NTEU Annual Report 2016-17

Annual Report 2016–17

Introduction 3

NTEU Annual Report 2016–17 Report to the 2017 National Council Meeting ISSN 2652-3426 (Online)

Published by National Tertiary Education Union ABN 38 579 396 344

Publisher: Grahame McCulloch Editor: Jeannie Rea Production: Paul Clifton Editorial Assistance: Anastasia Kotaidis All text and images ©NTEU unless otherwise stated.

NTEU National Office PO Box 1323, Sth Melbourne VIC 3205 1st floor, 120 Clarendon St, Sth Melbourne VIC 3205 phone: (03) 9254 1910 fax: (03) 9254 1915 email: national@nteu.org.au Available online at nteu.org.au/annualreport

Purpose and structure of the NTEU

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National President

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General Secretary

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National Assistant Secretary

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Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Caucus

12

Women’s Action Committee

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Industrial 16 Policy & Research

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Union Education

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Organising & Campaigns

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Recruitment & Retention

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Communications & Publications

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Infrastructure, Finance, Governance, Admin

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Budget Report

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International 32 ACT Division

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NSW Division

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NT Division

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Queensland Division

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SA Division

42

Tasmanian Division

44

Victorian Division

46

WA Division

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Introduction NTEU’s Annual Report is prepared for delegates to the annual National Council meeting. As well as reports from the full time national officers and Division secretaries, the balance of the reports are on the work of the National Office.

Council delegates are advised to read the reports before attending the National Council, as the function of the meeting is to plan the Union’s program for the next year, informed by and reflecting upon previous positions and activities.

As delegates were elected last year the structure and processes of National Council will be more familiar. Delegates should seek to maximise participation by speaking in debates, in workshops and within caucuses to get the most out of the opportunity to share your experiences and learn from others.

We are structuring this year’s National Council to increase opportunities for delegates to speak with one another, as well as hear from speakers and debate the motions.

Policy Manual Last year we finalised the process of creating a new Policy Manual of policy positions passed by the National Council meeting. These are now collected in one document (www.nteu.org.au/policymanual) and some of this year’s motions on notice amend those policy positions, some propose new positions and others are timely action motions. Remember all the motions ever carried at by National Council meetings are in the policy archive. The purpose of the Policy Manual is to keep policy positions up to date and accessible.

Once again we also consider the Union’s priorities for the coming year, in an increasingly fractious industrial and political environment, where political and other divisions are more acute, but at the same time, opportunities to shift the frames of debate are also possible.

NTEU maintains our membership, but our density declines, particularly because so many workers in our sector are in insecure jobs. Recruitment of more members is critical as is increasing active participation, and this reality should inform our National Council debates.

NTEU members are fortunate in the calibre of the union staff and I want to take the opportunity to thank the Union’s staff for their loyalty, expertise and hard work.

During 2017, the National Office sought to improve the integration of our support for Divisions and Branches across all areas, as well as in our oversight of national campaigns. As always the National Executive at and between regular meetings provided ongoing scrutiny and advice on the work of the National Office.

NTEU members are indebted to our elected representatives at all levels of the Union.

As elected National Councillors, you have a critical role of determining NTEU policy. You are encouraged to seek support in carrying out this role from staff and elected leaders as required. As National President I am always keen on feedback and discussions. Find me at Council or email me at: jrea@nteu.org.au.

Vale Carolyn Allport 2017 started sadly as we learned of the death, at only 67 years old, of NTEU’s previous long serving National President, Dr Carolyn Allport.

Carolyn’s wisdom and tenacity in shaping the depth and breadth of the NTEU is still clear today. Former union and university colleagues, friends and family farewelled Carolyn at a memorial service, where long-time friend and comrade General Secretary Grahame McCulloch delivered a heartfelt eulogy (later published in the Advocate vol. 24, no. 2).

An annual scholarship for a woman undertaking feminist research had already been established in Dr Allport’s honour.

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Jeannie Rea, National President

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 3

Purpose and structure of the NTEU NTEU was formed in 1993 from an amalgamation of five separate unions that represented academic and general staff in higher education, TAFE and adult education in Australia.

NTEU now proudly represents some 28,000 workers across these sectors.

As an ‘industry union’ NTEU represents all employees in academic and general/ professional classifications ranging from professors to accountants to gardeners.

No other organisation in Australia is able to speak with a unified voice in support of tertiary education and allied institutions and the unique and vital public interests they serve.

Purpose of the Union The broad purpose of the Union is to advocate for, and represent the rights, interests and welfare of members in the industrial, legal, political and social spheres.

The primary objects of NTEU are to: • Improve and protect the living standards of its members as well as their working environment and professional interests.

• Promote the work of tertiary education institutions in Australia and to preserve their independence and integrity.

• Foster the process of intellectual debate within the Australian community.

Images (L–R): Branch Committee meeting at RMIT; Councillors voting on a motion at National Council 2016.

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• Defend and promote the rights of members to teach, research and disseminate knowledge and information without fear of reprisal.

• Promote the concept of equal opportunity in employment and to eliminate all forms of discrimination in tertiary education and in all spheres of the Union’s activity.

• Create and maintain an informed public opinion concerning tertiary education institutions and their staff.

Structure of the Union The Union is organised across three levels: the National Office (located in South Melbourne), State and Territory-based Divisions and workplace-based Branches in each of the nation’s 38 universities, as well as Branches covering members in ACE (Vic), TAFE (Vic), Research Institutes, Navitas, RACGP and College of Law. Our permanently staffed workplace-based local Branches in universities is a feature unique to NTEU in the Australian trade union movement. These structures permit NTEU to build and maintain a visible and organised presence at each university and to be able to rapidly respond to industrial and organisational issues.

NTEU is a highly democratic memberdriven union with elected Branch Committees, Division Councils, and a National Council comprising representatives elected by members on a two year cycle. Council meets annually in October.

At each Branch, the highest decisionmaking body is a general meeting of members. A Branch Committee comprising elected representatives of members governs the affairs of each Branch in between general meetings of members.

Each Branch also elects National

Councillors, who also constitute the Division Council. This mechanism ensures that each Branch is represented on the relevant State or Territory-based Division Council.

National Council National Council consists of members directly elected from Branches (in proportion to the number of members at each Branch), three full time National Officers, the eight State and Territory based Division Secretaries plus three Indigenous National Councillors and members of the Executive. National Council has a total membership of about 130 delegates.

National Executive 2016–17 x National Officers National President: Jeannie Rea Vice-Presidents: Andrew Bonnell (Academic) UQ Jane Battersby (General) CSU

National Assistant Secretary: Matthew McGowan National Executive

National Executive

Michael McNally QLD Division Secretary

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nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/national_ executive

Gabe Gooding WA

Terry Mason A&TSI member (A&TSIPC Chair) Rachael Bahl ACT Division Secretary

A ballot is held at National Council to elect ten ordinary members of the National Executive. From these, National Council elects a Vice-President (Academic) and Vice-President (General Staff). The last such election was held at the 2016 National Council and the ten ordinary members of the National Executive and the two Vice-Presidents elected at that time will continue to hold office until new elections are conducted for these positions at the 2018 National Council.

Rachael Bahl ACT

General Secretary: Grahame McCulloch

National Council is the supreme decision making body of the NTEU while the National Executive (which meets six times per year) is responsible for running the Union between meetings of the National Council. National Council also has the critical task of setting the Union’s budget for the forthcoming year.

The National Executive is composed of the three full time National Officers, eight Division Secretaries, the Chair of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee and ten ordinary members elected from the floor of the National Council (who are elected for a two-year term).

Division Secretaries x

Gabe Gooding WA Division Secretary

Michael Thomson NSW

Michael Thomson NSW Division Secretary Kelvin Michael TAS Division Secretary

Kelvin Michael Tasmania

Colin Long VIC Division Secretary Ron Slee SA Division Secretary Lolita Wikander NT Division Secretary

Michael McNally Queensland

Stuart Bunt UWA Damien Cahill Sydney Sarah Kaine UTS

Colin Long Victoria

Andrea Lamont-Mills USQ Virginia Mansel Lees La Trobe Cathy Rojas Swinburne

Ron Slee SA

Melissa Slee RMIT Lolita Wikander NT

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 5

National President

Jeannie Rea National President

Since our last National Council Meeting, the rights of workers to organise in unions has come under further legislative and ideological attack in Australia, as demonstrated in our own sector with Murdoch University management’s successful application to terminate the enterprise agreement and with a very hostile bargaining environment on other sites.

Insecure work and deteriorating decent pay and conditions is becoming normalised, along with increasingly harsh regimes policing the livelihoods of those outside the formal workforce including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other peoples subject to cashless welfare cards, the CDP and other discriminatory policies.

Australian students, while able to access higher education in greater numbers than ever before, pay amongst the highest fees in the world and financial support is woeful. The gap between rich and poor is widening, but at last inequality is on the political agenda. And after decades of relentless acquiescence to the tenets of neoliberalism like privatisation of public assets, deregulation and marketisation, these are starting to be publicly questioned.

Images (L–R): Rowena Allen, Victorian Commissioner for Gender and Sexuality, talking at the Raising Our Voices QUTE Conference, January 2017; Catriona Jackson (Deputy Chief Executive, Universities Australia), Jeannie Rea and Heidi La Paglia (NUS Women’s Officer) at National Council 2016; Jeannie Rea, Sally McManus (ACTU Secretary) and Virginia Mansel Lees at NTEU National Executive meeting April 2017; Member at the NSW Bluestocking Week Trivia Night.

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It is within this political climate that NTEU continues to represent the industrial and professional interests of tertiary education workers. Defending and improving the pay and conditions of members is our core activity, along with

advocacy for progressive tertiary education policy and adequate public investment.

However, by democratically determining clear positions and getting involved in important public debates over, for example, marriage equality, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sovereignty, no tolerance of gendered violence and for refugee rights, the NTEU is fulfilling our mission as a contemporary trade union representing tertiary education workers.

From the public policy advocacy perspective, NTEU’s approach is framed by the need to ‘Change the Rules’ of the discourse. We seek to reframe the debate on higher education funding away from ‘public versus private’ benefits; reverse the ongoing privatisation and marketisation of public education; and democratise university decision making. We must start by asking what is needed to provide quality higher education and research, not how we fit within the ‘funding envelope’.

NUS’s 2017 slogan “Make Education Free Again” is most timely.

The future of work in higher education The academic profession is in serious trouble. Half of our membership are academics, so this is a central issue for the NTEU. The multipronged attacks on the profession has implications for all those working in tertiary education. As the university workforce increasingly professionalises in a world where professional occupations are increasingly precarious, the demise of the academic profession is symptomatic of the wider undermining of decently remunerated, stable careers. NTEU highlighted our

shared concerns as we marched in the international March for Science under our banner “Secure Work for Scientists”.

Jobs are being broken down in to their component parts to facilitate outsourcing and, in the past year, we have seen even more evidence of universities’ unquestioning acceptance that machines are the answer to the problem of employing people. Everyone is familiar with the new data management systems that actually create more not less work, but now we have managements enthusiastically listening to the cognitive computing marketers flogging products to replace people. This framing of the debate ignores very exciting possibilities for the future of work adapting new technologies and changing our understanding of paid and unpaid work and remuneration, about which NTEU and universities could be facilitating discussion.

What we teach and research, to whom, by whom, how and where are all key questions for us in the NTEU.

Stop being casual about casualisation The employment mode is the major immediate issue and how the academic profession is being undermined. Academic careers are increasingly precarious with not only four out of five teaching-only and research-only academics being employed casually or on short term contracts respectively, but few new university jobs since 2005 are ongoing or tenured teaching and research positions. Career teaching and research academics are no longer the majority of university staff and the proportion in these positions is steadily contracting.

Investigation by the NTEU has found that the integrity of academic disciplines is undermined by precarious academic employment. Delving into the Academic Organisational Area data reveals, for example that in Teacher Education and the Natural and Physical Sciences almost half of the staff are insecurely employed. The numbers are similar across many areas from Society and Culture to Engineering. These are full time equivalent (FTE) numbers so the actual people involved is much greater. The impact upon

the capacity to maintain a viable academic unit is jeopardised with few ongoing staff.

Members are reporting that even core disciplines like Philosophy or Physics are under threat in some places, which begs the question of what constitutes a comprehensive, modern university.

Management are also entering into third party arrangements to deliver key academic and student support services, not only impacting upon jobs currently covering by the enterprise agreements, but also jeopardising education quality and student outcomes. Academic integrity is becoming a major issue too, as students resort to cheating, in lieu of supportive teaching and learning environments. And the future of individual academics hangs on student popularity surveys masquerading as evaluation of teaching performance.

National coordination & mobilisation How the Union takes on these issues is crucial to our industrial and professional relevance to our members and potential members. Consequently connecting the dots between our industrial, policy analysis, public advocacy and membership and development activities is critical to increasing our union numbers and density in tertiary education and research.

The National Day of Protest on 8 August, organised around the proposed $2.8 billion in Federal Budget cuts, also focused upon local university financial management and governance by siting events on campuses and highlighting insecure work. We sought to connect the dots.

However, the response of the Minister for Higher Education, Senator Birmingham in encouraging other universities to follow the lead of Murdoch University in terminating enterprise agreements succeeded in connecting the dots for everyone. The Minister, desperate to garner support for his budget cuts against the opposition of the whole sector, appealed to vice-chancellors to get the savings at the expense of not just staff who would lose their jobs if the cuts went through, but to smash the wages and conditions of all staff.

At the time of writing, NTEU is mobilising members across the country in support the Murdoch staff and wider action. We are supported by other unions and the ACTU as well as politicians and community leaders, building upon our consistent advocacy and relationship development activities on industrial, professional and political matters. The NTEU welcomes the ACTU’s ‘Change the Rules’ campaign, as we were early advocates of the need for new industrial relations legislation that actually supports workers’ rights to organise.

After too long a gap, we held a national conference for our LGBTIQ members in late January, where most Branches were represented. The conference provided impetus for our national and divisional QUTE (Queer Unionists in Tertiary Education) caucus. The focus throughout the year has been on making visible the issues for LGBTIQ staff and students in tertiary education and, to this end, we celebrated IDAHOBIT day on campuses, and should make this an annual event.

The biennial National Women’s Conference tackled difficult issues including interrogating intersectionality with a focus upon racism and classism within feminist practice. It attracted the highest number of delegates for some years. Our annual National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Forum also attracted more delegates. The renewed interest of members in becoming active in their union, when they see their union taking on matters critical to their interests and identities illustrates the ongoing need for the Union to speak to diversity amongst our membership.

Our classifications as academic or professional/general staff, ongoing or casually employed, young or not, city or country, remain points of difference, but hopefully we are getting better at finding our common concerns and need for solidarity across our different circumstances. Joining up and standing together is the only way.

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www.nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/ national_office/president

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 7

General Secretary Political Overview

Grahame McCulloch, General Secretary

Images (L–R): WSU members went on strike in Parramatta; Grahame McCulloch at May Day in Perth discussing the Murdoch situation; Participants at the Raising Our Voices QUTE Conference showing support for Murdoch staff, January 2017.

page 8 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

The Union’s industrial, professional and policy work has taken place in an extremely tough political environment. Although 2017 saw final confirmation that the Abbott/ Pyne plan for a 20 per cent funding cut and deregulation of student fees was dead in the Senate, the sector confronted new Government threats in new Minister Simon Birmingham’s proposed 2.5 per cent efficiency dividend and the introduction of contestability for a further 7.5 per cent of Commonwealth operating grants.

