māori members (Te Tumu Āwhina), Margaret Taurere, Hūhana Wātene; one general staff representative ITP sector (this position is currently unfilled); one general staff representative university sector, Shona Mardle; one academic staff representative ITP sector, Richard Draper; one academic staff representative university sector, Jack Heinemann; 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, Kris Smith; the national secretary (advisory); and other paid staff as deemed necessary (advisory).

committees are the backbone of the union. While they do much of their work at branch level, it is important that they do this within a national context and are 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 confer with each other and focus on national the work plan and goals of the union.

The 2015 programme saw branch presidents from almost every branch attending, participating and contributing.

This year we introduced branch president conference calls after each council meeting. The president and national secretary use these calls to update branch presidents on council’s work and to get feedback from branches about their activities, and how they are integrating the national work of the union into the work of the branches and vice-versa.

As we are in the middle of the two-year election cycle for the union, we have the knowledge that we are moving into 2016 with an experienced group of members leading us through the next year.

At the end of this year, council also exerted its right under the rules to co-opt an additional member for the remainder of this term. Bill Rogers, one of the co-chairs of Te Tiriti Partnership Working Group joined council in that role for the last council meeting of 2015. As this position is a co-option, the role has no voting rights.

We can only function as a democratic and memberdriven organisation with the help and significant time commitment that elected members on TEU committees and governance bodies at both branch and national level give to the union. People do this over and above the substantial workloads that they already carry. As people find it harder to get leave to attend to TEU business, we will need to discuss the timing of our meetings. We will begin that discussion at this conference when we discuss the timing of conference in our annual calendar.

This year council met four times, one of those meetings being at Victoria University’s marae, Te Herenga Waka, in Whanganui-a-Tara. Meeting on a marae once a year is part of the council’s commitment and obligation to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and to demonstrate that the Tiriti partnership is a TEU cornerstone. This is TEU’s seventh annual council meeting on a marae.

And finally acknowledgement and thanks must go to Te Kāhui Kaumātua, Dr Te Huirangi Waikerepuru, Whaea Kāterina Daniels, and Whaea Mere Broughton for continuing to guide council, all the national committees, and TEU generally. At the CTU women’s conference, Kā received an “Inspiring Union Woman” award – acknowledging her fantastic contribution to the wider union movement.

The executive committee (a subcommittee of council) comprises the president, three vice-presidents, the immediate past-president and two members elected by council. Council only filled one of those positions this year and that was by council member, Richard Draper.

The executive met three times this year to advance the council’s work and to work with the national secretary on financial, budgetary and staffing matters.

Without these inspirational leaders we would not be the union we are today. Having said that, it is with great sadness that I have to report that Huirangi Waikerepuru has decided to step down from his role as Tauheke for the union. Huirangi has led TEU and previously ASTE with wisdom and courage and we all owe a huge debt of gratitude to him. At this year’s conference we will be welcoming to the Kahui our new Kaumātua, Hone Sadler from the University of Auckland.

Another important subcommittee of council is Te Tiriti o Waitangi Partnership Working Group. Bill Rogers and Cheryl Jackson co-chair this important subcommittee.

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

We also have an annual meeting of branch presidents.

This recognises that branch presidents and branch

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NATIONAL COMMITTEE WORK There are three national committees in the union responsible for developing, guiding and overseeing our work. Our three vice-presidents lead one of these committees each and they will report separately on each committee’s work. This section deals with the work TEU staff do for those committees and the broader roles they play within the union and the wider union movement.

Adopting the industrial strategy in 2013 and the implementation paper approved by council in 2014 provided a much-needed coherent national approach to negotiations. We now have the mechanisms to protect core conditions and the process for developing new national claims as well as branch claims. We have a strategy and a process that frames all our negotiations.

Employers now know all branch negotiations are TEU national negotiations.

INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL COMMITTEE

This year we are not just negotiating in a constrained funding environment but one where the government plans to reduce spending (investing) in the state sector.

While tertiary education institutions are not core state sector, the government’s state sector policies and financial decisions still affect us. Therefore achieving salary increases for our members continues to be challenging.

National Industrial Officer, Irena Brorens oversees TEU’s significant negotiating agenda and timetable. At any one time TEU members are always negotiating collective agreements within the framework of our industrial strategy. A significant part of this conference’s agenda will consider how to implement the union’s industrial strategy so that it is effective at every level of the union.

Inflation (CPI, September 2015) is 0.3 percent – a full percentage point lower than it was at the same time last year. This affects our negotiations because many settlements use CPI to determine pay rises. We must continue to debate this issue.

This year we saw salary increases ranging from 1.0 percent to 2.5 percent per year. It is important to note that there were also a number of settlements that were not based on percentage increases but on a flat dollar rate. This advantages lower paid workers and is in keeping with TEU’s view that any means to reduce the difference between higher paid and lower paid workers is a good thing.

The current government has made 27 changes to the Employment Relations Act since it came into power.

All of those changes have taken away worker rights in one form or another – whether it is the right to a tea break or giving employers power to walk away from the negotiating table. All of these legislative changes make it harder for us to negotiate, protect and settle collective agreements. All of these changes make it harder for working people to have a genuine voice and say in their workplaces. All of these are fundamental attacks on our democracy.

This year, as with every other year, many of our branches negotiated collective agreements with their employers.

There is no such thing as ‘a negotiations round’ because we are negotiating almost constantly. Irena oversees the negotiations across the union and works closely with the organisers and the negotiating teams to ensure consistency and to give guidance where necessary. This year we have settled 25 collective agreements covering over 4,000 members, and a number of other agreements are close to settlement.

Cassandra Pierce in the national office works closely with Irena to produce the reports council receives on a quarterly basis which outline how negotiations are proceeding and significant other industrial work, including reviews and legal cases.

