SPECIAL EDITION

Message from the Vice-Chancellor on enterprise bargaining

Dear Colleagues

When I wrote to you a fortnight ago I indicated that general and academic staff would have the opportunity to select one representative of each group to participate, along with the University and union bargaining teams, in the negotiations for new enterprise agreements. Voting took place on Wednesday of this week and I am pleased to announce that the following representatives were elected:

• Academic staff – Anne Junor, School of Organisation and Management
• General staff – Lindsay O’Keeffe, Risk Management, Faculty of Engineering
• UNSW@ADFA general staff – Christopher Dawkins, UNSW@ADFA Library

At a bargaining meeting yesterday, the University tabled its initial drafts for the new agreements. These drafts will form the starting point for discussions at the bargaining table and, importantly, provide a point of reference for all UNSW staff to provide feedback and comment. The drafts have been carefully developed to take into account the Federal Government’s Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs) and the increasing challenges facing the University’s academic and business activities, given tight budget constraints.

A copy of the draft new academic staff agreement is available at:

http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/eb/acadraft0103.pdf

A copy of the draft new general staff agreement is available at:

http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/eb/gendraft0103.pdf

A copy of a draft new agreement for general staff at UNSW@ADFA will be available shortly.

The key features of the draft new agreements include:

• A salary increase of 15% over three years (16% cumulative)
• An opportunity for members of UniSuper to access greater flexibility around superannuation entitlements to increase take home pay
• An increase in paid maternity leave to a total of 26 weeks salary
• Change management provisions that enable workplace change to be managed efficiently with an emphasis on consultation with affected staff.

These features represent a package of employment conditions designed to allow the University to operate more efficiently and effectively, and provide a sound basis from which UNSW can develop and grow into the future. They include highly competitive salary increases and greater opportunities for staff to choose how they receive their total remuneration. The draft agreements are consistent with the University’s “Goals and Objectives for Enterprise Bargaining” which the University first tabled with staff unions in December 2005 (see http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/eb/goalsobj.pdf).

Many people have asked me about the timeframe for the bargaining process. Given the extensive negotiation and consultation involved, it is difficult to provide a definitive answer to this question, but an indicative timeframe has been summarised at http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/eb/timeframe.pdf. Ideally, if all goes well I would hope to be in a position shortly after Easter to put finalised agreements that have been agreed to by staff and union representatives to all staff for a formal vote.

I encourage you to take the time to look at these documents and to keep in touch with the progress of bargaining negotiations through the enterprise bargaining web site and the regular updates on news@unsw. Staff may submit comments at any time by emailing eb@unsw.edu.au.

I will keep you updated as bargaining negotiations progress.

With kind regards

Mark S Wainwright
Vice-Chancellor