At the same time, the Union faced the full impact of the worst aspects of the Fair Work Act with Murdoch University following the path of the mining sector and other aggressive employers in successfully seeking to terminate the 2012 Murdoch EBA while negotiations for a replacement Agreement were taking place. And our WA State Secretary, Gabe Gooding, and WA Industrial Officer, Alex Cousner were sued by Murdoch University for alleged misrepresentations merely for spelling out and criticising Murdoch’s attempts to erode our members’ employment conditions.

As new ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus, has eloquently stated, the Murdoch termination (and a rash of others) underlines that the rules of the Fair Work Act are broken and must be changed.

In the absence of such changes NTEU confronts a long-term mortal danger of a magnitude as great as that posed by the 2005 Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs). Changing the rules will not be a mere matter of changing the Government and cannot be achieved by a relatively passive and exclusively

parliamentary approach. Changing the rules will require a major public and industrial campaign by the whole trade union movement – only our organised workplace power can guarantee that a future Labor Government will legislate to ensure that the current power imbalance between employers and unions is reset.

There are reasons for cautious optimism about our ability to transform the existing industrial landscape. The Turnbull Government is struggling to maintain support in the face of a big shift in public sentiment about the role of markets, deregulation, and the state in the ordering of our economic and social priorities.

After nearly 30 years of uninterrupted free market economic policy, public attention is now focussed on the serious social consequences of these policies. Stagnant wage incomes, exploding house prices, the removal of job security and entitlement protections and the rise of an enormous reserve army of casually employed young people have seen comprehensive rejection of the policies of the established political parties both here and overseas. The public is looking for new solutions in the face of widening generational inequity and chronic job and income insecurity.

These global and economy-wide trends are reflected in the Australian higher education sector where students now face amongst the highest fees in the OECD, very high levels of HECS/HELP debt, the necessity to take low paid labour intensive casual work to support their studies and the prospect of graduating into a labour market which will not provide the income and job security traditionally associated with graduate level employment. Inside the sector workloads

continue to intensify, job security is undermined and casual teaching continues to be the norm in many undergraduate areas of study. These problems are not only affecting the political attitude of today’s students and young people, but also are causing parents and older Australians to question whether today’s young generation can maintain the standard of living of recent generations. Student debt and excessive tuition fees are big political issues in most rich western countries – a concern which is reflected across electorates as a whole, and not just amongst university workers and students.

Industrial and bargaining work Round 7 Enterprise Bargaining has proved to be exceptionally tough given the broken legal industrial framework and tightened funding position within which the bargaining is taking place. In most (but very importantly not all) cases university employers have adopted a very hard line. Using the mantra of the necessity for “simplified, contemporary and streamlined” Enterprise Agreements, employers have been pushing for the removal of job security protections for staff facing redundancy or charges of misconduct/unsatisfactory performance, for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment targets, for increased professional staff spans of hours, for no limitations on the use of casual employment and a substantial dilution on limits on the use of fixed term employment and for very low wage increases.

This highly aggressive approach found its ultimate representation at Murdoch University where management successfully terminated the current EBA. Murdoch’s approach emerged from a wider alliance between AHEIA and the four public WA universities which declared their intention to break the Union’s industry and enterprise pattern. Management at James Cook University also took a leaf from this hard line management book. For a big part of late 2016 and 2017 these five universities maintained a winner takes all no compromise position on all key issues.

However, in the last three months or so, we have seen this hard line alliance begin to fragment. At the time of writing,

the Union had secured a new Collective Agreement at the University of Western Australia, and had reached in principle agreement at Curtin and ECU. The reputational damage, staff hostility and financial and political costs associated with Agreement termination at Murdoch have given the other WA universities pause for thought. Moreover, the Union secured a comprehensive and reasonably high quality Agreement at Deakin University and has moved close to a comprehensive settlement at CQU. The Union has faced a difficult structural problem in Round 7 with a gap of nearly two years between the expiry dates of the first and last Round 6 Agreements.

Many of our stronger sites were not able to take the bargaining field until early to mid-2017, leaving our Branches in WA and Queensland out on their own. The twin issues of a disciplined approach to the expiry dates of Round 7 Agreements and the need for a more aggressive industrial posture (taking account of the different cultures, densities and experiences of our Branches) will be the focus of much attention at this year’s Council.

Last year produced a mixed bag of results on bargaining enforcement and implementation measures. The Union secured an excellent arbitrated outcome at UNSW on the critical question of the right of academic staff to be engaged in research as well as teaching as a core requirement of academic work under the UNSW EBA, but the Union lost a similar argument at VU about the research status and rights of academic staff being transferred to the new VU First Year College. These differing outcomes reflect not only the different drafting language in each Agreement but also the different history and culture of teaching and research in both universities.

Constituency & activist campaigns The Union continued its strong commitment to diversity and social justice.

In August a highly successful Bluestocking Week focussed on the theme Worth 100% to highlight the continuing gender pay gap in universities and the economy more widely.

The Queer Unionists in Tertiary Education (QUTE Caucus) was reinvigorated with a high level of participation in a January

QUTE Conference and a renewed focus on the need for marriage equality. The National Forum for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members met in QLD and produced a new framework for Indigenous recognition based on the need for a treaty, as well as reviewing and recommending strengthening of the Union’s current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander EBA employment targets.

Finance The Union had a strong financial performance in 2017 with a net operating deficit of around $63K in contrast to the 2017 budget estimate of a deficit of $344K. This much better than anticipated result arose from stronger income growth than budgeted (total revenue was $21.76M or $110K more than budget) and lower spending (total spending was $21.99M or $170K less than budget). On the negative side, Defence Fund spending of $1.158M was the highest on record with the big majority of this ($870K) being legal fees for the Murdoch termination case.

The Union’s total assets were reported at $27.47M with liabilities reported at $4.74M producing a net equity position of $22.73M.

Thanks First and foremost the Union’s work always depends on the support and commitment of our members and it is they who deserve my biggest thanks, both for their very substantial financial contributions and for their willingness to respond to Union calls for political and industrial action. In turn, the dedication and commitment of our delegates, staff and full time Division Secretaries has been indispensable to our ability to mobilise members.

And I would like to thank National President, Jeannie Rea and National Assistant Secretary, Matthew McGowan for their comradeship and commitment to working through complex and difficult problems.

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www.nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/ national_office/general_secretary

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 9

National Assistant Secretary

Matthew McGowan National Assistant Secretary

The 2016 National Council theme was “Every Member Counts” with a number of motions focused on recruitment and retention.

Improving our attention and performance in these areas has been a theme for a number of years and, while there is still significant work to be done, 2017 has been a year of building our capacity and effectiveness in a number of ways.

The 2016 Council noted the results from new member surveys that showed that many new members joined the Union as a result of a recommendation from a colleague, and that close to half the new members who join NTEU have never been union members before. These observations guided the Council motions to give priority to developing resources to help Branches focus on recruitment skills, and also activist and delegate development.

In 2017 we have continued to develop a range of tools and resources to help Branches do what they do best – engage with members and activists, and be the front line of our recruitment effort. These include: • A Welcome Handbook for new members • Recruitment and Delegate Training • Refocusing the Growth Team • Recruitment Toolkit

Images (L–R): National Exectuive supporting a Yes vote for equal marriage; Matthew McGowan at National Council 2016; NTEU members protesting in support of Murdoch staff; Pay More Get Less at UNSW.

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• New Delegates Kit • Regular membership & growth reports

Welcome Kits With 46% of new members never having been a member of a union before, the new members’ kits have been overhauled and rewritten. These new unionists often only have the most basic of understandings of how our union works. For many active in the Union, the functioning of democratic structures may seem obvious. If you have a view, put it forward, argue your case and participate in the democratic process. But to many people, the Union looks like another opaque bureaucracy.

The new Welcome to NTEU welcome booklet has been written with a view to providing all the basic information someone needs to understand the union and how it works. It replaces a range of brochures and leaflets that made up local kits with a single reference document that can be kept and used as needed. Instead of providing 3 or 4 brochures promoting Union services, they are incorporated into one reference document.

Previous directions to staff to hand deliver new members’ kits also formed part of the Council decisions to ensure that these new members see a real person on joining. This helps with creating a real human link to the Union and giving members a sense of being part of a collective effort. We want members to see the Union as more than just an insurance policy that they purchase. It may seem obvious, but members who have met an organiser and have put a human face to the Union are more likely to express their satisfaction with the Union and, importantly, to recommend NTEU to others.

To repeat the point that is the key driver of this work – nearly half of new members

have no experience of unions. If we want them to feel a part of the collective, they need to be contacted, made to feel welcome, and shown that they can have a role in the democratic structures of the Union.

Getting an email doesn’t do this. Direct human contact is the most effective way, supported by resources and communications that do not assume they understand how a union works.

Delegates Kits and Training Following extensive consultation with Divisions, National Office has also developed a new delegates kit building on the definition of delegates built into the 2016 motions to Council. The kit which provides a clear description of the role of delegates will be provided to all new delegates identified and trained by Branches.

In the past, while there have been common elements defining delegates, we have not had a consistent approach to defining the role. The 2016 policy provided this and allowed the development of the kit.

Recruitment Toolkit & associated training Included in the Delegates Kit is a Recruitment Toolkit that offers advice and assistance about how to talk to your colleagues about joining the Union.

Combined with the recruitment training developed by the National Growth Organiser and National Education and Training Officer, this will assist both delegates and organisers become more effective in this aspect of their roles.

Training in South Australia showed immediate effects. The recruitment performance of Finders University and the University of South Australia, in particular, showed immediate improvement following training in May making it likely that both these Branches will achieve the 5% recruitment target established by the National Executive in November 2016.

The training is built on the experience of the Growth Team and provides guidance about how to raise NTEU membership with colleagues and help them make the decision to join up.

Refocusing the Growth Team The work of the Growth Team has shifted over the past year because of continuing concerns about the recruitment numbers generated by the program. Until mid 2017, the approach has been to ensure that, in any given Division with a Growth Team allocation, the resources were shared evenly between Branches over a semester.

With direct recruitment numbers continuing to be disappointing, a decision was made to focus attention on a smaller number of sites and to provide a more concentrated effort across a Branch. This was trialed effectively in Victoria.

The more concentrated effort also encourages delegates and organisers to develop activities on campus to promote the Union and increase visibility. It provides them with opportunities to participate in recruitment efforts and to improve their skills by shadowing Growth Recruiters in their work.

The development of staff and delegates skills by participating in recruitment efforts when the growth recruiters are on campus should now be a regular feature of growth work.

Establishing Growth Targets In November 2016, the National Executive established a target for recruitment to help provide a point of focus at a Branch level.

The decision was made to establish a 5% target for all levels of the Union, and to provide Membership and Growth reports to every Branch and Division on a monthly basis to help focus attention on membership levels. It was felt that membership Is not reviewed regularly and consistently at a Branch level, and that the reports and target would facilitate regular discussion and attention.

Dark clouds of Murdoch & silver linings The decision by the Fair Work Commission to terminate the Murdoch University Enterprise Agreement is a serious and concerning development. Following the decision, the National Office emailed all staff in the sector alerting them to the

problem and reinforcing the message that the only body capable of defending staff interests in the face of such an appalling decision is the Union. In the weeks following the decision, NTEU membership grew by around 1% to an all time record high. Union membership has now exceeded 28,000 for the first time.

This growth has been turbo-charged by the bargaining struggles at the University of Sydney that has shown membership there grow by over 5% in the weeks since the Murdoch decision was announced.

Future challenges & opportunities Leaving aside the impact of the Murdoch decision and the “perfect storm” at the University of Sydney. There is no magic fix.

Indications are that our underlying growth is improving with these measures, but they will take time to be fully implemented and effective. Branches should not be discouraged if they have not seen the same levels of growth as achieved elsewhere.

There are good reasons why an activist outlook is good for membership growth.

Specific campaigns can boost membership very effectively and the growth at Sydney demonstrates that clearly. But we cannot afford to be taken in by the ‘sugar hit’ it represents. These opportunities are not an every day occurrence, and in the challenges we have ahead of us we will need every member we can get.

Ongoing membership growth needs to be maintained even without large and significant campaigns by focusing attention on Union visibility, relevance, and the basics of organising. This means engaging with both members and non-members as part of our day-to-day work.

Regular attention to recruitment matters

by Branch Committees, visibility and effectiveness on the ground, and direct conversations with members and nonmembers are necessary for sustained membership growth and to assist retention.

In the meantime, we must celebrate the wins, and reflect on the set backs in our recruitment activity as in everything else.

And we must be persistent.

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www.nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/ national_office/national_assistant_ secretary

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 11

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Caucus Key activities: • Campaign for Treaties • Federal Budget 2017/18 • A&TSI members employment & job insecurity across the sector • Round 7 Bargaining • National A&TSI Forum 2017 • Membership, Campaigns & Social Media The National A&TSI Unit consists of Adam Frogley (National A&TSI Coordinator), Celeste Liddle (National A&TSI Organiser) and Phil Mairu (QLD/NT Div A&TSI Officer).

A&TSIPC 2016–17 Chair Terry Mason* Deputy Chair Sharlene Leroy-Dyer* Division A&TSI Councillors John Graham Qld* Robert Anders Tas Nicole Major Vic Jennifer Flood NSW George Hayden WA Shane Motlap NT Christopher Davis SA ACT vacant *Also National A&TSI Councillors Images (L–R): Members at 2017 Forum with the new A&TSI Caucus flag; John Graham receiving a NAIDOC Week high commendation from Qld Council of Unions; Sharlene Leroy-Dyer, Celeste Liddle and Terry Mason at National Council 2016; Trudy Avlonitis (CDU) displaying her reasons for protesting on 8 August.

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The Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee (A&TSIPC) and the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander (A&TSI) Unit, work in conjunction with all National Office units, Divisions and Branches, providing advice and support on A&TSI culture, education, employment and social justice issues.

Campaign for Treaties NTEU A&TSIPC members and the National A&TSI Unit continue to campaign for treaties to be negotiated between A&TSI peoples and the Crown.

The release of the Uluru Statement and ten recommendations from the Referendum Council in their report to Parliament have not fundamentally changed the NTEU call for Treaties, and while those recommendations from the Referendum Council are of importance, those recommendations can be implemented after treaties between A&TSI peoples and the Crown have been negotiated and finalised.

implemented across three former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander budget lines. Those former budget lines were consolidated into the Indigenous Student Success Program (ISSP) and along with the expected 3 per cent efficiency dividend, the Turnbull Government have cut a total of 31.6 per cent from all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education supplementary support programs from 2015/16 Budget forward estimates to the 2017/18 forward estimates.

Job insecurity NTEU A&TSI Unit has released the final report of a member survey undertaken in October 2016. The report How secure do you feel? details a distressing picture for increased job security in the Australian higher education sector.

183 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members gave details of their own personal circumstance across a range of topics including, the impact of change management, member feelings on their own job security, hours of work and duties performed and the impact of further study and cultural and community obligations on job security.

Federal Budget 2017/18

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander member responses showed that almost 6 in 10 members indicate their current employment today is either insecure or very insecure. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academic staff at Level D and General/Professional staff at HEO/HEW Level 3 indicated they had the highest levels of job insecurity.

The release of the Federal Budget 2017/18 has seen a total of $23.2 million in cuts

In examining the impact upon job security when seeking to undertake further study,

NTEU A&TSIPC will continue to campaign for treaties and will work to ensure grassroots voices of A&TSI peoples continues to be influential in the national debate.

35.5 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members responded to indicate that they had reduced hours of study or stopped studying entirely as a result of concerns about job security.

On community and cultural business and the impact of cultural obligations upon job security, 64.4 per cent of members indicated that ongoing employment and job security do factor highly for consideration prior to undertaking cultural obligations, and almost 40 per cent of responses (39.9 per cent) indicate that members have had to reduce or stop community and cultural business due to issues of job security.

How secure do you feel? was released at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Forum 2017 and will be available shortly on the NTEU A&TSI webpage.