Frances Oberg-Nordt

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5 Jennifer Frost, University of Auckland

More negotiating teams are also achieving union-only deals this year, where union members get the benefits of the agreement earlier than non-members. This helps ameliorate the increasing frustration TEU members feel with those who sit back and enjoy the benefits union members negotiate without contributing to the outcome.

It would be much better for all however, and would provide much better outcomes if those people joined the union instead of just expecting to reap the benefits without contributing.

are proving difficult partly because unlike every other vice-chancellor, this employer will not negotiate the pay increase with TEU until he has set the rate for the salary increase for all staff. However, the branch is running a strong and well-organised campaign around their claims.

For the first time in the university sector, some employers have been seeking cuts in conditions.

Negotiating with our other tertiary education providers (OTEP, PTE and other branches) also continues.

Notably we won some of the best settlements in this sector, with NZCER achieving 2.5 percent and a number of REAPs achieving 2 percent in their agreements.

The funding issues across the whole sector continue to be the major barrier to adequate pay increases. The decline in student numbers across the country (which will continue for the next few years) further exacerbates this problem. Until the government takes a holistic and longterm approach to funding the tertiary education sector appropriately, the problems will continue.

Reviews and restructurings account for much of the workload of our organising staff, as well as the myriad of personal cases that are always on the go. Restructuring continues in many branches as employers maintain a state of constant change. This does nothing to enhance the quality of teaching and other services provided in our sector. TEU has a rigorous approach and process for dealing with reviews, and ensures that members are involved in the consultation processes at every level. However, where an employer has scant regard for engaging with staff then these processes can be very damaging for members.

This year our negotiations with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa have improved considerably. A change in the wānanga’s leadership has led to settlements in line with those TUIA, the other union on site, received.

In the ITP sector most branches are settling with no loss of conditions, modest salary increases and two-year terms. However, the NorthTec branch has committed to a campaign to achieve pay parity because their employer pays lower salaries than a similar sized polytechnic.

Notably in this sector we are increasingly initiating for collective agreements for allied staff with UCOL, Aoraki, MIT (new), Otago Polytechnic, and now NorthTec (new) establishing these agreements.

We have worked hard this year with the four branches that are facing merger decisions. The Aoraki/CPIT merger is likely to take effect at the beginning of 2016 and the Bay of Plenty/Waiariki proposal is before the minister for his decision. While the union has no position one way or the other on mergers as a concept, we are concerned that underfunding and cuts are driving these mergers. No institutional merger should jeopardise students’ access to high quality, affordable tertiary education, especially in our regions. We must also fight to retain the working conditions of staff through any merger process. Mergers are not new in our sector,

By the end of this year, 10 of our ITP branches will have negotiated with their employer while in the university sector four of our eight branches have been negotiating their collective agreements. As is now the pattern with the University of Auckland, negotiations

REVIEWS/RESTRUCTURING 2014/2015 February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

58

59

65

62

60

44

49

56

300

250

250

300

300

200

300

400

41

31

32

38

40

34

35

300

200

200

300

500

300

200

REVIEWS 2014 Number of reviews 2014 Total number affected 2014

REVIEWS 2015 Number of reviews 2015 Total number affected 2015

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PERSONAL CASES 2014/2015 February

March

April

PERSONAL CASES 2014

Personal cases 2014 New cases Resolved cases

June

July

August

September

159

208

172

185

210

157

182

174

55 32

70 22

34 15

40 20

53 33

42 18

53 20

36 23

PERSONAL CASES 2015

Personal cases 2014 New cases Resolved cases

May

223

203

218

193

195

173

179

197

46 28

38 20

32 33

22 31

53 28

34 24

38 32

32 31

promotion and progression, workload, long-term sick leave/incapacity, fixed term and casual appointments, performance issues resulting in warnings or other disciplinary proceedings. We also faced a significant increase in bullying and harassment and incompatibility cases this year.

beginning with CIT and Hutt Valley Polytechnic to form WelTec and the merger of Wellington Polytechnic with Massey University in the 1990s. Mergers of Whanganui Community Polytechnic and Wairarapa Polytechnic with UCOL followed closely. Arguably, those mergers served neither Whanganui nor Wairarapa students well. The two most recent proposals to merge have caused us to commission a piece of research on the impact of mergers on our sector.

Oakley Moran continues to give TEU exceptional service so that when we do need legal support members always receive expert and thoughtful representation.

Peter has dealt with a range of issues on our behalf including breaches of natural justice, fixed term issues, changes to job descriptions, application of progression policies, academic freedom, reviews and stress issues.

At any one time, we also have a number of legal cases underway, either to do with our negotiations, or dealing with personal cases. Peter Cranney of Oakley Moran runs most of our legal cases that go to the Employment Authority and the Employment Court. I should note however that our own organisers resolve the vast majority of the cases that members come to us with, either before, or at, mediation. Personal cases, many of which we resolve well before they ever hit mediation or the Employment Relations Authority are always on going. Organisers deal with matters such as salary issues,

This year branches have supported the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) and other unions as they faced significant disputes and campaigns. Branches have stood on picket lines and donated money supporting those workers taking industrial action.

Campaigning for a seat on council, University of Otago

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TE TOI AHURANGI

Waitangi. It is also a wonderful, grounding experience for all who attend.

Te Pou Tuarā, Lee Cooper, supports, helps develop, and actions the work of Te Toi Ahurangi, Te Hau Tikanga o Te Tiriti, and the Tangata Pasifika Advisory Group.

Until recently he was also the advocate for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. A key part of his job is growing the Te Uepū membership of the union. This year that membership increased from 868 to 880, or 9.0 percent of all TEU members (up 0.3 percent from 2014). The rise in the number of Te Uepū members in the ITP and wānanga sectors is very promising. However, a fall in other sectors has offset this. The Kotahi Mano: 1000 members recruitment strategy is an important part of growing our Māori membership. Te Toi Ahurangi and Te Uepū members have actively recruited new members to the union. They have also ensured that this has been included in the national recruitment strategy and the goals for the union.

