April Update

In this update:

• National Bargaining Claims Endorsement Meetings
• Arts Future Meetings
• Professorial Salary Scale
• Health and Safety Representatives
• AUS and reviews, restructuring and change proposals in 2006
• Member’s issue: Overpayment
• Victory for disabled workers rights

National Bargaining Claims Endorsement Meetings
Meetings to endorse the claims and the bargaining team will be held on 13 and 16 April at 1pm in A4. The Industrial Committee have on 30 March to decide on what claims will be put forward to the members for endorsement from the range of claims sent in by each branch.

Arts Future Meetings
The Branch Committee has made a commitment to work with members on the Future of the Arts. As a first step the branch executive will meet with members to listen to concerns and views about the way forward for the Arts. The agenda will include: staff responses to questions about the College’s process; what will need to change to gain staff active participation in the process?; guidance to the Branch Committee in how to respond to the Arts Future proposals.

• Political Science and Mass Communication; Social Work and Human Services; Sociology and Anthropology. 25 April (12pm) Coppertop in Business and Economics
  
• Maori and Indigenous Studies; Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies; Fine Arts; Department of Theatre and Film Studies; Music. 2 May (12pm) Rm 208 Macmillan Brown Centre
  
• Classics and Linguistics; Culture, Literature and Society; Philosophy and Religious Studies; History; Languages and Cultures. 9 May (12pm) Rm 104 Education

Contact Aditya Malik if you wish to discuss: aditya.malik@canterbury.ac.nz

Professorial Salary Scale
A working party proposed rationalising the pay scale for professors. Currently the collective agreement includes 14 steps; progress to the next step is via promotion. The proposal is to reduce the numbers of steps to seven with equal value for each step. The AUS will ballot members on the Academic Collective Agreement on whether they agree or disagree to the variation. We will distribute the text of the variation when we receive it from Human Resources after Easter. A meeting of members will now be held on Wednesday 25 April to vote on the variation.

Health and Safety Representatives
The organisation of health and safety will change over the next few months with the creation of new health and safety committees in colleges and service units. Thirty or more health and safety representatives have already been trained by the ACC/CTU and hopefully they will all put themselves forward to continue for a further term as reps. Elections will take place to fill the twenty or so vacancies in the system. Trained health and safety reps will take up half the positions on the committees and elect their representatives to the university wide committee. Notice of elections will come out soon. If you are interested in the role contact Matthew on extn 6485 and read about the role at: http://www.worksafereps.org.nz/?q=helpdesk/reps

AUS and reviews, restructuring and change proposals in 2006
Last year saw executive members of the Branch Committee, the organiser, and members involved in an inordinate amount of work on submissions, meetings, and working with groups and individuals as a result of the merger strategy adopted by senior management. The outcome of change proposals involved the organiser in meetings, preparing individual settlements, mediation, and negotiation of settlements.

• Review of College Structure
• Review of Foundation Studies
• Review of Information Technology
• Review of International Programmes
• Review of General Staff Salary Review
• Review of Pay Scales for Academic Skills Unit
• Review of Human Resources
• Review of Facilities Management
• Review of Student Services
  • Change proposal for Academic Skills Centre
  • Change proposal for International Student Office
  • Change proposal for Disabilities Unit
  • Change proposal for Careers and Liaison
• Merger of UC and College of Education
  • Creation of new Education Library
  • Merger of Facilities Management Services
  • Merger of UC and College Mailroom
  • Change proposal for Teacher Support Services
  • Change proposal for the establishment of the structure for the College of Education
• Review of fixed term agreements at Canterbury
• Policy on Annual Leave for Academic Staff
• Study Leave Survey and Working Party

Member’s issue: Overpayment
From time to time we will look at past issues to illustrate the work of the Branch in dealing with members’ issues.

The branch organiser was asked to assist a member (Joan*) who the University had inadvertently overpaid. Joan had returned from holiday and was suddenly faced with paying a large amount back. The problem was that repaying this amount would swallow up a good portion of Joan’s next fortnightly pay. The General Staff collective agreement is silent on “overpayments” but the employer can’t assume they can deduct the amount from salary. The Wages Protection Act applies; the employer must discuss the overpayment with the employee and come to an agreement on a repayment schedule. In the event there was a good outcome for Joan and the issue was settled satisfactorily.

*name changed

Victory for disabled workers rights
Lost in the general brouhaha of the media was Ruth Dyson’s significant work on behalf of the most vulnerable workers in society: the repeal the Disabled Persons Employment Promotion1960 Act. Follow this link to read about it: http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=28735

Matthew Fitzsimons
AUS Organiser