A&TSI employment across the sector Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academic and general/professional staff comprise 1.0 per cent headcount and 1.1 per cent Full-Time Equivalent (FTE). In numeric terms, a total of 1,228 headcount and 1,114 FTE Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff are now reported as employed. In the period 2015-2016 there was an overall reported increase of 34 positions (headcount) or 42 (FTE).

attended National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Forum 2017.

This year National Forum was held in Brisbane on the traditional lands of the Jagara and Turrbal nations and their peoples, at the Queensland Council of Unions. National Forum was held over three days (Friday to Sunday) to allow additional time to discuss business and for delegate training to be scheduled in to the agenda.

Business discussed at National Forum 2017 was preceded by a magnificent welcome to country and dance performances by the Nunukul and Yuggera and Wagga dance companies both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performances showed the diversity across Queensland.

The National Forum agenda included the traditional yarn session and canvassed the Federal Budget cuts, Round 7 Bargaining, launch of How secure do you feel?, the First Nations Workers Alliance (FNWA), campaigns, membership and social media, Treaties and the Uluru Statement/ Referendum Council Report, delegate training and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander motions for National Council 2017.

National Forum was deemed by delegates to be a great success and we look forward to the 20th anniversary Forum next year in 2018.

Round 7 Bargaining

Membership: data & engagement

Round 7 bargaining has been challenging for the NTEU and other signatory unions, with a range of abhorrent action taken by university management to stifle or override the bargaining process.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander membership of the NTEU has steadily grown over the course of 2017, with strong growth in the second half of the year. In late July, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander membership grew to its highest level ever and as of late August national membership sits at 477, with 39 per cent of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander general staff and 57 per cent of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander academic staff are unionised with 70 per cent of our members being women.

The Round 7 claim for increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment remains mandatory across all Branches and Divisions, although employer push back to the claim has been significant at some sites and therefore cannot be left to the last item of negotiation in bargaining.

National A&TSI Forum 2017 Twenty-seven A&TSI delegates and Policy Committee members, along with twelve NTEU staff (from the National Office and three-quarters of Divisions), registered to

Aside from Victorian and the ACT Divisions, the majority of Division Forums have been conducted. While it is the preference that all Division Forums are conducted prior to the National Forum each year, it is not always possible. The remaining Division

Forums will be held as report back sessions from National Forum 2017.

Campaigns, visibility and social media 2017 saw the launch of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Caucus t-shirts with the distinctive “fighting boomerang” logo displayed proudly. The caucus t-shirts also have the slogan “tertiary unionists for Treaty” that reinforces and highlighting the caucuses’ ongoing support for the recognition of sovereignty and the negotiation of treaties with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The t-shirts now join with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander caucus banners and have been clearly visible out there during NAIDOC week, and various solidarity campaigns and union rallies. All delegates to National Forum 2017 received a caucus t-shirt with the remainder to be placed on sale via the NTEU website.

The NTEU A&TSIPC continue the ongoing push for sovereignty, treaties and the end of the Recognise campaign, along with supporting the ACTU campaign against the Community Development Programme (CDP), complemented by the A&TSI Unit’s media engagement.

In 2018, we envisage running continual campaigns on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues on campus including ongoing employment/job insecurity, bargaining, staff and student retention, whitestreaming/mainstreaming, environmental causes, social justice issues and educational issues.

As with previous years, NTEU A&TSI Unit social media engagement is large and crucial. This is due both to the high use of these channels by our memberships and by the community in general, but also because they provide a critical pathway to circumnavigate the racism and bias of the traditional media. Utilising these channels in 2018 will remain a core part of unit communications. nteu.org.au/atsi

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NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 13

Women’s Action Committee Key activities: • Ensuring that gender balance, equity and advancement of women are integral to all NTEU structures, policies and practices.

• Coordinating Bluestocking Week each August.

• Producing the annual women’s magazine, Agenda.

• Organising the biennial national women’s conference • Monitoring gender equality legislation and progress in the sector.

• Contributing feminist critique to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, industrial and higher education policy and research analysis, materials and campaigns.

• Participating in trade union women’s activities.

• Engaging with and, where relevant, supporting research projects, conferences and publications of interest to women in the Union.

Images (L–R): Bluestocking Week celebrations at ACU Banyo; Mary Cleary (Monash) at Victorian Division Bluestocking Week trivia night; Louise Fitzgerald, Rena Stanton, Elise Howard and Donna Cook at Women’s Conference 2017,

page 14 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

NTEU Women’s Action Committee (WAC) met twice in 2017, organised the biennial National Women’s Conference in June and the sixth Bluestocking Week (BSW) in August, as well as investigating and providing policy and campaigning advice on a range of issues.

With the Union’s focus on implementing current enterprise agreements and bargaining for new agreements, WAC advocated passing the gender lens over our claims, outcomes and processes. WAC also continued working with researchers on investigating the effectiveness of the domestic violence clauses achieved in the last round of enterprise bargaining, and on promoting the ACTU’s national campaigns around family and domestic violence, carers leave entitlements and gender pay equity.

Sexual violence at universities WAC supported Universities Australia’s decision to undertake a prevalence survey of the experiences of sexual harassment and sexual violence amongst students.

While we maintained that we did not need another survey, we hoped that a survey, in which all universities participated, would make it difficult for any universities to ignore the findings and recommendations.

NTEU sought to extend the survey to staff, while respecting that the students had put the issue on the agenda. The Human Rights Commission, that undertook the student survey, has proposed to include universities

in the next workplace sexual harassment survey due next year.

NTEU was sadly not surprised at the findings and noted the recommendations on how to address and prevent incidences of sexual violence. We particularly welcomed the focus upon education and training to address sexism, racism and homophobia. NTEU has made it clear that university managements must address the findings of the commission’s report as a priority and remain committed to stamping out sexual harassment and assault on university campuses and related environments. NTEU will also monitor any extra demands put upon staff to take carriage of implementing the recommendations without adjusting workloads and properly resourcing new initiatives, as this is both unfair and undermines successful implementation.

Worth 100% This year, the WAC drew inspiration from a New Zealand public sector union gender pay equity campaign and adopted the theme of “worth 100%” for our Bluestocking week. While the gender pay gap is central to the union movement’s ongoing campaigns around equality, we also used it as a touchstone to highlight many aspects of gender based discrimination in higher education institutions.

There is still a 10% gender pay gap in education, despite women and their unions having organising so successfully over so long for gender equity. While a component is because women are more likely to have ‘interrupted’ careers, the main reason is because sexism and gender based

discrimination against women continues to be a real impediment to equality. This is further complicated and enriched by the differential experiences of women.

This was the sixth year of the revived Bluestocking Week and every year we have more successful and varied events with more participants. Congratulations to all those who organised and participated.

Refracted through the Gender Lens In this environment, the WAC has continued to be active and vocal within the Union. As a result of the Union’s reinvigoration of the WAC and a renewal on issues important to women members, this year’s National Women’s Conference was one of the largest held. The conference examine key issues in higher education and unions through the ‘gender lens’, refracted with a clear focus upon intersectionality. In doing so, the conference sought to reframe the narrative and encourage women to reclaim and enact their own agency at work, in the Union and beyond.

One of the outcomes of the Conference is the development of the NTEU Women’s Network, and online email list used for WAC related information and news. This is part of a renewed focus on promoting the work of the WAC and women delegate networks to NTEU women members more broadly.

Participation of women in the university workforce WAC continues to monitor gender numbers in universities and the Union, with gender distribution of NTEU members similar to the sector. The latest Department of Education data shows that there are 68,621 women university staff, making up 56.8% of all university staff. This is a 2% increase on previous year’s figures. Male staff have also increased but to a lesser extent (1.2%), with 52,067 men working in universities.

However, the numbers of men tend to pool at the higher academic levels.

The majority of staff in universities (by staff count) are in the professional/general classification (55.1%). Of these, the majority are women (66%), and account for the largest cohort of university employees,

at 64% of all women staff, and just under 36.5% of all staff.

This year has seen only very moderate growth in the (still small) proportion of teaching-only numbers (FTE) within the overall university staffing cohort nationally, increasing by 14% compared to the previous year. Looking at research-only, there have been small increases from the previous year (1.3% for men and 2.2% for women), although overall, men still dominate in the higher academic levels and women are over represented in the non-academic research classifications.

Growth is stagnating in research and teaching numbers however. There is an overall 0.6% decrease in men and only 0.1% growth for the numbers of women from the previous year. However, it is still by far the largest area for academic classified staff (comprising just under 32,000 staff), with the largest single cohort being men in above senior lecturer level. Following the pattern set in teaching only and research only, there are more women than men at Level A and B, with Level B being the largest academic cohort of women.

As with previous years, the trend for growth continues to be in teaching-only positions, and continues to outpace growth in the professional/general staff category (at a modest 1.7% increase on the following year), where women almost outnumber men 2 to 1, (at 22,420 men to 44, 136 women). While the education statistics don’t go into levels for non-academic staff, we know from other sources of data (including the Workplace Gender Equality Employer (WGEA) reports, now in their 6th year) that in the general and professional staff areas, women dominate and the lower levels, including management. The WGEA data also shows that the level of insecure employment in universities appears to be between 50% – 70% of the total workforce on numbers rather than FTE. In almost all WGEA employment categories, women are the majority in areas of insecure employment.

Participation of women in the Union Over the last 15 years there has been a slow increase in the number of women NTEU members (48% in 2000 to 58% in 2017). This aligns with the rise in the proportion of

WAC 2016–17 Chair Jeannie Rea A&TSIPC Rep Sharlene Leroy-Dyer ACT Gen: Cathy Day ANU Aca: Sara Beavis ANU NSW Gen: Laura Wilson Sydney Aca: Sarah Kaine UTS NT Gen: Sylvia Klonaris CDU Aca: Donelle Cross BIITE QLD Gen: Diane Lancaster CQU Aca: Debra Beattie Griffith SA Gen: Kate Borrett UniSA Aca: vacant TAS Gen: Suzanne Crowley UTAS Aca: Megan Alessandrini UTAS VIC Gen: Sara Brocklesby Melbourne Aca: Virginia Mansel Lees La Trobe WA Gen: Corinna Worth Curtin Aca: Margaret Giles ECU WAC comprises one academic and one general staff representative from each Division, as well as a nominee of the A&TSI Policy Committee. WAC is chaired by the National President.

women higher education staff over the last decade (from 49.8% in 2000 to 58% in 2017).

While women are the majority of members within the NTEU, women are proportionally under-represented in leadership and senior roles within the Union. Following the last round of elections in October 2016, there were 10 women and 12 men on National Executive, 43 women and 49 men as National Councillors, and 58 women and 61 men at State Council level.

While at Branch level the gender gap is less, with 224 women and 219 Branch officials (excluding Branch Presidents), there are still almost twice the number of male Branch Presidents to women Branch Presidents (14 women and 24 men).

Gender equity however, goes beyond the counting of numbers. It relates to the policy, processes and culture of an organisation. The WAC has therefore supported the South Australian Division’s NTEU Clare McCarty Leadership Program, a pilot mentorship program aimed at increasing women’s participation through all levels of the NTEU and in developing women leaders.

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NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 15

Industrial Key activities: • Collective bargaining • Industrial disputes • Award Review The National Industrial Unit is coordinated

by Sarah Roberts (National Industrial Coordinator).

Staff in 2016-17 included Linda Gale (Senior Industrial Officer), Wayne Cupido, Susan Kenna and Elizabeth McGrath (Industrial Officers).

Renee Veal (Administrative Officer – Industrial) provided support to the Unit.

The Unit is under the direction of the General Secretary.

Over recent years it has become clear that no amount of anti-union and anti-worker decisions from our courts and the Fair Work Commission can convince parliamentarians and the community more broadly that working people need a fair go. Instead, working people and their unions are drawn as menacing wielders of economic power who stand in the way of progress. That is, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Nonetheless, if only amongst us, the truth is worth noting. Our rights to withdraw our labour are severely curtailed.

Industrial action can only be taken after a tortuous secret ballot, and only then within the period of bargaining for a new Agreement. Bargaining occurs in a severely legally prescribed fashion, diminishing the capacity for parties to genuinely and quickly reach a deal. Agreements may be terminated upon the application of the employer despite the opposition of the employees and the union the Agreement covers. Penalty rates have been cut and awards are increasingly irrelevant. Our industrial laws fall dramatically short of International Labor Standards.

Images (L–R): University of Sydney members voting to strike, August 2017; Handing out Pay More Get Less brochures in Adelaide on National Day of Protest, 8 August 2017; Murdoch Decision Facebook graphic; USyd Casuals Network ‘sick-in’ to fight for sick leave for casuals;.

page 16 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

At the same time, the union movement’s capacity to achieve justice for our members within these constraints has also declined. The Fair Work Commission

continues to earn its nickname “the bosses’ court”, with all 14 Commission appointments by the Coalition since 2013 coming from a conservative or employer background. Better outcomes can occasionally be achieved in the Courts, but only with immense financial outlay on lawyers, and the patience to wait for an outcome for years on end.

So the ACTU’s “Change the Rules” campaign comes at the right time. It is time our industrial laws were changed to give some power back to working people.

Those who are weakest in our society are left behind. The unfairness in the law is something our members experience every day. Our job is to work tirelessly to make it stop.

Bargaining Higher education bargaining As the bargaining round unfolds, certain trends have become identifiable across the sector. In particular, there is even greater management propensity to engage lawyers to undertake their bargaining and /or associated correspondence (Murdoch, Deakin, James Cook University), making bargaining an unnecessarily legalistic and resource intensive experience on both sides. Further, the round has been marked by relatively low wage offers across the sector, reflecting depressed nationwide economic conditions.

Despite these adverse conditions, to date deals have been reached at Deakin and the University of Western Australia, notably including pay increases of 2 per cent per annum plus $1000 (Deakin) and between 5.9 per cent to 9.5 per cent (UWA); and an

increase to 17 per cent superannuation for all fixed term staff.

From the National Industrial Unit, Wayne Cupido is engaged in the bargaining at the University of Tasmania and the Australian Catholic University, Susan Kenna at the Australian National University and Sarah Roberts at the University of Melbourne.

Bargaining in other sectors Bargaining outside the university sector has been busy too, with many other new Agreements reached in 2016-17, including for student unions, training institutes, ELICOS centres and TAFE.

Key disputes In 2017 the Union has been engaged in two key defensive disputes, both with Murdoch University. Together with the other Western Australian institutions, Murdoch adopted a highly aggressive approach in bargaining, seeking “simple, contemporary and fair” agreements that stripped many long-held conditions, and offered little in return. Engagement of anti-union law firm Seyfarth Shaw, and later Minter Ellison, evidenced Murdoch’s reluctance to engage in industrial negotiations as heretofore known. Instead Murdoch adopted a legalistic approach, focusing on normal NTEU communications with our members about bargaining as evidence of a failure to engage in good faith.

Murdoch – “Misrepresentations” Then, in September 2016 Murdoch pursued NTEU, as well as Gabe Gooding (WA Division Secretary) and Alex Cousner (WA Industrial Officer) personally for injunctive relief in the Federal Court, on the grounds of a breach of section 345 of the Fair Work Act. That section prohibits the making of false and misleading representations about workplace rights of others. In this instance Murdoch argued that NTEU’s campaign materials misrepresented their workplace rights, effectively because the university disagreed with NTEU’s characterisation of their claims.

The court did not grant Murdoch’s application for an injunction, which was

a short term victory for NTEU, but the case nonetheless remains on foot. Most recently Murdoch has sought to amend its claims against the Union, Gabe Gooding and Alex Cousner to include further grounds, being a new claim that the Union intended to coerce Murdoch into not exercising its workplace rights (based on the Facebook posts, tweets, emails, posters and other campaign initiatives taken by NTEU in opposition to the University’s application to terminate its Agreement).