Project whitestream has been a significant piece of work this year. As reported last year, Te Tumu Āwhina Margaret Taurere has been working on the issue of identifying the impact of specialist Māori groups or positions being disestablished and/or rolled into generic services. We know that this development has a greater and more detrimental impact on Māori staff and students because institutions are not taking account of their Tiriti obligations.

TEU wrote an advisory paper on whitestreaming to help members in these positions with arguments regarding the benefit of Māori specialist positions.

Then we commissioned research to help us develop our arguments. The research paper will be finished before the end of this year and we will use it in our work both, industrially and professionally, when talking with employers, politicians and officials.

As part of his job Te Pou Tuarā, supports and advises many of our Te Uepū members. He does that in conjunction with TEU organisers. He gives advice and support to organisers and members around issues of tikanga. As already noted, until recently Lee was the advocate for negotiations at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. As part of this, he was active in the universities and wānanga councils’ campaign.

Te Pou Tuarā also supports the work of Te Tiriti Partnership Group. This year the group has worked with Moana Jackson who has been carrying out the ‘Tiriti and TEU’ audit of the union. The group developed the terms of reference for this work. Moana has attended 11 meetings with members and staff as part of this project.

His report will be presented to conference this year. The group has also developed a Tiriti education programme for TEU in 2016 and worked on updating the union waiata/song book.

Whaea Kātarina Daniels

Two important meetings in TEU calendar are Huiā-Motu and the annual council noho marae. The seventh Hui-ā-Motu (annual national hui) of Te Uepū members took place at Te Noho Kotahitanga marae at Unitec in Auckland. Two indigenous representatives from our Australian sister union, NTEU joined 26 Te Uepū members at this year’s Hui-ā-Motu. Work included finalising “Whakamanahia Te Kaupapa Whaioranga: Implementing the Blueprint for Māori Tertiary Education”. EIT will host Hui-ā-Motu in 2016 in Gisborne.

A key part of Lee’s role is also developing, maintaining and strengthening relationships beyond TEU. He continues to work on the strategic relationships Te Toi Ahurangi forged, on behalf of Te Uepū members and the union 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. He also works with the CTU national affiliates’ council and the Rūnanga and Komiti Pasifika.

He has continued his work this year with the CTU residential leadership programme. Part of his CTU work this year has been representing the CTU as a board member on the Todd Foundation.

In May, Te Kāhui Kaumātua and Te Uepū representatives on council led TEU on to Te Herenga Waka marae at Victoria University in Whanganui-ā-Tara for its sixth annual two-day noho marae meeting. This year, as has become the practice, local branch committees attended the pōwhiri and came to dinner. The council on marae meeting shows TEU’s commitment to honour Te Tiriti o

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Harvey Jones, Massey University

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NATIONAL WOMEN’S COMMITTEE, TE KAHURANGI MĀREIKURA

Over the last couple of years, we have worked with the Massey University Pay and Employment Equity Implementation Team to implement the recommendations and analysis of the reports. Pay and employment equity is part of the women’s officer work, which includes regular meetings and activities, both within TEU as well as externally.

Under one of our major goals as a union has been improving both pay and conditions of people in insecure work. We have worked closely with our sister union, the NTEU, sharing information and resources and developing workshop sessions for people in insecure work. We trialled these at the last meeting of the industrial and professional committee and will pilot them at conference this year.

Suzanne McNabb is TEU women’s officer. Much of her work supports the National women’s committee, Te Kahurangi Māreikura (NWC). She supports the vicepresident Cat Pausé and helps develop and action much of the committee’s work. The committee has held three face-to-face meetings this year as well as teleconferences.

As this was a new committee with new members coming on board, they also held induction training at the beginning of the year.

Other key areas of work have included TEU’s work preventing bullying and harassment. We have updated information and resources, and run workshops at Victoria, Waikato/Wintec, Waiariki, including Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and two Mana@work workshops at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in Tauranga and Hamilton. Many members attended these, highlighting the need for the union to be continuing our work in this important area.

We also collaborated with Massey University promoting Pink Shirt Day this year.

Suzanne has continued her work with the NWC work plan, ensuring that it works in cohesion with the union’s five goals. An important part of this work this year has been finalising Te Kaupapa Whaioranga - the blueprint for women in TEU. This important paper joins the other individual papers we have been developing over the past two years to provide perspectives on different parts of TEU’s work.

Suzanne regularly runs seminars on academic promotions for women. This year she ran seminars at Victoria, Massey and Canterbury universities as well as two at Lincoln and a very successful general staff progression workshop at Lincoln. These kinds of education activities keep the union’s profile high in the professional area as well as profiling the depth of activities that the union engages in.

Suzanne has provided regular news updates to NWC and branch women’s representatives and women members.

She has encouraged and supported branches to hold International Women’s Day and Suffrage Day events.

These were particularly successful this year at WelTec and Victoria and Canterbury universities.

Until recently, Suzanne has been the organiser for our branch at NZCER. Suzanne has relinquished this role to begin work on a national TEU education project. This project will fix a significant gap in how we coordinate and implement our education programme. Since July this year Suzanne has been consulting with council, national committees and staff about developing a national education strategy and priorities for the next two years, organising and updating resources, developing procedures and templates for running courses, reviewing courses run in the last year and developing an education plan for branches for 2016.

Suzanne has also supported the 26 for Babies Coalition for increasing paid parental leave, which has included regular meetings and activities as well as engaging members in signing the on-line petition (400) and working on our submission on modernising parental leave and our submission on the Employment Standards Bill with regard to paid parental leave.

