A downloadable pdf of the combined university unions' latest bargaining newsletter, which brings news of increased government funding for staff salaries, can be found here.
Note that bargaining meetings at Canterbury will be held on Thursday 13 July in S3 at 1:10 and 2pm.
A pdf of the media statement by the Minister for Tertiary Education can be found here, while the AUS media release regarding the funding can be found here.
The AUS website has also linked to a Radio New Zealand interview with Helen Kelly to discuss the increased funding; this can be listened to at this link.
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The Academic Skills Centre members and AUS have been in discussion with Human Resources since September 2004 to address a situation similar to what prevailed at UC Opportunity: members have been employed on fixed term agreements and although their role is teaching they are classified as general staff for remuneration purposes.
All the members are now on continuing appointments and after a lengthy process a pay scale reflecting their role as teachers has been adapted from the Senior Tutors pay scale in the Academic Collective.
The proposal is to attach the schedule below as a variation of your collective agreement.
Process:
Ballot papers will be sent out this week and must be returned by 5pm on Monday 3 July to the AUS Office
The returning officer is: Matthew Fitzsimons AUS Organiser
The result of the ballot (a simple majority of the votes returned) will be announced on Tuesday 4 July.
Proposed variation:
The proposed variation is as follows:
Schedule A: Academic Skills Centre Lecturer Tutor Salary Scale
Lecturer Tutor Salary Scale
This scale shall apply to Lecturer Tutor positions in the Academic Skills Centre employed in terms of the General Staff Collective:
| Steps | Salary Proposed backdated to 1. 01. 06 | For comparison Senior Tutor |
| 01.01 01.02 01.03 | 41,670 43, 949 46, 228 | 41,670 44,017 46,251 |
| 02.01 02.02 02.03 02.04 | 48, 507 50, 789 53, 065 55, 344 | 49, 268 51, 503 53, 848 46, 194 |
| 03.01 03.02 03.03 03.04 | 57, 623 59, 902 62, 181 64, 462 | 59, 769 62, 115 64, 462 |
Regard will be made to movements in the Tutors Scale (E.4) when reviewing the Academic Salary Scale in the future.
Criteria for promotion and movement across bar and within steps
Progression in Step 1 shall be based on having a relevant post-graduate or specialist qualification and individual merit, including level of performance, skills and value to the University.
Progression from Step 1 to Step 2 shall be on demonstrated ability and performance in providing specialist input, teaching and contribution across more than one component of the Academic Skills programme and the Centre’s goals.
Step 02.02 to Step 02.30: Criteria
High level of performance in one or more specialist areas, demonstrated ability to successfully contribute across more than one component of the Academic Skills programme and to contribution to the required administration of the programme
Progression from Step 2 to Step 3 shall be based on individual merit, including high level of performance, skills and value to the University.
Step 03.02 to Step 03.03: Criteria
Individual merit, including high level of performance in one or more specialist areas, supported by the ability to successfully contribute across more than one components of the Academic Skills programme, demonstrated leadership skills, research and value to the University.
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A copy of the update recently emailed to members can be found below the fold.
National Bargaining
The Umbrella Agreement parties continue to meet to discuss the allocation of the salary funding set aside as contingency funding in the recent Budget by the Minister of Tertiary Education Michael Cullen.
Nigel Haworth (AUS National President) said, “There is a sum of money clearly on the table and it is a question of the distribution.” Haworth said he would discuss the deal with members “as soon as we’ve got things tied up in a way that everybody’s comfortable with”.
The AUS bargaining team is meeting in Wellington on Friday 15 June. Member meetings will be held towards the end of June.
Deloitte Report
The Deloitte Report found that international salary comparisons provided a case for a much stronger salary claim for academics than for general staff. The full report can be found here
The focus for the international comparisons is on academic salaries and benefits. Not only does New Zealand face competition for academic staff who may be domiciled in those countries, but it also faces competition from those countries for recruiting academic staff who may be domiciled in other countries. Whilst limited international competition exists for some specialist general staff, the principal competition for general staff is between universities within New Zealand and between university and other potential public and private employees. Information is also provided on salaries and benefits for non university positions which may be comparable to university academic staff positions.
Morale Survey
We have had a good response to the morale survey. The original pilot (sent out to academic staff in the College of Arts last December) was modified to include all staff.
This survey represents our conviction that morale is important for a productive workplace. Our initial survey set out to test the anecdotal evidence of low morale among academics in the university. It was always our intention, following the redundancies in the College of Arts, to test morale across campus. We hope to work constructively with the university to address the findings.
A feature of this survey is the large number of responses (60% of the returns to date) in the comments field. These will provide invaluable qualitative data and enhance the utility of the survey. We hope to report the outcome of the survey by July.
Early Childhood Learning Centre
The Vice-Chancellor wrote to the Campaign Action Group to defer the review of the Centre until the merger of the University and the Christchurch College of Education. One of the proposals was a merger with Te Ao Tamariki Childcare Centre at the College. Meanwhile all continuing staff vacancies in the Centre will be filled. The Action Group is to be congratulated for pursuing a cogent campaign.
College of Arts Redundancies
The College of Arts wrote to affected staff in the School of Education and Chinese Programme to say that a selection pool process to determine who would be made redundant was no longer necessary, owing to the retirement of two members of staff.
Only one person has been made redundant. Dr Ghazala Anwar is exploring the option of external funding to retain her position in Religious Studies.
Annual Leave
For clarity we wish to advise academic members that they can request annual leave in advance (anticipate leave) and if they have leave remaining from 2005. They can use it this year. Although the academic collective agreement provides that annual leave cannot be accrued without the prior written approval of the Human Resources Director, it is our view that where leave is not or cannot be taken within the year, the entitlement cannot be forfeited unless University management have complied in full with the Holidays Act.
In general, the Act provides that agreement must be reached between an employee and employer regarding the timing of leave, but if agreement cannot be reached, the employer may require the leave to be taken. Not less than fourteen days’ notice of the requirement to take annual leave must be given.
It is also our view that a general edict to take leave does not satisfy the requirements of the Act, so that unused leave will remain as an entitlement for up to seven years.
It should also be noted that an employer may allow an employee to take an agreed portion of his or her annual holiday entitlement in advance.
Latest additions to the main AUS website:
PBRF - Feedback on use of PBRF data by TEC
PBRF - Feedback on the 2006 Guidelines
Post 2005 Ministerial briefing
Submission – Differentiation within the Tertiary Sector
Submission - Strategic Review of the Tertiary Education Workforce
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