NTEU has also sought to strike out Murdoch’s entire claim for want of jurisdictional footing. Hearings have been rescheduled to September 2017.

Murdoch – Termination of Agreement In December 2016 Murdoch also made an application to the Fair Work Commission to terminate its Agreement with NTEU, which would have the effect of diminishing enforceable conditions of employment and salary to award safety net levels. The basis for Murdoch’s argument was that it was in dire financial peril, and to lift itself out of financial trouble it needed to be unconstrained by the allegedly unwieldy and unworkable Agreement.

Murdoch’s case was heard in Perth on 4-21 July. Murdoch argued that it would not be contrary to the public interest to terminate the Agreement because doing so would enhance Murdoch’s financial position and overall productivity, which would have positive flow-on effects for students and the economy. Murdoch also put the case that the effect on employees would be minimal because it would give undertakings to maintain many provisions for a period of 6 months.

In reply, NTEU compiled an extensive array of witness evidence, forensically rebutting each of Murdoch’s arguments and supporting our own case. The final tally was 33 witnesses for NTEU as compared with Murdoch’s 10.

Agreements have been terminated despite the staunch opposition of the employees they cover. Murdoch’s application clearly seeks to take advantage of this one-sided law.

See the General Secretary’s report for an update on the case.

Award Review While the vast majority of NTEU members work under agreements which override award provisions, the maintenance of relevant award standards remains important. The “better off overall test” (BOOT) requires agreements to at least meet the standards set by awards, and award standards still carry great persuasive power at the bargaining table and among the membership.

The National Industrial Unit spent much of 2016-17 running NTEU’s case in the Four-Year Review of Modern Awards before a FWC full bench. Our claims included a reasonable workload allocation for academics, a “discipline currency” allowance for casual academic staff, proper compensation for overtime for general staff, updated general staff descriptors and award coverage for research institute staff.

By contrast, the employers sought to remove severance pay for fixed term employees, expand capacity to use fixed term contracts, and to reduce redundancy payments and penalty rates.

Evidence was heard from a great number of witnesses, and many of the NTEU’s fact propositions in support of our claims were clearly established by the weight of the evidence.

The Union made its final submissions in April, and a decision is expected later in the year.

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nteu.org.au/rights

Unfortunately, the case law on termination of Agreements is very unhelpful to working people. Since the Aurizon Fair Work Commission Full Bench decision in 2015, which rejected the notion that it is inappropriate to terminate an enterprise agreement during bargaining, many

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 17

Policy & Research Key activities: • Research and advocacy on higher education policy, funding and legislation • Monitoring research policy and funding • University governance • Outsourcing of academic work • Proposed changes to intellectual property • Intervention of trade and related policies

The National Policy and Research Unit is coordinated by Paul Kniest (National Policy and Research Coordinator).

Staff are Dr Terri MacDonald and Dr Jen Tsen Kwok (Policy and Research Officers).

The unit works under the direction of the National President.

Images (L–R): The Great Higher Education Swindle; Young People Under Attack meme; Higher education cuts meme; Jenny Strauss gives her reasons for protesting on 8 August at an NTEU Veterans event; Kate Borrett with former Greens senator Robert Sims on National Day of Protest, 8 August.

page 18 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

Descending into farce – the higher education policy merry-go-round Having given up on the 2014 deregulation agenda, the Minister for Higher Education, Simon Birmingham, released the Government’s Higher Education Reform Package on 1 May 2017, which asked students to pay 7.5% more in real terms while cutting the level of public investment in order to finance $2.8 billion of financial sustainability savings. From May to September, the Minister struggled to convince both the Senate and the broader public about the merits of his reform package.

At the time of writing, the corresponding legislation, introduced in May, has been passed by the House of Representatives, but is yet to be debated in the Senate.

NTEU responded with the Pay More Get Less campaign arguing that students were going to be paying more for their education, while university’s actually got less funding.

We labelled it the Great Higher Education Swindle.

The Minister’s rhetoric has sounded increasingly desperate, When the fundamental flaws in the government’s analyses about funding and productivity were exposed by the NTEU and others in the sector, Birmingham reverted to attacks on vice-chancellors’ salary packages, as he found the entire higher education sector opposed to his so called reforms.

While always in the forefront of exposing the excess of vice-chancellors’ pay, the NTEU quickly clarified that the Government’s proposed cuts were the key issue, and that if they were really

concerned about the vice-chancellors’ pay then they could cap it as a condition of the university grants!

But in late August, the Minister exposed the Coalition Government’s real agenda, when he attacked the working conditions and pay of university staff, welcoming the Fair Work Commission’s decision to terminate Murdoch University’s enterprise agreement and encouraging other university employers to follow the Murdoch example.

The tenor of debate in higher education reform has again descended into farce. The Minister has insisted on delivering polices that above all provide budgetary savings.

On the other hand the sector is united with key crossbench Senators, in questioning the merits of a policy that cuts the level of public investment in higher education, despite Australia having the one of the lowest levels in the OECD.

Other higher education funding cuts As highlighted by Universities Australia, since 2011-12 the higher education sector has contributed almost $4billion in net budgetary savings, including with the passage of the Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill 2016.

Over the four-year forward estimates, the Government will save more than $400million, which includes converting student start-up scholarships to loans ($298million), changing the indexation arrangements for higher education grants, lowering the income threshold for HECSHELP payments from $57,730 to $51,957 from 1 Jan 2018, and removing the HECS-HELP benefit.

Getting tough on VET providers Following countless failed attempts to fix the VET-FEE HELP scheme, the Government finally announced at the end of 2016 that they would abandon the correct scheme and replace it with a new VET Student Loans scheme.

The new scheme was anticipated to save the government in the order of $25 billion over a ten year period, largely by exercising greater scrutiny of eligible private providers, limiting the level of loans that students are able to access, and by restricting the number of courses and students that will be eligible for new VET student loans.

The unconscionable behaviour of a number of for-profit VET providers played a critical role in the demise of this scheme, but undoubtedly also in reframing the government’s higher education reform agenda away from subsidising for profit providers.

Open and ethical university governance Following on from decisions at last year’s National Council Meeting, NTEU prepared an issues paper on university governance that explores the extent of private sector interests on governing bodies and analyses discriminatory and non-transparent practices occurring on these bodies. Much of the member and staff input draws upon feedback from a two-day NTEU workshop on 29-30 August 2016 and further consultation over this year.

The paper contains recommendations including the establishment of an NTEU Code of Open and Ethical University Governance. Changes to the size and composition of governing bodies through arbitrary reductions in staff and student representation is a matter of ongoing concern, with the Queensland Parliament currently considering the University Legislation Amendment Bill 2017 and the South Australian parliament debating the Statutes Amendment (Universities) Bill 2016.

Outsourcing of academic and student support services Sectoral trends in the outsourcing of university services have reached academic work and learning and teaching support services in the last twelve months. It appears that an increasing number of universities are entering third-party arrangements for the delivery of tutorial or learning support services, and in some cases entire online degrees.

These arrangements raise serious concerns for the NTEU, not only because they threaten the jobs of existing university staff, but raise very serious pedagogical and academic integrity issues. These arrangements may represent a backdoor into the privatisation of CSP funding, which looks very similar to the incursion of private enterprises into public schooling internationally as being monitored by Education International. NTEU National Office and Branches are investigating these developments.

Research Code of Conduct NTEU continues to monitor and respond to developments in research policy and implementation, including over the last year the revision of the ARC and NHMRC Research Code of Conduct. The Code has been rewritten into a set of principles supported by Better Practice Guides (BPG).

The NTEU National President participates in the working group developing the BPG on managing breaches of the code.

TPP: Gone but not forgotten While the election of President Donald Trump might have ended the adoption of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the negotiation of oppressive and antidemocratic multilateral agreements through the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnerships (RCEP) and the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER)-Plus remains.

Independent Education Union, remain committed to a comprehensive carve -out of education from any future agreements, as well as opposition to negotiations which incorporate Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), and which do not support environmental or Indigenous IP protections, international labour rights or human rights conventions.

Centre for Future Work The Centre for Future Work (www. futurework.org.au) was established at the end of 2016 to deliver public commentary and build economic literacy for trade unions and other Australians about the negative trends affecting work and workplaces in the Australian economy.

The Centre was established with the support of several sponsor organisations, including the NTEU, and is headed by Dr Jim Stanford, a Canadian labour economist with over 20 years of trade union experience. One of its research priorities is to document the erosion of job security across the Australian labour market.

CHASS, STA, CAPA & NUS NTEU is proud to continue affiliation and collaboration with Science and Technology Australia (STA) and the Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) on policy development and advocacy as well as internal education, including a recent highly successful seminar on employment for early career researchers (ECRs).

The National Union of Students (NUS) and Council of Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) continue to support NTEU political and industrial campaigns, which is appreciated.

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NTEU, along with fellow education unions the Australian Education Union and the

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 19

Union Education Key activities: • Education programs • Expert Seminars • Scholarships • Education materials development Unit staff are Ken McAlpine and Helena Spyrou (Education & Training Officers).

During 2016–17, some Union Education program activities have been delayed, due to reduced staffing.

The program is overseen by the National President and General Secretary.

Education Program The Union Education Program addresses the needs of NTEU officers, members and staff, while also being consistent with the Union’s strategic objectives.

The program is based upon three main subject areas – The Union, The Higher Education System, and Work and Employment, with three main components – Knowledge, Activities and Practices.

The program is a mix of content identified and requested by members and staff, and content identified by senior officers and the National Executive as supporting urgent or important priorities. Most delivery is face-to-face with increasing delivery via webinar, and greater emphasis on the development of resources to be used by officers, staff and members.

Union Education reflects the strong capacity of NTEU members and staff as learners to actively engage with complex issues and so, provides forums for officers, activists and staff, both together and separately, to reflect upon their practice and contribute to the development of new strategies and practices.

Union Education ensures knowledge and good practices that already exist within the Union are recorded, accessible and shared.

Branch Committee & Delegate Development Education Images (L–R): All Staff Conference, Dec 2016; Delegates Handbook; Contents of Delegates Kit; Clare McCarty Leadership Program panel in Adelaide (March 2017) featuring Professor Mary Margaret Fonow, Janet Giles, Professor Suzanne Franzway and Jeannie Rea.

page 20 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

Union Education ran Delegate Development programs for Branches in VIC, TAS and ACT, and has supported Divisions in WA, NSW and QLD with resources (including the Delegates

Handbook and dedicated website) to run their own programs for Branches. Programs are planned for SA and NT later in 2017.

Branch Committee induction was run for Branches in VIC, TAS and WA and programs are planned for other Divisions later in 2017.

Enterprise Bargaining & Campaigning For Bargaining Training The two-day bargaining course was delivered to eight Branches in early 2016 and eighteen Branches in 2016/2017 (eight in NSW; five in VIC; two in QLD; one in NT and two in SA).

Campaigning for Bargaining training has been run with most Branches currently bargaining. NTEU Bargaining resources, include a Bargaining Campaign Kit.

Recruitment training The three-day recruitment skills course combines both face-to-face training and field-work, and includes a train-the-trainer component. It aims to provide skills to staff, Branch committees and delegates to undertake this work and to train others to recruit.

A Recruitment Toolkit, with a dedicated website, has been developed. Branches in the following Divisions have undertaken the course: QLD – August 2016; SA – March 2017; ACT – April 2017; VIC – June 2017. More courses are planned later in 2017.

General courses Currently five courses are offered that build upon existing knowledge and incorporate a train-the-trainer component to develop the capacity of participants to themselves run sessions for members. They

are: General Staff Classification, Academic Promotion, Academic Freedom and Writing for the Union, Workplace Bullying and Case Management, and Industrial and Legal Skills Intensive.

The Industrial and Legal Skills Intensive was run for Victorian Division organisers in 2016-2017.

Induction arrangements for new staff A two-day induction, introducing new staff to their role and to the sector, is held every 4-6 months. Divisions provide the initial administrative induction for commencing staff. One course was run during this period with ten new staff attending.

Financial Governance Training Union Education provided the mandated financial governance training to new officers.

TAFE Classification Training Union Education continues to provide training to General Staff in Victorian TAFEs on Classification. In 2016/2017, Union Education ran courses in three TAFEs.

Interactive online education sessions The Friday afternoon fortnightly webinars will recommence in 2018. Sessions run in 2016-2017 covered: Federal Election higher education policies; Higher Education Contract of Employment (HECE) provisions; FWC anti-bullying jurisdiction; and the NTEU Secure Work campaign.

Conferences & Workshops Union Education also provides expert support to NTEU conferences and to a range of other activities. In 2016-2017 Union Education provided support to the Women’s Conference and the A&TSI Forum as well as the conferences and activities listed below.

NTEU All Staff conference This three-day conference was run in December 2016. Union Education collaborated with the National Organiser and the National Officers to plan the agenda and content. All staff, National officers and Division Secretaries attended.

The conference, through a series of workshops: analysed current practice in

recruitment and retention with a view to growing union membership and retention and encouraging greater union activism amongst members; analysed the state of the higher education sector and the secure work campaign as a priority for bargaining and identified strategies and resources needed.

Participants identified strategies and resources for moving forward. In June 2017, a working group (consisting of at staff from each Division and the National Office) was formed to progress recommendations.

National Workshop on University Governance This two-day workshop, developed in collaboration with the Policy and Research Unit and the National President, was run in August 2016. It was positively received by the 34 people who attended. It covered conflict of interest, the legal status of university governing bodies and their members, and the role of staff-elected members.

Union Education will work with the Policy and Research Unit to assist and support NTEU members on governing bodies.

NTEU Women in Leadership Mentorship Pilot Program Union education collaborated with the Women’s Action Committee and the SA Division to pilot, in SA, a mentorship program, named the Clare McCarty Leadership Program, aimed at developing women leaders within the NTEU. An introductory seminar for 40 interested mentors and mentees, was held on 30 March 2017. This was followed by an orientation, for around 10 mentorship pairs, on 3 July 2017. A report on the progress will be given at the 2017 National Council.

NTEU Scholarship Programs Union Education administers two of four NTEU scholarships: the Joan Hardy Scholarship for post-graduate nursing research ($5000) and the Carolyn Allport Scholarship for post-graduate feminist research ($15000 over three years). The Scholarships are awarded in August/ September each year.

The NTEU Morning Star scholarship for Indigenous students is overseen by CDU and the NTEU. The CSU Branch Indigenous Education Scholarship for an Indigenous Australian in an undergraduate teaching degree at CSU is overseen by CSU.

Education materials development Union Education has continued to expand and update many manuals, guides as well as developing a range of other education resources.

NTEU wiki The NTEU Wiki is a collection of articles for officers and staff that provide information and analysis of issues relevant to the sector and the union movement. The wiki continues to expand.

NTEU learning centre Union Education has developed resources for officers and staff that include how to-guides, presentation slides, strategies, scenarios and activities for addressing both content and skill areas.

•

nteu.org.au/myunion/education_training

NTEU Expert Seminars NTEU Expert Seminars are evening seminars in which a group of invited speakers share their expertise and knowledge on a nominated topic with an audience of members. The seminars will recommence in 2018.

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 21

Organising & Campaigns Key activities: • National organising • Campaign development & support NTEU’s work nationally on organising is undertaken by Michael Evans (National Organiser) and is overseen by the National Assistant Secretary.

Campaign support is provided by Paul Clifton (National Publications Coordinator) and Andrew MacDonald (National Media & Communications Officer) and Julie Ann Veal (Administrative Officer – Membership & Campaigns).