Chrissy Williams, Te Rito Maioha

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As with many of our staff, the women’s officer works closely with the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) and was part of the organising group for the biennial CTU Women’s Conference. Eighteen TEU women members from a range of branches attended this event. Suzanne is also very active on the CTU women’s council, supporting its work plan and activities. In addition, Suzanne works with the CTU organising and education group, where she participated in regular meetings on behalf of TEU and as a member of the union leadership reference group.

weekly newsletters and engaging TEU members wherever possible as well as ensuring there are regular articles relating to women in Tertiary Update and TEU media releases. Similarly, she has continued with her international work with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) as the CTU representative on the Asia-Pacific Women’s Committee. She has also participated in other women’s organisations and seminars on issues related to women at work, the EEO Trust, UNWomen and NACEW. She also provides support and advice for organisers for cases around fixed term agreements, parental leave, flexible work requests, and supports other staff responsible for national portfolios.

Suzanne has continued her work with the National Council of Women, engaging with the development of a gender equity strategy, submitting articles for

National Women’s Committee, Te Kahurangi Māreikura

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MEMBERSHIP described above. We have not recruited as strongly as we did last year and as a result, we have not arrested the decline in membership.

A critical mass of members is crucial to the success of any union. The number of members we have affects our ability to influence government and institutional policy, pay, conditions and opportunities for members. The more members we have, the more influence we have.

Critically, when our membership density at any branch is less than 50 percent some employers dismiss us on the basis that “we do not represent the interests of the majority of employees”. They dismiss us as just another interest group. We lose our place as the voice of the sector.

Many believe that declining membership is the result of a combination of an aging workforce and a shrinking tertiary education workforce. In fact, the sector workforce is not declining. However, what is changing is the nature of that workforce – institutions are employing more people on fixed-term agreements and as hourly paid or casual employees. And this does not even begin to address the possible impacts of the chief executive of Unitec’s plan to outsource all student services jobs.

More members bring other benefits such as economies of scale in workplace organising and back office support.

When membership declines, the opposite occurs. The costs of organising and supporting members rise, while membership power and influence at the workplace falls and our ability to bargain for better conditions and pay for members reduces. If that situation arises then decline in membership can compound as members (both existing and prospective) lose faith in the ability of the union to represent them and to achieve meaningful improvements to pay and conditions.

Because of all this council commissioned a report on union recruitment and renewal at the end of last year from Rory McCourt. A working group led by Deputy Secretary Nanette Cormack followed this up by writing a report and recommendations on a national recruitment strategy. The report does not propose significant structural changes for the union but does recommend that TEU needs to change its current practices in order to increase recruitment and turn around the membership decline. Part of that process is to ensure that we have common practices and understandings across the whole union about how we approach recruitment at branch level.

TEU, as is the case with most other unions in New Zealand, lost members over the past two years. While it is not significant (1.3 percent this year), if the trend continues we are in danger of falling into the space

University of Canterbury members

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STAFFING Every year brings its challenges for staff and members alike but this year contending with a falling membership has contributed an additional focus for organisers and administration staff. Fewer members does not mean less work, and as we continue to operate in a hostile political and funding environment the increased need to demonstrate our authority by knowing that we are speaking on behalf of the majority of staff in the sector is even more pressing.

programme which begins in 2016.

Samantha Stephen leads the administration team. In 2015, she introduced Office 365, which is the first stage in a number of upcoming changes that will enable us to store our data in the cloud and offer substantial benefits in terms of disaster recovery, while providing a uniform technology experience across the TEU. TEU staff are all union members and are covered by a collective agreement, which is in the middle of a two-year cycle.

TEU has 34 staff, which includes 12 administration staff, 15 organisers and 7 professional/advisory staff. This year we have had the additional help of a full-time fixed-term organiser in our Christchurch office to help with the on-going fall-out for our staff and members from the Canterbury earthquakes.

TEU staff have continued to face a number of challenges this year. Organisers, in particular, spend much of their time dealing with members who are losing their jobs through no fault of their own, dealing with members who face bullying and/or mismanagement, and constantly working with members to resolve professional and industrial problems. Many of these issues arise out of the underfunding of the sector and the negative management styles that some institutions have adopted.

Staff are located as follows: Dunedin office - 3 staff •

1 administrator and 2 organisers

Christchurch offices - 5 staff •

To improve the way in which we do things, staff met at the beginning of this year in team meetings (Northern, Central and Southern) to answer the question, “We’ve been one union for five years, what’s working and what might need adjusting?”

1 administrator and 4 organisers (2 part-time).

Wellington office - 14 staff •

5 administrators, 2 organisers and 6 professional/ advisory staff

The organising and industrial staff of the unions at the time of amalgamation transferred over into the new TEU. This provided a successful and effective way for us to remain stable, ensuring we did not lose critical staff members and that we continued to work effectively while the amalgamation settled down.

Palmerston North office - 3 staff •

1 administrator and 2 organisers

Hamilton office - 2 staff •

We have made incremental changes to staff positions, their focus, functioning and location over the last five years as the union has developed. This year staff assessed the union’s operation five years on from amalgamation.

1 administrator and 1 organiser)

Auckland office - 7 staff •

2 administrators, 4 organisers and 1 professional/ advisory staff

These discussions are ongoing, but one of the outcomes is recognising that we all need to work more coherently as groups within TEU so that our development and delivery is not disjointed or siloed. We have done lot of work developing, policies, guidelines and work approaches to ensure that we work in a coordinated way.

We need to have a whole-of-staff approach that advances the purposes and plans of the union. This process is not just about fitting staff numbers to locations and activities – it is about looking at how we organise staff, which then enables us to do what we say we want to do effectively.

The union is fortunate enough to have support from a very dedicated and talented team of administrative staff both at national office and in the regional offices.

In addition to their responsibilities at TEU many of our administrative staff have become engaged in broader union activities; attending CTU training courses, campaigning, organising fundraisers and being very active in the Living Wage campaign and universities/ wānanga councils’ campaign. Several administrative staff are involved in our U35 (under 35) caucus and are interested in engaging in the TEU organiser training

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POLITICAL ACTIVITIES

is always available to speak to journalists on a variety of issues and is a sought after speaker and commentator.

