Significant Movement on Industrial Negotiations

At yesterday's ballot of branch members, the following motion was passed, by 408 votes to 23:

That union members recognise the Umbrella agreement proposal as a potential way through the current industrial dispute that can capture all the benefits of a national agreement.

In order to explore whether a satisfactory arrangement can be achieved including settlement of local agreements, members agree to postpone all industrial action until a further report back to members following further negotiations with Vice Chancellors.

A draft of the umbrella agreement proposal can be found in the previous post.

Branch president David Small writes this of the agreement:

If all universities agree to this proposal, the way will be clear for the details of local agreements to be worked out locally. It is only when those local pay and conditions matters have been agreed at EVERY campus, that the final version of the national agreement will be put to members for ratification.

We will be reconvening negotiations at Canterbury as soon as possible.

In the meantime, all industrial action is suspended and previously advertised meetings about industrial action are cancelled. However, it may be possible, given the extent of the current industrial action, that some actions (for example, cancelled lectures on Wednesday) cannot be undone.

It is hoped that Canterbury's VC has now had enough of a taste of the consequences of alienating staff that he will find a way to make an acceptable offer on pay and conditions.