NTEU Job Security in Australian Universities campaign 2017-20 The National Executive determined in February 2017 that the Union must bring together its industrial, public advocacy and campaigning work for secure jobs into a coherent medium-term national campaign, that while supporting and encouraging Branch and Division initiatives, recognises that national coordination is essential to achieve the aim of more permanent jobs for fixed term and casual staff.

Our goal is to stop the decline, and increase the number, of ongoing positions in higher education through industrial instruments supported by public advocacy and action. This is straightforward as a statement of purpose, but requires a U-turn in the fifteen year trend in university staffing where: • Four out of five teaching-only staff are on casual contracts • Four out of five research-only staff are on fixed term contracts • Less than 1% of new university jobs since 2005 are ongoing or tenured teaching and research positions

page 22 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

The primary strategy is industrial – enforcement of existing Agreement provisions and improving these through Round 7 bargaining. The secondary strategy is to promote sectoral and public debate on the extent and impact of insecure work in higher education to educate, politicise and potentially mobilise the university community and broader public in support of our bargaining and enforcement campaigns.

Budget Cuts campaign Following the announcement of more cuts to higher education and student fee increases in the May Federal Budget, a further campaign around the slogan “The Great Higher Education Swindle – Pay More, Get Less” was developed, to frame ongoing campaign events.

With the convergence of the various campaigns:

• At least half of university teaching is done by casually employed academics

• Secure Jobs campaign

• Only 2 out of 10 newly appointed staff are employed on a permanent basis, or 3 out of 10 on a FTE basis

• Budget Cuts campaign

• 64% of the total number of staff in universities are employed insecurely

Images (L–R): WAC members at the March in March in Melbourne; RMIT Branch In The Dark casuals poster; UC member with Pay More Get Less message.

The objectives of the campaign are to win more permanent jobs through Round 7 enterprise bargaining; improve the employment conditions of fixed term and casual staff; enforce new and existing provisions; and to increase Union density.

• Constant restructures and redundancies leave many more in ongoing fear about the security of their jobs.

• Round 7 Bargaining A National Day of Protest (NDP) was called for 8 August. The NDP focused on campusbased activities such as lunch time open meetings and rallies to enable maximum staff participation.

The main political and industrial focus was on how the Budget cuts will almost

certainly lead to greater job insecurity for higher education staff.

March For Science NTEU members joined an estimated 1.3 million people around Australia and the world on 22 April 2017 to rally and march in support of science and to promote the vital role science plays in our health, safety, freedom, environment, economies and governments, in the face of growing threats.

NTEU banners and leaflets prepared for this event focused on the ‘epidemic’ of insecure employment among research staff in Australian universities.

NTEU and the CSIRO Staff Association, the two principal unions for Australian scientists, said in a joint statement: “As the unions representing university and CSIRO staff, we are pleased to support March for Science and its championing of education to encourage broad public knowledge and discussion of scientific work, as well as open communication, informed policy and stable investment Secure jobs for scientists is a crucial step in this.”

2017 State of the Uni Survey University staff throughout Australia were invited to complete our 2017 State of the Uni Survey in May 2017.

This is the second biennial survey, the first occurring in 2015. It is part of an ambitious project to build longitudinal information about university staff attitudes to: • The higher education sector.

• Their university.

• Their conditions at work.

• Unions in the university workplace.

Key highlights of the 2017 survey were: • The number of completed responses in 2017 (13,586) was more than double received in 2015 (6,435).

• Respondents who completed the survey were split roughly half between Union members and non-members.

• Over 300 people indicated that they were not members and sought further

information about the Union. Local Branches have followed up on these people.

The NTEU Lecture 2016 The sixth NTEU Lecture, held on Thursday 1 December 2016 at UTS in Sydney, was presented by Dennis Altman, Professorial Fellow in Human Security at La Trobe University. Dennis is the author of 13 books, since Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation was first published in 1972. In 2006, The Bulletin listed him as one of the 100 most influential Australians ever, and he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2008.

Dennis has been President of the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (2001-2005), a member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society (2004-12) and on the Board of Oxfam Australia (2006-10).

Dennis spoke on “Reviving Civic Culture in the wake of Trump: the Role of Universities.” A video and transcript of the Lecture, as well as information on previous Lectures, can be found at www.nteu.org.au/ lecture.

Murdoch University campaign In December 2016 Murdoch University applied to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to terminate the University’s Enterprise Agreement.

In response to Murdoch’s moves, the following activities were undertaken: • Union members rejected management’s “first and final” offer to increase salaries by just 3 per cent over four years as well as their demand to remove a significant number of conditions and protections from the Agreement.

• More than 2000 individuals and organisations from around Australia and internationally sent letters to the ViceChancellor calling on her to withdraw the University’s application to terminate the Agreement and return to the bargaining table.

• A Fighting Fund was established, with over $23,000 donated.

• Hundreds of members and supporters, including Unions WA and ALP and Greens MPs, rallied in December 2016 to protest Murdoch’s actions.

• Internationally, messages of support were received from Education International (the international federation of education unions), and Sharan Burrow, former ACTU head and now General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, the world’s largest trade union federation.

• Jeannie Rea wrote to Murdoch University Senate members in March, seeking their intervention in the dispute. NTEU Officers at all levels, as well as the National Union of Students and the Council of Postgraduate Associations sent nearly 600 similar letters to Murdoch Senate members.

Go Home On Time Day Go Home on Time Day is an annual event facilitated by The Australia Institute, and is aimed at raising awareness about the amount of unpaid overtime Australians ‘donate’ to their employers each year. Last year it fell on Wednesday 23 November.

Ahead of the day itself the National Office prepared a poster for distribution to Branches and Divisions, encouraging participation in Go Home on Time Day, including being regularly promoted on social media in the lead-up.

Email messages tailored for academic staff members and professional/general staff members were sent to all members to raise awareness about the Day and urging people to go home on time on 23 November. Positive feedback about NTEU’s focus on the issues was received from those members who responded.

A short video has been developed to highlight the unpaid hours that people work, available at www.nteu.org.au/ gohomeontimeday

AFT visit & seminar A delegation from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) was in Melbourne from 23 – 29 January 2017. NTEU organised and jointly sponsored with the Australian Education Union (AEU) a packed-out seminar entitled “Trump in the White House: Where to Now for Trade Unions, Education and Social Justice?”

A report on the seminar is available.

Delegates Handbook and Kit As outlined in the 2016 Council motion on delegates, the National Office has produced a Delegate’s Handbook to provide the key information needed by a delegate to allow them to perform their role effectively. The Handbook will form part of a Delegates Kit, comprising a small box containing: • Delegates Handbook • Recruitment toolkit • NTEU stickers • NTEU lanyard • Delegate badge • Generic NTEU business card with space for them to insert their details Kits and instructions have been sent to all Branches who have identified who their delegates are. These are intended for distribution to endorsed delegates who have had the relevant training. There is also an understanding that, initially, some long standing delegates may also receive it despite not having been through the local member endorsement or training. This is a judgement call for Branches as some have delegates of long standing and it may be unreasonable to ask them to go through these processes thoroughly.

The National Office is also developing a section on the NTEU web site exclusively for delegates.

•

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 23

Recruitment & Retention Membership Surveys

NTEU Staff Conference

• Recruitment and Growth Team

New Members Surveys

• Member services

The National Office is surveying new members immediately upon joining, and then again after three months membership. The surveys have been operational since October 2016.

The NTEU Staff Conference was held on 7 – 9 December 2016 in Melbourne. Its main theme was “Developing a Recruitment Culture”. It provided a forum for staff and officers to discuss ideas about improving our internal communications and mechanisms to get more effective outcomes around recruitment and retention.

Key activities:

NTEU’s work nationally on organising is undertaken by Michael Evans (National Organiser) and is overseen by the National Assistant Secretary.

The National Membership Officer is Melinda Valsorda.

Rifai Abdul (National Growth Team Organiser) reports directly to the National Assistant Secretary.

The initial survey focuses on the reasons why they joined, and the mechanism or event by which they joined. The second survey asks them whether they have had any contact with someone from the Union, whether they have received a new members kit and its mode of delivery, and their initial impressions of the NTEU. This enables a regular flow of data in almost real time to better inform our recruitment and retention activities, and to more quickly respond to specific issues raised by members’ responses.

Reports are regularly provided to the National Executive and Branches.

Past Members Survey An online survey of people who have left the Union is emailed to them immediately upon their exit from the Union.

The data is used to inform our organising and campaigning work and to enable improvements to the Union’s ongoing recruitment and retention activities, and to try to address any specific concerns raised that may persuade the former member to rejoin.

Images (L–R): Proud Union Members at a march in WA; Organiser David Willis promting the In The Dark campaign; Recruitment Toolkit; WA members explaining why they were protesting on 8/8: Thor Kerr (Curtin), Mike Bianco (UWA), Natalie Lloyd (Curtin) and Hannes Herrmann (Curtin).

page 24 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

Reports are regularly provided to the National Executive and Branches.

A report on the Conference is included in the Union Education Report.

NTEU Desktop Calendar As a direct response to the results from the new members survey showing that 30 per cent of members joined on a recommendation from a work colleague, the National Office has developed tools to assist with member-to-member recruitment.

A desktop calendar was distributed to every member in November 2016, with ‘z’ folded membership forms for members to pass onto colleagues. An initiative suggested by Toby Cotton from the Victorian Division, this is a tool to assist our existing members in initiating a conversation with colleagues about joining the Union. As some members raised concerns about Union funds being used this way, the calendar will be produced and distributed on an ‘opt in’ basis in 2018.

NTEU Membership Card Re-issue The National Office distributed new NTEU membership cards to all members in April 2017, as part of the regular two-year cycle for replacing cards.

The card re-issue provides an opportunity to send a message to each member thanking them for their ongoing membership and involvement. It’s also an incentive for members to ensure that their contact details are current in the membership database.

New Member Kits

28,000 27,458

27,529 27,153

27,187

July 2015

July 2016

27,355

27,000 26,111 26,000

25,000

A new booklet titled Welcome to NTEU has been developed and sent to Divisions (for distribution to Branches). This is designed to be the key communication to new members outlining our key activities and work and incorporating information about the Union, how to get involved, how to change contact details, membership benefits, and where to get help. The booklet also incorporates advertising from organisations that we have relationships with removing the need to provide various advertising brochures in the kit.

24,000

24,354

24,279

July 2009

July 2010

24,318

23,930

23,000 July 2008

July 2011

July 2012

July 2013

July 2014

July 2017

National membership trend, July 2008 – July 2017

Every new member will now receive a Welcome Kit in a Union document holder (Purple A4 folder) which will include: • A letter from the Branch President.

• A copy of the Welcome to NTEU booklet.

• A copy of a recent edition of Advocate.

• Relevant publications (such as Agenda for women or Connect for casual members) • Additional local materials such as recent Branch newsletters or notifications of upcoming events.

• Union Member stickers.

• A Branch or Organiser business card. nteu.org.au/join

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NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 25

Communications & Publications Key activities: • Media work • Social media • Magazines & journal production • Website development • Campaign & event support Communications and publications are undertaken by Paul Clifton (National Publications Coordinator) and Andrew MacDonald (National Media & Communications Officer), assisted

by Elected Officers, staff and external contractors overseen by the National President and National Assistant Secretary.

Media NTEU has continued to feature extensively in local, state and national media as part of efforts to broaden discussions about the vital importance of higher education and the crucial role that university staff play in the sector.

A key component of NTEU media efforts over the past year has been an ongoing focus on the Federal Government’s plans for higher education. For much of the period covered by this report, the Federal Government had no clear higher education policy and was instead engaged in protracted ‘consultation’ over the discussion paper it released with the 2016 Federal Budget. NTEU used this period to consistently put forward its position in the media that the Government needed to focus on properly funding an equitable and accessible higher education system which offers improved job security for staff.

The week before the 2017 Federal Budget, Education Minister Simon Birmingham finally released the Government’s proposed higher education package, which included, among other things, a $2.3 billion ‘efficiency dividend’ cut to public investment in universities, higher degree fees for students and a lower HECS-HELP debt repayment threshold. By the end of the financial year, NTEU was repeatedly on the public record in opposition to the Government’s proposal and its negative impacts on staff and students.

Images (L–R): Pay More Get Less meme; Enrol to Vote for Marriage survey meme; Advocate vol. 24, no. 1; Agenda vol.

25; Connect vol. 10, no. 2; AUR vol. 59, no. 1; edXpress #38.

page 26 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

The issue of job security for university staff has been another key issue which has informed NTEU media strategy over the past year. NTEU has sought to highlight the detrimental impact the proliferation of

precarious employment has had on staff, students and the sector in commentary on a range of issues including government policy, enterprise bargaining and the release of agency and government reports.

NTEU continues to seek opportunities to address problems associated with insecure employment in its media commentary.

Enterprise bargaining has also featured prominently in NTEU local and national media activities in the past year. The highest profile example of this was the application lodged by Murdoch University management at the end of 2016 to terminate the Enterprise Agreement.

NTEU’s responses to management’s actions continued to feature prominently in the media through the first half of 2017.

Social Media NTEU social media activities have continued to reach a growing audience.

The national Facebook page has grown to over 13,900 likes, while our national Twitter account has grown to over 3,300 followers.

This has enabled the NTEU to reach more people with our message, complemented by strong Division social media presences.

This growing follower base has proved important in reaching new audiences and potential members through a range of social media activities and initiatives.

Key campaigns and issues which have featured on NTEU social media accounts over the past year have included campaigns to improve job security for university staff, responses to government policy developments, enterprise bargaining updates and promotion of NTEU events.

NTEU has also continued to produce a series of videos to communicate with members and potential members on social media. Issues canvassed by these videos have included the push for more secure work and problems associated with rolling fixed-term contracts, promotion of Go Home on Time Day and opposition to Murdoch University’s efforts to terminate its Enterprise Agreement.

In the past year, NTEU has also produced educational ‘infomercial’ style videos to explain some of the Union’s core activities to viewers. To date two such videos – explaining enterprise bargaining and the democratic structure of the Union – have been produced. Both have been wellreceived on social media.

33% e-mag open rate (up 1%).

NTEU Tax Guide 2017

The individual biodegradable plasticwrapping for all home addresses, introduced for Advocate and Connect in 2016, has this year also been used for AUR, resulting in further savings on postage, postal bags and casual wages.

Produced in conjunction with Teacher Tax, was published in July (A4, 10pp, digital only).

PDF downloads = 206 (down 26%).

aur.org.au

Connect Connect (editor Jeannie Rea, co-published with CAPA) was published in April (vol. 10, no. 1) and August (vol. 10, no. 2) 2017. Each print run is approximately 3,450 (down 7%), with a soft delivery of 1283 (up 483%, due to the addition of postgrad members to this list) and an open rate of 35% (up 20.4%).

PDF downloads averaged 97 (down 65%).

Magazines and Journals

unicasual.org.au/connect

edXpress

Agenda

With content sourced from all around Australia, edXpress keeps our members and subscribers informed about what is happening across the NTEU’s Branches and Divisions. Published monthly via MailChimp, edXpress is sent to almost 1700 subscribers, with an average open rate of 36.4% and click through rate of 11.4%.

Agenda (editor Jeannie Rea, produced in conjunction with WAC), NTEU’s annual women’s journal was produced in August 2017 (vol. 25) with a print run of 16,000, plus 2312 soft delivery subscriptions (up 23% from last year) with email notification via MailChimp (average 33% open rate, down 3%). Soft delivery links to PDF on our website and e-mag on our issuu site.

www.nteu.org.au/edxpress

Advocate Advocate (editor Jeannie Rea) was published in November 2016 (vol. 23, no. 3), March 2017 (vol. 24, no. 1) and July 2017 (vol.

