AUS Bargaining Newsletter

AUS Bargaining newsletter
2 November 2005

The recent settlement of the Lincoln University collective agreements means that all collective agreements at the seven universities involved in the national bargaining campaign have now been settled. As a result, the national umbrella agreement is now in force, opening the way for the tripartite process between the Government, university unions and the vice-chancellor’s to move into its next stage.

This newsletter is intended to bring AUS members up to date with the results of the last bargaining round and to provide an update on the tripartite process and the preliminary arrangements for bargaining in 2006.



1. Bargaining outcomes from 2005

All collective agreements are due to expire on 30 April 2006. Unless otherwise specified, the salary levels will be effective until 30 April 2006.

Auckland

• A 4.5 percent salary increase from 1 May 2005


• A one off payment of $300 to union members

Waikato

• A 3 percent salary increase from 1 June 2005


• A further 1.5 percent from 1 October 2005


• Salary rates will be effective until 1 October 2006 unless additional funding is provided through the tripartite process

Massey

• A 2 percent salary increase from 4 July 2005


• A further 2 percent from 1 September 2005


• A further 0.5 percent from 1 January 2006

Victoria

• A 4 percent salary increase from 1 August 2005


• There will be some differential payment between union members and non-union staff, but the amounts are variable and cannot easily be reported

Canterbury

• A 2.75 percent salary increase from 1 May 2005


• A further 2.25 percent (on the 2004 rates) from 1 October 2005


• Salary rates will be effective until 31 October 2006 unless additional funding is provided through the tripartite process

Lincoln

• A 3.7 percent salary increase from 1 May 2005


• A Further 1 percent from 1 October 2005


• Salary rates will be effective until 31 December 2006 unless additional funding is provided through the tripartite process


• Non union staff will receive the increase from 1 June 2005

Otago

• A 5 percent salary increase from 1 May 2005

---

2. The national “umbrella” agreement

The national umbrella agreement provided a way through the impasse between university employers and unions during the 2005 bargaining round. It sets out a framework for the parties to work in a cooperative manner, with the addressing of salary problems as a priority issue, through the University Tripartite Forum.

The umbrella agreement can be found here (downloadable pdf).

---

3. The university tripartite process

Background

The University Tripartite Forum, comprising the Government, the vice-chancellors and unions, was set up before the General Election.

As a part of the agreement reached with the vice-chancellors, each of the university collective agreements provides that the parties will work actively and co-operatively with each other through the Universities Tripartite Forum to:

• ensure that the issue of competitive and fair salaries for all staff in all Universities is given a high priority in the Universities Tripartite Forum’s work plan.


• use best endeavours to develop and agree and implement sustainable solutions to providing competitive and fair salaries for all staff in all Universities.


• implement, as appropriate, agreed outcomes from the Universities Tripartite Forum into collective agreements.


• use best endeavours to develop solutions to other funding and resourcing issues facing Universities.

The parties have met three times. The general approach of the unions is to provide a preliminary argument to the Government to make funding available in the next Budget to provide university staff with an acceptable interim salary increase while the Forum continues its work on a more detailed approach.

General short-term aims

Vice-chancellors and the unions in the university sector agree that there are serious salary issues that require both an urgent and a more long term response from government. The extent of the salary issues have not been fully defined, nor is there complete agreement between the parties about what the full range of issues are or how they are best resolved in terms of pay systems.

The vice-chancellors and the unions have agreed that the full extent and nature of all issues around salary need not be resolved before any of the issues are addressed. Addressing the issues of salaries in the sector can begin immediately in areas that are uncontested between vice-chancellors and the unions. These “uncontested” salary issues should be resolved by agreement between the three parties in time for the next Budget round. The vice-chancellors and the unions agree that to resolve them, new government money is required.

Resolution of these uncontested issues would have a number of advantages for the tripartite process including:

• It would provide the space for the full extent of the salary and funding issues to be discussed over the next year without the pressure of immediate wage pressures clouding the issues


• It would provide an indication to the parties that the tripartite process is the correct forum for resolving the issues long term, and that the parties are serious about addressing the issues


• It would provide some security in the workforce in the immediate future, both by enabling wages to be increased and by giving an indication to staff that a longer-term resolution is under consideration


• It would enable the next negotiation round in the university sector to be quickly settled in an amicable way (the next round is in May 2006).

While the Tripartite Forum’s work may have only just begun, vice-chancellors and the unions have expressed concern about the need to address salary issues in the sector in a more sustainable way for a number of years.

The longer term

At present, a number of briefing papers are being prepared for the Forum, including background papers on funding and salaries. These will be made available as appropriate.

---

4. Bargaining arrangements for 2006

The AUS Industrial Committee has met recently to review the 2005 bargaining round and consider preliminary arrangements for 2006.

The outcome of bargaining in 2006 will be influenced by progress made in the tripartite discussions currently under way, but it is proposed that the multi-employer bargaining process again be initiated in 2006. While, in the interim the form of bargiaining (MECA/SECA) may become less important, (i.e. if the tripartite forum resolves salary issues nationally for next year), initiating a MECA will provide a safeguard if this doesn’t happen and also provide a process for implementation of any agreements reached in the forum.

Timeline

To initiate multi-employer bargaining it will be necessary, once again, to ballot union members. The timeline for this process and for the formal initiation of bargaining will be:

• Early February 2006: Campus meetings of AUS members to discuss form of bargaining


• Late February: Secret ballot for endorsement on multi-employer bargaining


• March: Claims meetings, and endorsement of bargaining team and ratification procedure


• (No later than 20 March): Formal initiation of bargaining


• Early April: Commence negotiations

Bargaining Team

It has been recommended that the structure of the AUS bargaining team should be retained for the next round. This is;

• one team member and one deputy from each branch


• if the nominated team member is unavailable for a negotiating session, then the deputy attends. If neither is available the negotiations continue without them, but report back responsibilities devolve to the advocate and/or national president.


• the National President attends ex officio when available


• the AUS Industrial Officer be the lead advocate

Claim Development

Because of the national strategy to concentrate on salary issues and national bargaining in the last two bargaining rounds, a number of local claims have been set aside. It was felt by the AUS Industrial Committee that some of these may need to be addressed in the 2006 round.

Branches will be asked to identify priority issues which need to be addressed, concentrating on issues that have a wide-ranging affect on large numbers of members.
The Industrial Officer will commence a process by which these are identified at branch level and reviewed by the Industrial Committee in mid-December.

---

5. Medical and dental academic staff

Bargaining was initiated earlier in the year for collective agreements for medical and dental academic staff at both Auckland and Otago Universities.

Otago

The Otago standard individual agreements for medical and dental and joint-clinical academic staff have been effectively “rolled over” with a 5 percent salary increase from 1 May 2005, on the basis that a working party is established to deal with funding and salary problems.

More news on the working party will be placed on the website as progress is made.
The latest University of Otago medical and Dental Academic salary rates can be found here.

Auckland

A new collective agreement for Medical academic staff at the University of Auckland is currently under negotiation.

The latest bargaining newsletter, with links to the draft collective agreement can be found here (downloadable pdf).

---

6. New collective agreements and salary rates

The recently settled collective employment agreements are being placed on the AUS website as soon as they are signed.

The university collective agreements can be found here.

Academic salary scales can be found here.

General staff salary scales can be found here.

---

7. The AUS Industrial Committee

The AUS bargaining strategy is administered by the AUS Industrial Committee which is comprised of the National President (Chair) and representatives from all branches and national standing committees.

The AUS Industrial Committee can be found here.