Our three vice-presidents, James (Hēmi) Houkāmau, Cat Pausé and Phil Edwards have also enjoyed a good deal of media exposure this year. A number of branch presidents and delegates also undertook media training this year.

This means that we have a broader range of members to call upon for public commentary when we need it.

We continue to meet regularly with the tertiary education spokespeople from all the major parties, with the exception of the National Party – this continues a long-standing tradition of the minister Steven Joyce not meeting with us. This confirms our view that this government has no interest in staff in the sector.

Therefore, it becomes even more important that we do not lose focus on one of our goals – ‘to be the voice of the tertiary education sector’. While there has been a change in the tertiary education spokespeople for both Labour and the Greens we have been working effectively with both David Cunliffe and Gareth Hughes in their new portfolios.

Labour’s Future of Work commission is moving ahead, but at this stage, we are not seeing any challenge to the status quo in this area.

We continue to use Te Kaupapa Whaioranga as a catalyst and basis for conversations about quality tertiary education and the role staff play in ensuring that tertiary education is available across the country.

Stephen Day in his role as communications and campaigns officer has continued to build TEU’s communication channels, improving our website so that it is now a widely and regularly read medium attracting thousands of unique visitors each year. The union continues 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.

Regular communications through Tertiary Update, the TEU website, social media and other communications such media releases, conversations with journalists and writing articles, blogs and other commentary forms the basis of much of Stephen’s day-to-day work. He also has hands-on involvement in the development and execution of our campaigns.

We have regular meetings with the executive director and the president of NZUSA and we work closely with them on student issues. We promoted their major piece of research and George Tongariro, Whitiriea NZ publication on student debt strongly across our branches. We continue to encourage branch presidents and committees to work closely with student bodies (where they still exist) on political and social issues. We collaborated very successfully over the universities and wānanga councils’ campaign. However, the decimation of the student voice as the result of the voluntary student membership legislation has made it very difficult for students to continue to have an effective voice. NZUSA will continue to struggle to represent students while this situation remains. This will have far-reaching effects – many of which we will see in years to come.

Notably this year was the work the union did on the universities and wānanga councils’ campaign and the successes we had in two of our branches, which we will highlight at this year’s conference. As he usually does, Stephen’s analysis and work around Budget 2015 was impeccable and enabled us to get public commentary out quickly on aspects of the budget that affected tertiary education.

Stephen supports organisers on branch campaigns which range from collective agreement negotiations disputes, to disputes over reviews and restructurings as well as the impacts of mergers not just on our members, but on their wider communities. This year the proposed mergers between Aoraki Polytechnic and CPIT and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic with Waiariki have engaged much of his time as well of that of Sandra Grey – talking with members,

Returning national president Sandra Grey has thrown herself into her role with energy and intelligence, once again raising TEU’s profile across all media spaces. She

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Mark McGuire, University of Otago

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analysing business cases and writing submissions with members and the union’s policy analyst.

sector.

One of the results of government underfunding is that more and more of the new jobs created in our institutions are precarious. This is not a phenomenon particular to New Zealand. It is a growing global issue that affects workers, societies and economies across the world.

Increasingly, employers creating casual jobs means there are people working at two, three and even four jobs in order to make enough money to live on. We are seeing more of this in the tertiary education sector as the health of the sector survey we commissioned in 2013 bears out.

Stephen’s design support is part of this work including “Negotiations 2015”, various recruitment resources, as well as his work on the Living Wage, UnionAID, bullying and harassment and gender equity.

A major part of Stephen’s work is producing Tertiary Update, which gets roughly 2,500 to 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 not-for-profit organisation emails to which we compare ourselves. Having said that, it is important that we continue to evaluate the effectiveness of our on-line and other communications.

Precarious jobs, zero-hour contracts and multiple jobs mean that more people are living on the edges of the economy. Increasingly those people are working in tertiary education. Not only does this impact on the

LIVING WAGE We have publicly and financially supported the Living Wage campaign and become an accredited Living Wage employer ourselves. Notably, this year the TEU branch at Victoria University employed Lyndy McIntyre, who is a community organiser with Living Wage Wellington.

She supports community organisations to get active in the Living Wage campaign. TEU has funded Lyndy nationally and through the Victoria branch since February this year, for one day a week, building support amongst the members and the wider Victoria University community for the Living Wage campaign.

Dayna Kosega, who is the administration worker with responsibility for the Victoria branch, has also been very active in this campaign.

Everywhere around the world where works have won the Living Wage, they have needed the support of all the diverse groups that make up communities uniting to build a strong voice. The Victoria University campaign is bringing together students, academics, general staff, cleaners, retired academics, faith groups and alumni for a common cause. One of the offshoots of this has been to make TEU much more visible on campus and this has resulted in increased visibility and activism, which in turn has seen a growth in membership.

Simon Jones and Edwin Herman got pizza for collecting the most Living Wage postcards, Victoria University of Wellington

INSECURE WORK

working communities of our institutions – people in parttime and casual work are less likely to engage in the wider communities and activities of our institutions - they are also less likely to join the union. It is not coincidental that employers world-wide are moving to more casualised work arrangements, as they see that the power workers have through unionisation can most easily be diluted with these work practices. Working people are too afraid to rock the boat in case 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 up only representing a decreasing number of full-time permanent staff.

Council identified this as a significant area of work arising from our goal to improve pay and conditions in our

We undertook a survey last year and drew up an action plan. We developed a workshop and will pilot

We also support the CTU’s Fairness at Work activities and its UnionAID project in which Nanette Cormack is very active.

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this at conference this year. It includes a focus on the experiences of those employed as casuals, their rights at work, and protections in legislation and collective agreements.

affiliates’ council and I am on the governance board of the CTU’s private training establishment which until recently has been providing all the health and safety representative training which is funded by the ACC.