24, no. 2). Each print run is 27,000 hard copy, plus 3,400 soft delivery subscriptions (up 13% from last year) with email notification via MailChimp (average 35.3% open rate, up 1.3%). Soft delivery links to PDF on our website (average number of downloads 536, up 20%) and e-mag on our issuu site. nteu.org.au/advocate

AUR Australian Universities’ Review (AUR), edited

by Ian Dobson and overseen by the AUR Editorial Board was published in February 2017 (vol. 59, no. 2) and September 2017 (vol.

59, no. 2). Each print run is approximately 4,600 (down 8%), plus over 6,800 soft delivery subscriptions (up 15%), with an average 825 PDF downloads (down 2%) and

nteu.org.au/agenda

Other Publications Welcome to NTEU A new A5, 32pp booklet was produced to be included in all member Welcome Kits.

Delegates Handbook A new A5, 24pp booklet was produced to be included in all Delegate Kits.

Recruitment Handbook A new A5, 24pp booklet was produced to assist delegates and members in recruiting new members. Initially produced in Sept 2016, it was updated and printed in hardcopy in June 2017.

NTEU Women A new DL, 6pp booklet was produced to highlight the role and activities of WAC.

nteu.org.au/tax

Campaigns Pay More Get Less The Union’s response to the 2017 Federal Budget was the Pay More Get Less campaign. Collateral created includes the Pay More Get Less logo, website and the Great Higher Education Swindle artwork. www.paymoregetless.org.au

Murdoch Shame Items produced for the Union’s fight with Murdoch University include logos, posters, banners, website, petitions, letters etc.

IDAHOBIT 2017 A DL flyer, webpage and poster were produced for the NTEU’s involvement in the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. www.nteu.org.au/qute/idahobit

Marriage Equality The NTEU Enrol to Vote website was updated in early August 2017 to encourage people to enrol to vote for the marriage equality survey, with specific material (slides, posters) encouraging a Yes vote.

nteu.org.au/enroltovote

Member Services Welcome Kits New Welcome Kits for new members have been produced and rolled out to all Divisions and Branches. In an A4 NTEU folder, each Welcome Kit contains a Welcome to NTEU booklet, letter from the Branch President, “Member” and “Proud to Be Union” stickers, copy of Advocate, copy of Agenda (for women members), copy of Connect (for casual members) and Branch or staff business card.

Delegate Kits Delegates Kits have been produced and will be rolled out to all Divisions and Branches.

In an A5 black cardboard box, each Delegate Kit contains a Delegates Handbook, Recruitment Toolkit, NTEU Delegate badge, “Delegate” and “Delegate: Talk to me about” stickers, A5 NTEU notepad, NTEU Delegate business cards and an NTEU lanyard

Events Materials (logos, websites, programs, banners, forms etc.) were created for: • The annual NTEU Lecture 2017 • Bluestocking Week 2017 • Women’s Conference 2017 nteu.org.au/media

•

nteu.org.au/library

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 27

Infrastructure, Finance, Governance, Admin Key activities: • Update on new Union database • Further ICT initiatives • General governance • Building revaluation • Operating results The Management & Administration Unit is managed by Peter Summers (Executive Manager).

Staff are Tam Vuong (ICT Network Engineer), Uffan Saeed (Database Programmer/Analyst), Jo Riley (Payroll Officer), Anastasia Kotaidis (Executive Officer – General Secretary & President), Tracey Coster (Executive Officer – Administration), Julie Ann Veal (Administrative Officer – Membership & Campaigns), Renee Veal (Administrative Officer – Resources) and Leanne Foote (Receptionist).

The Finance Unit is managed by Glenn Osmand (Finance Manager).

Stratum – the new Union database Updates are provided each year to National Council on progress with the complex project to replace our existing discrete membership and other internal databases with a new integrated Union database.

When finalised, the new database (called Stratum) will provide real-time and personalised web-based information to members, Officers and staff of the Union.

It will also provide a suite of Organiser tools to assist our campaigns and the development and maintenance of Branchbased delegate structures. Stratum will also provide a fully integrated national system of storage, retrieval and reporting against industrial case records as well as new web site pages for officers, staff and for each member’s ‘MyPage’.

The new database will be built, tested and deployed in three phases. The first phase consists of developing and deploying the modules necessary to enable processing of membership applications, records and subscriptions and comprises the great majority of the project development work.

Staff are Gracia Ho (Senior Finance Officer), Alex Ghvaladze, Tamara Labadze, Lee Powell and Daphne Zhang (Finance Officers).

Phase 1 consists of:

These Units report directly to the General Secretary.

• Informer (reporting tool)

• The core membership database • Salary Inspector • Subscriptions module • A new staff site • Join On Line • A new member MyPage At the time of the Staff Conference in December 2016 it was anticipated that

page 28 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

Phase 1 would be deployed sometime around May 2017. It has not proved possible to meet this timeline as it has since become apparent that the training required for the National Office membership, finance, industrial and administrative staff is far more complex, specialised and time consuming than originally envisaged.

These considerations and the need to accommodate planned staff leave means that Phase 1 is not likely to be deployed until the last quarter of the current calendar year.

The overwhelming bulk of the training required to support Phase 1 will be for National Office membership, finance and some administrative and industrial staff. However, there are a number of critical functions which staff and Officers at all levels of the Union will need to be trained to perform. These include how to generate current membership lists, how to generate lists of on’s and off’s (membership movements over time), how to make basic changes to member records and how to record and access delegate lists.

It is intended that this training be delivered on-site in each of our larger Divisions and the National Office and this will be rolled out in the weeks prior to the Phase 1 go-live date. It will also be necessary to develop and circulate simple ‘how to’ user guides, develop and make available template reports (to generate membership lists and the like), write to all members to make them aware that their MyPage on the NTEU website will look different to the existing site, and communicate in advance to all staff and Officers in preparation for the changes that will be introduced in Phase 1.

Phases 2 and 3 of the project will be much shorter in duration as the great majority of the development work is subsumed in building the functionality for Phase 1 - especially to replicate our relatively complex fee structure and internal organisational arrangements.

The elements of the new database to be provided in Phase 2 are: • Member Assist (CaseTrak) • Informer enhancements (to provide equivalent functionality to MembTrak) • Web Deployment (events on-line) • Accounts Interface • Officers Website • Staff Mobile Site The intention for Phase 2 is to roll out the test modules to staff and Officers and to invite feedback especially on Member Assist and the replacement for MembTrak. Once the feedback has been considered and before Phase 2 goes live, additional on-site training will be delivered and will need to be somewhat longer and more detailed than for Phase 1.

Before we can proceed to deploy Phase 2, the National Office will need (at a minimum) to roll out the training discussed above, develop and circulate ‘how to’ user guides, and communicate in advance to all staff and Officers in preparation for the changes that will be introduced in Phase 2.

The principal feature of Phase 3 are the new Organiser Tools which will include the capacity to: • Record quantitative and qualitative data about an individual member, as part of that member’s record e.g. the member’s level of engagement as an activist or delegate. For example, the ability to ‘tag’ a member’s record to indicate their involvement in something specific, part of a particular grouping, interest in a specific issue or involvement in a campaign etc..

• Provide two-way communication with a member or group of members about information and activities, e.g. the ability to be able to send an email invitation or SMS to a group of members about a particular event or issue, and to process

any replies, to notate a member’s record to indicate their acceptance of an invitation • Record source for joining (web site, organiser contact, other member etc.).

• Make member records accessible from a range of devices and platforms, so that Organisers are able to make real-time updates in the workplace.

The intention for Phase 3 is once again to roll out the test module to staff and Officers and to invite feedback especially on the functionality of the various Organiser Tools. Once the feedback has been considered and before Phase 3 goes live, further on-site training will be delivered on the same basis as for Phases 1 and 2.

As for the earlier Phases, before we can proceed to deploy Phase 3, the National Office will also need to provide information and communication packages to all staff and Officers in preparation for the changes that will be introduced.

While the introduction of a new integrated Union database is an exciting and potentially transformative development, it is important to stress that in and of itself a new database is not a panacea for everything. Stratum will not recruit a single new member, ‘win’ any policy or political campaign, or secure better Enterprise Agreements and industrial conditions for NTEU members. These outcomes will continue to rely on concerted action on the part of our members, Officers and staff and the new database will only be as good as the data it relies on and the willingness of all concerned to utilise it to assist our agreed organising, campaigning and industrial goals and associated activities.

Further ICT developments & enhancements As work continues on the database project we must simultaneously maintain our current membership and other databases and respond to high priority data and other ICT needs.

Recruitment Assistant The growth team has used smart sheet in the past to track recruitment activities i.e. conversations, visits etc. Smart sheet

uses Excel-like data entry forms but has limited information sharing and searching capabilities. A new tool called “Recruitment Assistant” was developed in the National Office and rolled out last year to assist growth team members in their recruitment activities.

The new tool includes the ability to enter university staff data, workplace details, visits made, discussions/conversations conducted and has built-in search and reporting features. Each recruiter enters data through the program running on their individual tablets and the data is then synchronized with the database in the National Office for centralised reporting.

Delegates’ Lists Branches can now record and maintain their delegates through the NTEU staff site.

A delegates committee is available for every Branch under their jurisdiction and any changes made to the delegates committee are also automatically carried over to the Committee Database in the National Office for reporting.

Membership Growth Reports A new set of growth reports for Branches and Divisions are provided to relevant NTEU staff and Branch/Division Officers on the first of every month via email. These reports set out progress made by each Branch or Division relative to their annual membership growth targets.

New Member & Follow-up Survey Reports The National Office has established ‘new member’ and ‘follow-up member’ surveys to be filled out by recently joined Union members. The new member survey email is sent out the day after the member joins.

The follow-up survey email is sent after three months. The results of these surveys are compiled into reports and sent by email to relevant NTEU staff at different Branches and Divisions every quarter (commencing April 2017).

Phone System The National Office has installed a new VOIP phone system which has reduced our monthly phone bills by 60%. continued overpage...

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 29

Using the new phone system we can now provision VOIP phone numbers and teleconference facilities within 24 hours notice.

and elections. It also grants the ROC investigation and information gathering powers to ensure that organisations are meeting their obligations under the law.

Single Sign On

The ROC is responsible for:

Work has been undertaken to integrate multiple websites to reduce the number of logins for users and to simplify maintenance tasks.

• Assessing the financial reports of organisations and their Branches

SharePoint

• Assessing the disclosure statements of organisations and their Branches

Development in progress of a ‘Train the Trainer’ Portal using existing SharePoint features; development of electronic invoices/expenses/travel request submission portal; and further enhancements to SharePoint to make it easier for collaborative works among NTEU staff/officers and NTEU members and delegates; and development in progress of training material and scheduled IT training for staff to focus on the use of SharePoint.

Mobile Apps Early testing of mobile apps to create accessible functionality for staff, Officers and members.

Network Hardware Upgrading of network switches, firewall and servers.

• Assessing the annual returns of organisations

• Arranging elections for organisations and their Branches • Approving governance and compliance training for organisations • Providing advice and assistance to organisations on the above matters • Conducting inquiries and investigations.

Based on the presently published information about enhanced reporting requirements and governance standards of registered organisations, there appears to be few if any additional imposts on the NTEU as we already comply with the overwhelming bulk of the new standards and disclosure requirements.

Revaluation of the NTEU National Office/Victorian Division Building

The Registered Organisations Commission (ROC) was established in 2017 to increase financial transparency and accountability in registered organisations.

During the year, the property at 120 Clarendon Street South Melbourne which accommodates both the National Office and the Victorian Division was revalued.

The building comprises 4 floors, one of which is rented out to other businesses as well as a conference centre on the ground floor and underground car spaces.

The jurisdiction of the ROC is set out in the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 (the RO Act). This Act outlines an organisation’s responsibilities for matters such as record keeping, finances

The Union owns this building in conjunction with the AEU (Federal Office), IEU (Victoria and Tasmania) and a number of smaller private lot holders. Collectively, the 3 unions own 81.2% of the building

Registered Organisations Commission

page 30 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

while at 58.9%, the NTEU holds the largest share of the building.

In 2013, the building was valued at $15.1 million, of which the NTEU portion was valued at $8.89 million. The estimate taken during the past year increased the value of the building to $19.2 million, with NTEU’s holding being $11.31 million, an increase of about $2.4 million or 27% over three years.

The building remains by a wide margin our largest single financial asset.

Revaluations are required to be conducted at least every three years or if we believe there has been a significant move in the market value since the last revaluation.

New CBA device During the year a new credit card device was installed for processing over the phone (card-less) and other manual credit card payments. The device is cordless and wireless and can be used at events for sale of merchandise and other items instead of using only cash. The device mirrors trends in the broader economy which is increasingly reliant on such technology.

Acknowledgement This report has summarised only the selected highlights of the work undertaken by the staff of the Finance Unit and the Management & Administration Unit. As the report is a brief overview of the activities of the past year it does not fully reflect the sustained efforts of a large number of staff who consistently strive to advance the interests of our members. Their often unheralded work is deeply appreciated and gratefully acknowledged by the authors of this report.

•

nteu.org.au/myunion

Budget Report Defence Fund Allocation 3%

Discretionary 10% Operating 11%

Salaries and On Costs 73%

Leave Provision 3%

2016-2017 Union Expenditure

The NTEU budget cycle is a complex process which must take account of total assets of $27 million, annual revenues of almost $22 million and the employment of over 120 staff.

• Revaluation of all NTEU owned properties as at 30 June 2017 as follows (to nearest $100,000):

The National Finance Unit oversees this process through the centralised collection and distribution of membership fee income, budget setting and the preparation of income and expenditure statements for all levels of the Union.

Financial probity and the responsible management of members’ funds is central to the Unit’s work, with each level of the Union being required to directly account for all expenditure transactions with three separate levels of authorisation and review.

Key highlights for the last financial year are set out in the chart and table below, and include: • A n operating deficit of $62,000 (against a budget deficit of $343,000).

• Membership income higher than expected by $89,000;.

State

2014 Value

2017 Value

Increase/ (decrease)

NSW

$3.3m

$5.1m

$1.8m

Qld

$1.5m

$1.5m

$0

SA

$940k

$940k

$0

WA

$2.0m

$1.5m

($0.5m)

The key highlights for the 2017/18 Budget are as follows: • Membership income increase by about $500k or 2%.

• Total salaries (including on costs) to increase by about $350,000.

• Operating and discretionary spending to remain about the same.

• A budgeted surplus of about $100,000.

NTEU will publish Audited Financial Statements later in calendar year 2017 in line with Fair Work Australia regulations and International Accounting Standards. nteu.org.au/myunion/about_us/finance

•

• Expenditure under by $170,000.

Budget 2016-2017

Actual June 2017

$m

$m

Membership Fees

21.49

21.58

Other Income

0.16

0.18

21.65

21.76

Salaries & On Costs

15.56

15.68

Leave Provision

0.65

0.65

Operating

2.51

2.31

Discretionary

2.14

2.12

Defence Fund Allocation

0.64

0.65

21.50

21.41

0.15

0.35

Growth Team Expenses

0.49

0.41

Growth Team Result Surplus/Deficit

0.49

0.41

FINAL RESULT Surplus/Deficit

(0.34)

(0.06)

INCOME

EXPENDITURE

Operating Result-Surplus/Deficit

GROWTH TEAM

Summary of 2016-2017 Income and Expenditure - Actual vs Budget

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 31

International Key activities: • Solidarity • Capacity building • Tertiary education advocacy

NTEU’s international activities can be grouped into three areas, which are solidarity, capacity building, and participation in tertiary education advocacy, debates and developments.

These activities overlap and are guided by NTEU’s international policy position as determined by National Council.