COUNCIL OF TRADE UNIONS

At CTU biennial conference this year, national president Helen Kelly stepped down from her role after nine years leading the CTU. As many of our members will know, Helen was the general secretary of AUS and was a key advocate for the merger of AUS and ASTE to form TEU. Helen’s leadership on a huge range of issues, notably health and safety and work with forestry workers and workers in the farming industry since she has led the CTU has been outstanding. Union members and workers across New Zealand will miss her energy and commitment to working people. The new president is Richard Wagstaff, who was previously the CTU vicepresident and one of the national secretaries of the Public Service Association (PSA).

We have very active engagement with the CTU. Being part of and supporting the CTU’s work continues to be a priority for the national office staff. 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 works with 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. Whaea Kāterina Daniels is now one of the Kaumātua for the CTU.

Sam Huggard is the CTU Secretary. He took over that role from Peter Conway when he became ill in 2013.

Peter’s subsequent death was a shock to all union activists. His contribution to the union movement was enormous and he has left a gap that we all still feel.

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

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Pink Shirt Day, Lincoln University

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PROFESSIONAL, POLICY AND OTHER MATTERS Policy analyst Jo Scott has continued her work this year on writing the blueprints, which are part of Te Kaupapa Whaioranga. The blueprint for teacher education came out of work done at the annual teacher educators’ meeting earlier this year and now stands alongside 10 other blueprints that we have completed and branches and organisers now use in the work that they do. She has also completed the “Using Te Kaupapa Whaioranga” booklet and distributed it to branches.

in 2012. The group comprises six members who meet by teleconference with TEU staff. It has two primary functions; first, it advises TEU on all matters Pasifika; and second, it carries out work before and after the biennial Talanoa.

Staff members Lee Cooper, Suzanne McNabb and Dayna Kosega support Pasifika members in advancing the work plan. The biennial Talanoa took place last year. This year the advisory group has continued to work on the Talanoa’s work plan.

In collaboration with TEU members and relevant TEU staff Jo also researches and writes not only our own submissions, but also makes substantial contributions to CTU submissions. National TEU submissions have numbered 21 so far this year including our submission on the Employment Standards Legislation Bill, which she has just completed. She also wrote our Living Wage submission to Wellington City Council and attended the council meeting to lobby for the changes.

TEU has 240 Pasifika members from nine Pasifika nations. From this membership we sent a strong delegation of Pasifika members to the CTU Fono in August this year.

Along with national submissions, Jo also contributes to and comments on various branch submissions as they arise. The most significant this year have been our work with Unitec branch on developing the very substantial response to the polytechnic’s plans to outsource all student services at the institution and the on-going work with four ITP branches who are dealing with their institutions’ plans to merge. She does all of this work in consultation with members before completing a final submission.

Rainbow Te Kahukura

Jo is working with a reference group of TEU staff and members on the general staff remuneration project. She is also responsible for the organisation that goes into General Staff Day. She also works with Te Toi Ahurangi, assisting them with their work plan and is part of the steering group working on the “whitestreaming” project.

As well she is available to all staff for research support.

She develops internal staff policies for the union, in collaboration with the leadership team.

RAINBOW TE KAHUKURA

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

This year Otago Polytechnic branch hosted the biennial meeting of TEU Rainbow Te Kahukura. Nineteen delegates from across a range of branches attended.

Conference will be discussing two rule remits that came from this meeting.

TALANOA

The meeting also discussed the CTU diversity kit, and how TEU could use it to expand our members’

TEU established its Tangata Pasifika Advisory Group

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Pink Shirt Day Massey University

understanding of diversity issues. Another session focused on what makes TEU a good place to be a Rainbow Te Kahukura member, what we can do better and how we can complement the work of other LGBTI networks. Jo Scott does most of the preparatory work for this meeting as well implementing its decisions, but thanks must go to the Otago Polytechnic branch and our Dunedin staff for the wonderful job they did hosting this event.

as we observe the changing demographic of those working in the tertiary education sector. Issues around precarious work, parental leave and career progression are significant ones for all members but especially so for those beginning their careers.

This year Heather led a delegation of U35 members to the CTU’s StandUp conference. Out of that conference, we created a U35 steering group to progress the role U35 will have within TEU. The steering group will map out what U35 needs to do in 2016 to engage young members and potential young members. They have put forward a proposal to run a “Boot Camp” for U35 members next year.

U35 Heather Warren, one of TEU organisers based in Palmerston North, has taken up national responsibility for this important network of workers aged under 35 (U35). The national women’s committee initiated this network last year. Dayna Kosega and Cassandra Pierce in the national office and Madison Walker in our Christchurch office along with members of the national women’s committee have been planning and researching the need for a youth network within TEU. So seeing this come to fruition is an important step for TEU, especially

The boot camp will give TEU a direction in which to engage young members. The steering group is made up of academic and general staff from across a range of institutions. The developing boot camp programme reflects requests from U35 members about the structure and goals of TEU. It also outlines the challenges U35 members will have to relate their work to TEU goals in 2016.

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CONCLUSION The theme for this year’s conference is mārohirohi: to be strong, brave, resolute, determined and tenacious.

The symbol of the mangōpare (hammerhead shark) is a traditional Māori symbol of strength and courage. Like union members, mangōpare unite in large schools. And, like union members, they are successful in maintaining the integrity and the strength of their species.

Our goal is to defend and promote quality tertiary education that the public values, funds and owns.

Delegates at this year’s conference will participate in and experience the strength of union membership, union togetherness and union success. Those successes will range from the big to the small, from the collective to the individual – from the refusal to allow our employers to reduce our working terms and conditions to getting a member’s job changed from fixed-term to permanent.

This goal sits within our broader commitment to a fairer society and more equitable world. This includes TEU speaking up on a whole range of issues that some may not see as our “core business”. It is the role of every union and every union member to be speaking up for a better and more just society, whether that’s by marching to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and globalisation generally, raising issues such as climate change or participating in worldwide campaigns of human rights and justice.

We want a tertiary education system that we, govern collegially, and equitably, founded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi. All people have a right to accessible, affordable, available, high-quality tertiary education.

We must speak clearly and loudly across all the forums in which we operate. We cannot allow excessive workloads and the acceptance of a management model that cuts across our members’ rights and responsibilities to diminish our voice. Te Kaupapa Whaioranga continues to be a key tool for us that we will use alongside the solidarity and commitment that members and staff have to this union. However, it cannot be the only tool.

Sharn Riggs NATIONAL SECRETARY November 2015

Fair Pay Rally, University or Auckland

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TE TOI AHURANGI REPORT Tēnā tātau e te whānau. Me mihi atu awau ki ō kotou maunga tapu, ō kotou awa e rere ana ki te moana, ō kotou marae rangatira, otirā ō kotou tīpuna e kore tātau e kitea anō. Me mihi atu hoki ki ō tātau tini mate kua whetūrangitia, rātau mā kua hinga mai, kua hinga atu.

Nō reira e ngā mate haere, haere, haere atu rā. Rātau ki a rātau te hunga mate, tātau ki a tātau te hunga ora nō reira tēnā kotou, tēnā kotou, tēnā tātau katoa.

With that we now welcome in Hōne Sadler who comes to us from The University of Auckland having been nominated by AUT staff. There were two nominees and the kōrero in favour of both was rich and thought provoking. Nō reira e te whatukura nāu mai, haere mai kai waenga i a tātau Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa.

Many of you will have heard me say that in terms of a Tiriti partnership TEU must surely be the world leader.

Our Whaea Kā has also said on many occasions how proud she is to be a part of modern day TEU. Our other kaumātua may be described as somewhat muted in their appraisal however they were never slow to challenge aspects of the relationship from time to time. So how far have we come in terms of making Te Tiriti o Waitangi a working, living document? Do we walk the talk or are our values statements not worth the paper they are written on?

There are a number of people I need to thank for the highs of 2015. To list them all means I risk missing someone out suffice to say if you have given me one millisecond of your precious time at head office, at an institution, marae or wherever please know that without your support in whatever capacity Māori membership are the better for it.

2015 ushered in a passionate, dedicated, clever, astute, articulate and well balanced rōpū of general and academic Māori unionists. Chairing Te Toi Ahurangi was an absolute breeze such was the caliber of those at the table who never needed to be reminded of just how important their contribution to Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa is.

It would be safe to say that we have come too far not to go further and we have done too much not to do more.

So with that the proudest moment for Te Toi Ahurangi was when Council unanimously agreed to have a Tiriti o Waitangi audit done by constitutional lawyer Moana Jackson. His report is complete and many of you will have had the privilege of reading his recommendations and if you haven’t you will in the very near future. The feedback I have heard so far is nothing but positive. The immediate future for Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa looks stronger than I ever thought it would look but that’s with my one eye.

It is public knowledge by now that student numbers across the sector are down and as such institutions immediately saw it as necessary to cut staff numbers under the banner of restructuring. To date only one membership update report has recorded zero new Māori members, meanwhile numbers at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi have increased albeit marginally and the numbers at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa have shot ahead.

Huge when we consider Te Wānanga o Aotearoa have their own union. Another tertiary education union now has less than 1000 members and those who have left have come our way. Encouraging indeed.

There have been challenges and issues to work through but on the whole 2015 has been a year to remember. Te Toi Ahurangi has one more term to run and already my radar is scanning the horizon for a successor. If we must pat ourselves on the back make it quick and let’s get those hands back on the steering wheel. Our journey has only just begun.

One of the many maxims left to the union movement by our Koro Huirangi Waikerepuru says: ‘Kia tau tika, kia tau aronui, kia tau tangata matua’. ‘Do what you know to be right, be well balanced, and be the best possible person you can be’.

Kia ora tātau James (Hēmi) Houkāmau

On most days I fail miserably to follow Koro’s gentle, yet persuasive ways. It has been but four months and already that one vacant seat at Te Toi Ahurangi and council seems like a sink hole. ‘Heoi, ka wehe atu he tētē kura, ka haramai he tētē kura’. ‘As one chief steps aside so another will take its place’. E te maunga tītōhea anei te tamaiti haututū e mihi atu nei ki a koe.

Te Tumu Arataki

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Hēmi Houkāmau, Tarawhiti REAP

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NATIONAL WOMEN’S COMMITTEE, TE KAHURANGI MĀREIKURA REPORT The 2015-2017 NWC met three times across the year.

We began the year by inducting the new committee members, and then developed our workplan for the coming term; implementation of the workplan is well underway. The NWC workplan is framed by six whāinga: Casualisation, Workload, Pay Equity, Leadership, Family Friendly Workplaces, Te Tiriti. These whāinga speak to the core aim of TEU: to defend and promote quality tertiary education which is publicly valued, funded, and owned; collegially governed; equitable; and founded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Seventeen TEU women attended the CTU Women’s Conference in July, participating in two days of workshops, panels, and speakers; popular topics included gender equity campaigns and sexual harassment. Wil Stracke’s keynote on pay equity and Helen Kelly’s keynote on health & safety were especially well received.

The inaugural Women’s Achievement awards were celebrated, with our own Kāterina Daniels receiving an award.

The 2013-2014 NWC underwent lobbying training before inviting the Women’s Spokesperson from each of the five major parties to meet with the NWC. We were successful in meeting with Spokespeople from Labour, Greens, and NZ First. The 2015-2016 NWC invited Rebecca Matthews from NZEI to facilitate another workshop for our (largely new) committee. We identified our targets as the Tertiary Education Spokespeople from the major parties, and intended to extend them invitations to meet with the NWC in 2016.