Education International NTEU is a member of Education International (EI), the global federation of education unions, where NTEU has played a significant role in the development of the Higher Education and Research section. The ongoing development and strengthening of the sector’s interests within EI can be substantially attributed to the persistent advocacy of the NTEU General Secretary who served three terms on the EI Executive Board, elected to a general position from the floor of the EI Congress. As EI’s 30 million members are overwhelmingly from unions representing school teachers, this is in itself was an achievement.

Images (L–R): Participants at IFHERC 2016 in Accra, Ghana (Source: EI flickr); Terry Mason, Chair of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee, at Hui in New Zealand/Aotearoa; Turkish police detain a teacher during a protest in Diyarbakır (Source: AFP); EI delegation at 2nd World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

page 32 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

The success of the NTEU (and allied unions’) consistent advocacy for a focus on higher education, as well as active capacity building with emerging higher education unions, resulted in the 10th International Further and Higher Education and Research Conference (IFHERC), the biennial meeting of higher education and research affiliates of EI, being held in

Ghana in November 2016. This was both the biggest higher education conference to date, and included the highest number of African affiliates. There were in total 90 representatives from 58 affiliates.

The National President Jeannie Rea and General Secretary Grahame McCulloch represented NTEU at the conference.

The National Assistant Secretary, Matthew McGowan, continues to participate in improving the voices of professional and general staff within EI and attended the EI ESP Task Force meeting in Brussels in January to work on developing the strategic plan. ESP – Education Support Personnel – is the term used by EI to refer to the range of professional, administrative and technical staff. The starting point is that ESP must be entitled to the same status, rights and working conditions as all other education employees with similar academic and technical qualifications and experience.

Indigenous matters Within EI, NTEU has also been a vocal advocate for an Indigenous caucus and better integration of Indigenous matters across EI’s policy and program.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee Chair attended a meeting of this emerging caucus, while also participating in WIPC-E (World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education) in Toronto in July, where he gave a paper on “Mainstreaming, ‘whitestreaming’, insecure work and impacts on Indigenous staff and knowledges in universities”.

Pacific region NTEU, with the other Australian EI affiliates, AEU (Australian Education Union) and IEU (Independent Education Union) participate in the Asia Pacific section of EI and in the Pacific countries grouping, COPE (Council of Pacific Education). Supporting the development of trade unions within our Pacific region is our responsibility, as are solidarity actions, for example in Fiji where ACTU has led Australian solidarity work.

The NTEU National President is on the ACTU International Committee. NTEU also supports APHEDA - Union Aid Abroad encouraging members to join, participating in campaigns and sponsoring specific projects from time to time.

New Zealand/Aotearoa Our closest international relationship is with the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) of New Zealand, with whom we have a well-developed exchange of speakers and participants in our annual meetings and annual Indigenous forums. The National President attended the TEU annual conference last November and spoke on the NTEU’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander commitments. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee Chair and Deputy Chair attended the annual TEU Hui in March.

TEU participated in the NTEU’s QUTE/ LGBTIQ conference in January and national women’s conference in June.

NTEU’s QUTE organiser also assisted TEU in developing their LGBTIQ program through a visit in September.

International solidarity NTEU’s regular solidarity actions take the form of responding to requests from EI, the ITUC and ACTU for letters to government and international agencies in support of unionists and unions persecuted for advocacy and action. Fortunately, international pressure does have some impact and these solidarity actions do have regular positive outcomes.

NTEU is also affiliated to US based Scholars at Risk, which also sends out solidarity

requests and calls to action, as well as assisting persecuted academics to relocate in other countries.

which was shameful and contrary to UNESCO policy, and hopefully will be remedied soon.

In the past year the persecution of unionists by the Erdogan regime in Turkey, including university workers who signed the Petition for Peace in support of the Kurds, has attracted ongoing attention from both EI and SAR. As well as sending solidarity messages and protest letters, NTEU has also responded to members urging contact between academics in the same disciplinary area and investigating further solidarity actions.

The EI delegates spoke on the role of education workers as the key actors in developing and implementing OERs and called for protection of workers’ rights.

The use of digital OER as a cheaper option at the risk of pedagogical quality and local content and control was a concern recognisable to NTEU. Much of the focus was upon expanding open licences and reforming copyright and ‘fair use’ laws to enable access and also recognition of content producers. The key point of dispute was with those seeking to find a lucrative business model at the cost of open and equal access to quality education resources.

An important example of higher education advocacy on the world stage, in which the NTEU participated through EI coordination, was the development of the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel. NTEU later prosecuted a claim under this instrument. The 20th anniversary will be acknowledged in a ceremony at UNESCO General Conference in November.

Now more than ever, the fundamental principles enshrined in the 1997 Recommendation such as tenure, academic freedom, self-governance and collegiality, are essential to the future sustainability of democratic societies and yet, they have never been under greater threat.

World Congress on Open Education Resources In September, the NTEU National President participated in the UNESCO 2nd World Congress on Open Education Resources (OER) in Europe as a member of the EI delegation, followed by the 2nd OECD Stakeholders Forum. The OER congress focussed upon developing UNESCO policy on OER particularly in relationship to the implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Education for All. Of interest to NTEU (and EI) were issues of equity and inclusion and consequently we successfully lobbied (on the floor and in the drafting committee) for explicit mentions of gender, after being surprised by the lack of inclusion. Advocacy for the addition of specific naming of Indigenous peoples as an affected group was not so successful,

The OECD stakeholders’ forum is a new initiative by the OECD for consultation with non-government stakeholders, specifically universities, professional organisations, research forums and trade unions. Other higher education unions were present as well as NTEU. The voices and experiences of higher education staff were only heard through the union participants.

This was particularly critical as our input and feedback was sought on research on benchmarking higher education systems; labour market relevance and outcomes of higher education systems; and resourcing higher education systems. These are the current research projects of OECD as determined by the government members.

This work certainly influences Australian higher education discourse and debate on government policy, so it was worthwhile to seek to influence the objectives, scope, methods and content of this research agenda.

NTEU will continue with strategic international interventions as determined by our international affiliations and policy and priority decisions.

•

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 33

ACT Division ACT Division Secretary is Rachael Bahl.

Division President is Marie Fisher, VicePresident (Academic) is Craig Applegate.

Vice-President (General) is vacant.

Staff are David Vincent-Pietsch (Division Industrial Officer), Tim McCann (Division Organiser, to June 2017), Lachlan Clohesy (Division Organiser, from July 2017) and Jane Maze (Division Organiser).

The ACT Division represents around 1,100 members at four ACT public universities: Australian National University (ANU), University of Canberra (UC), Australian Catholic University (Canberra Campus, ACU) and UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA).

Recruitment & Membership Training and Development NTEU membership in the ACT declined slightly in 2016-7. Membership growth continues to be a challenge. We are taking steps to arrest this decline and return to growth, including highly visible campaigning. Delegate development continues to be a priority.

Members from ANU attended Enterprise Bargaining Training in November 2016.

Ken McAlpine from Union Education presented the training, with support from Susan Kenna and Matthew McGowan.

Participants welcomed the depth and breadth of information covered and the opportunity to practice skills learned.

Images (L–R): ACT members at National Day of Protest, 8 August; ANU penalty rates campaign poster; ANU Library staff.

Top: Christmas in July event at ANU.

page 34 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

Participants from ANU, UC and ACU attended two sessions of Recruitment Training across 26 and 27 April 2017. Helena Spyrou from Union Education presented the training with Rifai Abdul from the National Office. Participants valued the theoretical overview and practical tips as well as the opportunity to put their skills into practice at ANU.

Round 7 Bargaining ANU The ANU Enterprise Agreement 2013-2016 nominally expired on 30 June 2016.

Although ANU issued a “Notice of Representational Rights” (NRR) to staff on 23 June 2016 to commence bargaining, bargaining meetings with NTEU and other unions did not commence until late February 2017.

NTEU and ANU bargaining teams have been meeting fortnightly and have had positive discussions regarding parental leave, domestic violence leave and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander employment provisions.

A number of campaigns were run from mid-2017, notably campaigning against the abolition of Christmas leave and the extension of the span-of-hours in the University Libraries. These campaigns were positively received by members and a “Christmas in July” event was very well attended.

In addition to enterprise bargaining at ANU, the ANU College Agreement expires in 2017. Bargaining will commence there soon.

Student Associations of the ANU Enterprise Agreement 2016-2019 An Enterprise Agreement covering the student associations at ANU was finalised in late 2016. The Australian National University Student Association (ANUSA) had had an Enterprise Agreement that nominally expired in 2000. ANUSA was keen to update their Agreement. The Agreement was extended to cover the

other student associations for the first time, namely the Postgraduate and Research Students Association (PARSA) and Australian National University Student Media Inc.

School of Culture, History & Language The long-running School of Culture, History and Language (CHL) dispute at ANU drew to a close in 2017. NTEU maintained that the University failed to adequately explain the rationale behind job losses in the School, but the internal dispute resolution processes did not bear this out. This matter highlighted the shortcomings of the current Enterprise Agreement and forms the basis of claims in the new bargaining round for ‘fair and transparent’ criteria in the selection of positions for redundancy.

UC Quarterly meetings have been held with UC management to discuss implementation of the University of Canberra Enterprise Agreement 2015-2018.

Two major issues emerged at UC across the last year. Firstly the new Agreement introduced a new Performance Development and Review (PDR) process.

Following its introduction in 2016 NTEU had a significant number of complaints raised by members. Many of these complaints pointed to breaches of policy, of procedure and of principles of procedural fairness.

NTEU raised these concerns with new VC Professor Deep Saini and called on the VC to undertake a review of the PDR process.

A review was conducted and resulted in the PDR process being ‘paused’ for 2017.

UC launched a ‘Curriculum Review’ Project in 2017 to rationalise subjects and courses.

We continue to monitor this project amid concerns that it will lead to job losses.

Also in 2017, UC staff learnt that they were not getting a pay ‘bonus’. ACT Division Secretary Rachael Bahl wrote about UC’s continuing pay ‘experiment’ in Advocate, vol. 24 no.2 (p. 12).

University of Canberra College (UCC) The influence of majority shareholder Navitas has been felt more widely in the College this year. NTEU has raised three disputes with UCC over the last 12 months.

The UCC Enterprise Agreement expires in December 2017. Bargaining will commence soon.

UNSW Canberra ACT Division continues to liaise with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Branch over how best to support our members at UNSW Canberra (ADFA).

While ADFA has been largely immune to plans from management in Kensington in the past, the strategic ‘vision’ of UNSW is now affecting staff across the university and all its campuses and requires coordinated responses.

ACU We welcomed the appointment of a new national organiser for ACU in late 2016. Josh Andrews is based in the NSW Division office. Josh has attended ACU Canberra twice this year, including a wellattended lunch meeting where the ACU log of claims was endorsed. Bargaining is due to commence at ACU in coming weeks.

Industrial ACT Division staff continue to represent individual member interests in industrial matters at all workplaces across the Division.

Public Advocacy and Campaigns NTEU has been active in a range of areas. We hosted well-attended events for the NTEU National Day of Protest on 8 August 2017, with Andrew Leigh (Member for Fenner) speaking at the University of Canberra event and Gai Brodtmann (Member for Canberra) speaking at ANU .

Gai Brotmann raised the issue in Parliament and WIN TV covered the event.

We have made greater efforts to engage with other unions and advocacy organisations on a range of issues.

At ANU we collaborated with the undergraduate and postgraduate student associations for some events (ANUSA & PARSA). We have been engaged with activities through UnionsACT and the ACTU. We have taken an active role in engaging with Unionists for Refugees in the ACT, including participating in the ‘Unionists for Refugees’ session at the Australian Refugee Action Network (ARAN) conference held in Canberra on 20 May 2017. Members continue to be well represented at Refugee Rallies including the Palm Sunday Rally.

This year also saw participation in the Women’s March (21 January 2017) and the March for Science (22 April 2017). Blue stocking Week events were well attended including the inaugural ACT Trivia Night.

General issues and staffing We were pleased to move into new premises in the Anthony Low Building at ANU in February 2017 after 14 months in temporary offices.

Division Organizer Tim McCann resigned in June 2017. We successfully recruited to fill the position and Dr Lachlan Clohesy was appointed in July 2017. nteu.org.au/act

•

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 35

NSW Division NSW Division Secretary is Michael Thomson.

Division President is Sarah Kaine, Division Vice-Presidents are Kate Mitchell (General) and Margaret Sims (Academic).

Staff are Joshua Gava (Senior Industrial Officer), Jeane Wells, Kobie Howe, Lance Dale, Simon Kempton, Tamara Talmacs (Industrial Officers), Gabe Kavanagh (Industrial Organiser), Paul Doughty (Senior Organiser), Nagida Clark (Media, Communications and Campaigns Organiser), Josh Andrews, Kevin Poynter, Melanie Hood, Sean O’Brien, Jenny Whittard, Lisa Roberts, Trevor Smith, Kiraz Janicke, Martin Cubby, Cat Coghlan, Kaylene Field, Roberta Stewart, Hani Masri, Richard Bailey, Amity Lynch, Sharon Bailey and Dylan Griffiths (Branch Organisers), Kerrie Barathy (Executive Officer), Sharon Muddle (Executive Officer Admin), Ben Simson (Growth Team).

The NSW Division represents over 7,730 members at 11 NSW public universities: Charles Sturt University, Macquarie University, University of New England, University of NSW, University of Newcastle, Southern Cross University, University of Sydney, University of Western Sydney, University of Wollongong and the University of Technology, Sydney and two campuses of the Australian Catholic University.

NTEU NSW was a vibrant and growing division in 2017, thanks in part to a flurry of new Branch Committee members taking the reins in late 2016, as well as the commencement of Round 7 bargaining.

Organising and Membership Training and Development

Images (L–R): University of Newcastle on National Day of Action, 8 August; Michael Thomson, Sarah Kaine and UTS Branch Committee member Sarah Attfield celebrating UTS’ successful PAB result at the 2017 Delegates Conference; Strike on Open Day at USyd; SCU Lismore members’ Post Party held when posting their surveys in support of marriage equality.

Top: A 500-strong members meeting votes to accept inprinciple the new agreement at USyd.

page 36 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

The NSW Division continues to work towards its objective of a trained NTEU delegate in every workplace. While getting local union activists to make the commitment of time necessary to attend formal training continues to be a challenge, numerous opportunities were provided throughout the year to entice the maximum number of workplace delegates and activists to attend training.

A majority of Branches in NSW also elected new Branch Presidents. The Division Secretary with Division staff visited nine of the ten Branches over November 2016 to February 2017 and

participated in Branch planning and committee orientation.

With assistance of national office, full-day negotiations training was delivered to two groups of Branch bargaining teams prior to negotiations commencing at those universities. The Division developed and delivered training on principles of winning campaigns to activists from five Branches.

The General and Professional staff Conference was held in May under the theme “Valuing our Professionalism”. The conference addressed “their vision” and “our vision” for universities and strategies to defend and improve rights of general and professional staff. Much discussion focussed on the constant and disruptive restructuring towards the sector-wide trend of centralisation of the general and professional staff function. The conference heard from Branches such as UNSW who had achieved significant growth amongst professional staff through organising and member education around these restructures.

Regular 3-hour delegates training sessions continued to be offered and delivered at Branches and in the Division office.

Our 2017 Delegates Conference was held at Sydney Trades Hall in September with the theme “Stand Up, Fight Back!”, a fitting theme given the then recent Murdoch decision and trend towards more aggressive approaches from employers toward bargaining. 60 delegates heard from keynote speakers including ACTU President Ged Kearney on the Union movement’s Change the Rules campaign, and Adam Kerslake, formerly of Unions NSW and now the Organising Director

for Professionals Australia, on successful strategies for growth. Campaign strategist Jason Mogus talked about the Fight for $15 as a directed network campaign by video-linked presentation from Vancouver.