The NWC is active in the work of TEU, contributing to the workplan, union submissions, and recruitment strategy. The NWC participated in the TEU Tiriti o Waitangi audit, reflecting on engagement with Te Tiriti in the NWC, in our branches, and the larger TEU.

Members of NWC are active across their branches in promoting gender equity in the sector (and larger trade union movement). They participate in campaigns, organise events on International Women’s Day and Suffrage Day, and host workshops on promotions and positive working enironments.

In 2015, NWC members recorded short videos about why women should join unions. We intend for these to be hosted within the Gender Equity Toolkit. We’d like to collect over 25 videos that can populate a section of the Toolkit; would you like to contribute?

Our largest piece of work for this term is the creation of the Gender Equity Toolkit. We have a working model online, and hope to launch later this year. Sections of the Toolkit include: Gender Equity Claims, Event Guide, Policies, Stories, Recruitment, Infographs, Networks, Alliances, & Lobbying. The entire Toolkit has an intersectional focus.

On behalf of the National Women’s Committee Te Kahurangi Māreikura Cat Pausé, Women’s Vice-President Cat Pausé, Massey University

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INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL COMMITTEE REPORT The role and purpose of the committee is as follows:

15.1 The industrial and professional committee shall deal with the industrial and professional issues of the membership, develop policy, provide advice and make recommendations to council and/or conference. (TEU Rules 2013-14).

The rules, meanings and relationships of the committee were discussed at length at our first meeting and this has set the tone for the work done by this committee in 2015.

THE FIRST MEETING AND THE TEU WORK PLAN Phil Edwards, Otago Polytechnic

One of the most important pieces of work for the incoming committee was to review the role and purpose document, the TEU goals document and familiarise ourselves with the terms of reference and committee systems.

INTRODUCTION Firstly I would like to thank the IPC committee for leaving their busy workplaces and giving their time so generously. The committee includes the following members:

The review of these documents led to the following action points.

John Prince, Brent Lovelock, Emma Kelly, Garrick Cooper, Grant Bush, Harvey Jones, Jackie McHaffie, Marie McCarthy, Mirjana Moffat, Rikke Betts, Sid Aksoy, Tracie Stevenson-Wright. The committee draws its membership from a variety of general/allied/professional and academic staff members from universities, polytechnics, wānanga and other tertiary education providers. The committee is a mix of members from the last IPC and a number of new members who all have passion and commitment in common. None of the work for IPC would be possible without the input and support from Irena Brorens, Jo Scott and Sandra Grey who bring huge industrial and academic knowledge to the group.

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•

The functions of committees be included on the reverse of the goals summary document.

•

Develop a clear political strategy for the next three years.

•

More IPC involvement in hosting and organising TEU activities (marches, media, student union interactions and raising the TEU’s public profile.

•

Investigate the implications of the new health and safety legislation and initiation of training workshops for members.

•

Review of TEU industrial policies.

Des Coad, Massey University, standing for safer workplaces

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AUT stopwork meeting

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Review the insecure work plan.

•

Develop and finalise the Te Kaupapa Whaioranga employment relation paper.

Other matters discussed included the upcoming PBRF Quality Evaluation and we identified strategies to help prepare members for this, the development of an academic and general staff coverage clause policy and recruitment.

MEETING TWO

Insecure work survey and work plan. Finalising the data from the survey and development and evaluation of the workshops.

•

21st century Scholarship. A paper prepared by Sandra Grey examining the role of the academic and scholarship in universities was considered as a piece of work that could be extended into the ITP sector.

•

General staff remuneration project. There has been progress made on this project

Other matters discussed included mergers and how TEU can help champion continued tertiary education provision in the regions, Te Tiriti audit and a cooption request to council to ensure a full committee complement.

The committee’s second meeting opened with a round table discussion on issues facing committee members.

Key themes from this discussion included membership and recruitment, coverage, workload, bargaining and mergers.

Workload, stress, uncertainty and insecurity are all issues TEU members face in their workplaces. These stressors are strongly linked to the rise of wellbeing issues and reports from members are consistent with the findings of the “State of the Sector Report”. The committee discussed strategies for members and recalled the “Say no to extra work” posters from a few years ago. On the committee’s recommendation, new posters have been produced and there has been very positive feedback from branches. The committee also discussed what messages of support and collegiality members could communicate to their fellow members during times of stress.

Finalising the work plan was a key piece of work for this meeting. The new format created for the TEU goals and work plan has clarified the different areas of focus for the union and its committees. The following projects were discussed and agreed as the focus for the committee during 2015-16.

•

•

Te Kaupapa Whaioranga (TKW). The committee acknowledged the great work in producing TKW and felt that the next step was to create a plan to operationalise it at the branch level with the intent that TKW becomes a living document and informs activists in their branch activities.

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FINAL 2015 MEETING

FUTURE FOCUS

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the final meeting for 2015 and Sandra Grey was kind enough to run the meeting with assistance from Irena and Jo. Work completed during this meeting included: •

•

•

TEU Workplan – the final council approved workplan was discussed and IPC projects and priorities aligned.

Insecure Work plan. The report of the survey and updated action plan was discussed and trial workshops were run with committee members.

•

The IPC will continue to support council and work closely with Te Toi Ahurangi and the National Women’s committee.

•

The IPC will continue to look for ways of embedding Te Kaupapa Whaioranga into the operational activities of branches.

•

Equality audit. An evaluation of the British Trades Union equity audit to see if this tool would be useful for the TEU and our members.

Once again thanks to committee and support staff for making the work of the IPC possible.

Te Kaupapa Whaioranga (TKW). The employment relations broadsheet was reviewed and confirmed and committee members worked on the broadsheets and how a branch would incorporate them in is daily operations.

Report prepared by Phil Edwards National Vice President IPC October 2015

Other matters discussed included ongoing work by TEU on the Aoraki-CPIT and Waiāriki-Bay of Plenty mergers and the Unitec outsourcing proposal,

Hui-ā-Motu

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