NTEU’s Rifai Abdul and Paul Kniest presented workshops, as did Bec Muratore from the ACTU on a delegate’s role in building power in their workplace.

While Sydney and UTS Branches recorded the strongest growth, both around 10 per cent, steady growth was achieved by almost all other Branches. Growth in private providers continued, most notably among staff at the Australian Institute of Music where we welcomed over 30 new members. At the time of writing, NSW Division membership has grown by 6.4 per cent since 1 January 2017.

Round 7 bargaining Branches in NSW have had some success in using the processes of bargaining to grow in numbers and in activism.

At least five protected action ballots will have been conducted by the 7 Branches currently bargaining before the beginning of November. Those conducted by the time of writing comfortably achieved the required thresholds for the questions to be carried.

This can be credited to one-on-one contact networks of workplace delegates and

activists developed by Branch organisers over many months previously. For example, the University of Sydney had 87 volunteers with the responsibility of contacting a specific list of their colleagues one-on-one. This organising work was supplemented by the team effort of staff to give the return a kick-along late in the ballot period. Follow up with these contact networks to transition them into recognition as workplace delegates could provide the Union with much stronger workplace structures, and therefore the ability to retain membership levels.

At the University of Sydney, a meeting attended by 450-500 Branch members in September carried a resolution, following debate, to accept management’s offer in-principle. This decision followed seven months of bargaining and two strikes.

This in-principle settlement included: 2.1 per cent per year pay rises; additional increases for low and middle-paid staff and casuals; the right for casual academics to be paid for the preparation component for lectures and tutorials they were unable to deliver due to illness; and extended the right to redeployment where positions are made redundant.

Public Advocacy and Campaigns On 6 August 2017, NSW Branches took part in the “Pay More, Get Less” Day of action.

Rallies and events took place across all NSW campuses to draw attention to the Turnbull Government’s proposed cuts to higher education.

NTEU NSW continued its involvement in the Sydney Alliance. ACU’s John Sinclair continued as co-chair of the leaders’ council, and a group of NTEU members were actively engaged in the Alliance’s affordable housing campaign.

The NSW Division celebrated Bluestocking Week with a feminist trivia night, raising money for Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia (R&DVSA). 60 people gathered at Sydney’s historic Trades Hall to test their knowledge on iconic women and feminist achievements, set to a playlist of feminist tunes. Our MC for the night was Suzanne Jamieson, who was presented with her NTEU life membership on the evening. Attendees raised $1,000 to help R&DVSA provide 24/7 telephone counselling services for anyone in Australia who has experienced or is at risk of sexual violence, family or domestic violence and their non-offending supporters. Branches also organised Bluestocking events.

NTEU NSW supported the Tenants’ Union “Make Renting Fair” campaign. The campaign has led to this being a real issue at the next NSW election. nteu.org.au/nsw

•

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 37

NT Division NT Division Secretary is Lolita Wikander.

Division President is Darius Pfitzner, Division Vice-Presidents are Rajeev Sharma (Academic) and Sylvia Klonaris (General).

Division staff are Heinz Schmitt (Industrial Officer) and Delia Lawrie (Organiser).

The NT Division represents over 400 members at Charles Darwin University (CDU) and Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE), as well as the Central Australian Remote Health Development Service and the Menzies School of Health Research.

Recruitment & Membership Training and Development The NT Division has again reached a new all-time membership high. There was an initial increase in membership numbers around the end of 2016. The main work area that saw an increase in numbers was the Charles Darwin University Waterfront campus. This was largely due to the efforts of our Division President Darius Pfitzner and elected officers based at the Waterfront campus.

Numbers then began to rise further with the employment of a second staff member, NT Division Organiser, Delia Lawrie, who works part-time alongside our experienced Industrial Officer Heinz Schmitt. After an initial rise following Delia’s employment, we saw a further spike in membership growth in conjunction with industrial developments at Batchelor institute and a CDU restructure.

Images (L–R): NTEU contingent at May Day 2017; Belinda and Louisa in the NT photoframe at IDAHOBIT 2017; IDAHOBIT flyer; Marriage equality Enrol to Vote stall at CDU Open Day; CDU member Hannah Reedy supporting the Pay More Get Less action.

Top: Bluestocking Week morning tea at CDU.

page 38 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

The CDU and Batchelor bargaining teams participated in routine bargaining training delivered by national office early 2017.

In addition to this additional training of delegates and interested members took place. The additional training focused

on contentious sections of the current agreement and the bargaining process.

Issues were discussed and explored from a local perspective.

Round 7 Bargaining The CDU Agreement expired in December 2016. Bargaining was anticipated to start around October 2016 but was delayed by CDU management as the department was going through a restructure. Bargaining finally commenced in May. Meetings were initially scheduled fortnightly and progress was very slow. At the time of this report the frequency of meetings had increased to two-to-three a week and management have indicated that they wish to have the process completed by October 2017.

Batchelor institute bargaining commenced mid-year but was deferred due to a management representative is outside work injuries and is now put on hold until February 2018 to allow for an Interim Management Committee and Joint Consultative Group process to stabilise operations and finances.

Public Advocacy & Campaigns An inaugural IDAHOBIT Day was successfully held at CDU. This was a welcome addition to our calendar of events. It included partnerships with Family Planning Welfare Assoc. of the NT, the NT Aids & Hepatitis Council, Rainbow Territory, Headspace Darwin, Drag Territory, Northside Health NT and the NTEU Women’s Action Committee.

Organisers Dr Belinda Chaplin (a woman of trans experience) and Louisa Manning-

Watson (an LGBTI ally) held a lunchtime function with guest speakers and a Drag Queen show from local entertainer Vogue MegaQueen.

to demonstrate the Federal Government’s proposed higher education cuts. CDU faces up to $63 million in cuts if the proposed Bill goes ahead.

The NT Division Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Forum was convened by A&TSI IPC member Shane Motlap and was held at Batchelor Institute. It included a training workshop on bullying and harassment run by NT Division Council member Louisa Manning-Watson. Our A&TSI attendance doubled in numbers from last year with nearly 20 participating in a day of empowerment.

The event was attended by concerned staff and students, the media, a representative of the Minister for Education and four other Unions. The event received local radio, television and newspaper coverage.

Bluestocking Week morning tea CDU staff were once again treated to a Blue Stocking high tea. NT WAC representatives Sylvia Klonaris and Donelle Cross went to great effort to organise the event and displays across our CDU campus libraries. The Morning Tea was our best attended event to date with about 80 attendees and featured a speech

by Dr Sue Stanton. The theme for this year’s event was Celebrating Indigenous Women in Academia. Dr Stanton gave an inspirational speech and Members enjoyed the networking opportunity with a fantastic catered spread.

National Day of Action/Save our CDU More than 70 people attended a rally at the front of the CDU Casuarina campus

We followed up the protest with information to Members urging everyone to contact their federal representatives and ask them to oppose the Bill.

CDU Open Day Enrol to Vote YES campaign We took advantage of the CDU Open Day to work alongside ACTU campaigners to enrol people to vote Yes in the Federal Government’s postal survey on Same Sex Marriage. More than 30 Australian Electoral Commission enrolment forms were completed and posted prior to the cut-off date as a result of this activity. We promoted the NTEU vote Yes campaign and received overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Batchelor Institute Industrial Dispute A series of all-staff meetings were held following management’s announcement that contracts expiring prior to the end of this year would not be renewed due

to a budget situation. The NTEU led union action on the ground at Batchelor achieved an extension of all contracts to the end of this year to enable a union/ management Joint Consultative Group to work through issues. We also achieved an advisory role on the Institute’s Interim Management Committee which will oversight all operational and financial decisions.

The Institute’s CEO tendered his resignation and an interim CEO has been appointed. Batchelor Institute Council intend to advertise for a permanent CEO before the end of 2017. The dispute brought together organising to recruit members, liaising with unions, negotiating with management and the Council and highlighting concerns to the Minister for Education.

We are very grateful for the industrial support we received from our National Office and advice from our national Indigenous Policy Committee members and Coordinator. National Policy and Research Coordinator, Paul Kniest kindly stepped in to be the NTEU representative on Batchelor Institute’s Interim Management Committee. nteu.org.au/nt

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NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 39

Queensland Division Qld Division Secretary is Michael McNally.

Division Assistant Secretary is Brad Astbury Division President is Andrea LamontMills. Division Vice President (General) is Garry McSweeney. Division Vice-President (Academic) is Leonie Barnett.

Staff are Barb Williams (Division Organiser), Lachlan Hurse (State Organiser), Noeline Rudland, Bill Danby, Robert Rule, Rohan Hilton (Division Industrial Officers), Phil Mairu (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Officer), Narelle Maxton, Angela Scheers, Dan Coughlan, David Szumer, Ivan Phillips, Peter Whalley-Thompson, Narelle Maxton, Stewart de Lacy-Leacey (Branch Organisers), and Erin Campbell (Growth Recruiter).

The Queensland Division represents nearly 3,800 members at seven Queensland public universities: University of Queensland, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology, James Cook University, Central Queensland University, University of Southern Queensland and the University of the Sunshine Coast.

The Division also has members at the Brisbane (Banyo) Campus of the Australian Catholic University, Bond University, and various private providers of higher education across the State.

Round 6 Implementation Current Enterprise Agreements are being implemented through: • The joint management-union consultative committees which are required by our Agreements (and other specialised committees such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment committees).

Images (L–R): Bluestocking Week panel at Griffith; QUTE at Queensland Pride March, September 2017; JCU members on National Day of Protest, 8 August; Peter Ong, ETU State Secretary.

Top: Division Secretary, Michael McNally (with flag) and QUT members and students at the NUS National Protest against the budget cuts.

page 40 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

• An education and training program for educating members about their rights and entitlements, provided through workplace workshops and universityspecific factsheets.

• Enforcement of entitlements and conditions through the Fair Work Commission and the Federal Court.

Round 7 Bargaining Bargaining has now been underway at James Cook University (JCU) since April 2016. Negotiations are ongoing. The Division reached in-principle agreement with Central Queensland University for a new Enterprise Agreement on 21 August 2017.

Bargaining continued throughout 2016-17 at James Cook University (commenced in April 2016). Management sought to move to a non-union ballot at the end of November, but were convinced to continue negotiations. Industrial action is continuing.

Negotiations at Griffith have been underway in earnest since 22 February 2017 and at UQ since late March. Bargaining has recently commenced at QUT but it is in its very early stages.

Public Advocacy & Campaigns The Division has been involved in a number of campaigns, both independently and through the Queensland Council of Unions.

Of note have been campaigns around Refugees and Marriage Equality.

We have also been lobbying the State ALP Government over proposed changes to university governing bodies legislative, currently before the parliament, that legislation would reduce the number of elected staff representatives on university councils and senates. To date the lobbying has proved unsuccessful with changes proceeding, at JCU in the first instance.

Membership Growth & Development Membership has been steady over the 2016-17 Financial Year, with a high of 3800 and a low of 3690. The figure at 30 June 2017 was 3730. As in 2015/16 the departure of members over and above the demographic aging of our membership profile can be partly explained by significant Voluntary Early Retirement schemes (most notably at QUT and Griffith) and restructuring.

On the positive side the Division recruited 766 members during the financial year.

The education and training program for members has continued in areas including: Redundancy; Job Security; Supporting Fellow Members and Welcome to the Union New Member Forums and Lunches.

Strengthening of NTEU Structures & Systems Branches are attempting to formalise and strengthen delegates and activist networks, often in conjunction with enterprise bargaining campaigns. nteu.org.au/qld

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NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 41

SA Division SA Division Secretary is Ron Slee.

Division President is Felix Patrikeef (to 21 August 2017), Division Vice-Presidents are Rod Crewther (Academic) and Peter Cardwell (General). Division Assistant Secretary is Julie Petticrew.

Division staff are Cheryl Baldwin, Annie Buchecker, Kathy Harrington (Division Industrial Officers), Juliet Fuller, Kieran McCarron, John Pezy (Branch Organisers), and Donna Good (Division Administration Officer).

The South Australian (SA) Division represents over 2,000 members at three SA public universities: University of Adelaide, University of South Australia (UniSA) and Flinders University.

Recruitment & Membership Training and Development The SA Division increased its membership during 2017 by just over 2%. This is short of our 5% end of year target but recruitment and retention plans are in place at each Branch to improve growth. Attrition has been high at Adelaide and Flinders because of redundancy packages following restructures. Most members who leave the Union are retiring or leaving the sector but every resignation has been checked

by Branch Committees and Organisers to ensure we make every effort to minimise attrition.

Every effort has also been made to meet with new members, to hand over their welcome pack and discuss with them the role they can play in the Union, including encouraging their colleagues to join.

Images (L–R): Nick Warner, Kent Getsinger, Ron Slee and Virginie Masson protesting against budget cuts; Christopher Davis at National Day of Action; Kieran McCarron and Priya Chako recruiting members at Adelaide Branch Donut Stall; Virginie Masson and Julie Petticrew at Bluestocking Dinner.

Top: Andrew Miller, Adela Alfonsi, Benito Cao, Kent Getsinger, Kieran McCarron, Juliet Fuller, Nick Warner, Suzanne Franzway & Alexandra Diamond at 2017 May Day Rally.

page 42 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

In addition to Branch plans involving cold calls, we have conducted recruitment campaigns around university restructures producing job cuts and clumsy attempts by management to introduce ‘teaching specialist’ positions.

These plans and campaigns have been developed with support from recruitment training for staff and elected officers run

by Rifai Abdul and Helena Spyrou and supplemented by follow-up visits from Growth Team Organisers.

Staff and Elected Officials also participated in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Competency Training run on 18 August by Adam Frogley and Celeste Liddle.

34 women attended the all-day Leadership Seminar launching the pilot Women’s Mentoring Program in SA on 30 March.

The presentations, discussions and feedback were very positive and a followup mentorship orientation facilitated

by Helena Spyrou was held on 3 July.

This provided mentoring guidelines and an opportunity for the paired mentors/ mentees to develop their engagement on a professional but informal basis over the forthcoming months.

Round 7 Enterprise Bargaining and Implementation of Round 6 Agreements Adelaide Branch has been engaged in Round 7 bargaining all year. The current Enterprise Agreement expired on 31 March 2017. Our Log of Claims was submitted on 6 April following a series of meetings with members held on each campus. So far, there have been seven formal negotiation meetings.

Flinders Branch served its Log of Claims on 21 June. On the same day, it wrote to the VC seeking appropriate resourcing and protocols to progress bargaining.

Its Enterprise Agreement expired on 30 June and the first formal meeting of the bargaining teams is expected in September.

The UniSA Enterprise Agreement does not expire until 31 March 2018.

and spoke passionately of her principles and legacy.

The implementation of Round 6 Enterprise Agreements has been patchy. The targets for Scholarly Teaching Fellows have been reached at Flinders and exceeded at UniSA but not achieved at Adelaide. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment has fallen short of target at each university. At all three universities, academic workload models have been established but not always adhered to, while the EA outcomes for professional staff support has had limited success.

Julie accepted her award as a leading representative of all the unionists who volunteered to campaign against the sitting Liberal member for Hindmarsh at the Federal election in July last year.

Hindmarsh was the only electorate in SA targeted by the ACTU. The campaign was successful, unseating the incumbent with a primary vote swing against him of 5.8% but our campaign turned out to be crucial because the Coalition lost Hindmarsh by only 1,140 votes, a mere 0.58% margin.

Public Advocacy and Campaigns Our annual Blue Stocking Dinner attracted a full house of 90 this year.

With Celeste Liddle as guest speaker, the Dinner celebrated the historic struggles and achievements of women in higher education and raised funds for the SA Working Women’s Centre, a community based non-profit organisation managed by a committee of volunteers which supports women employees whatever their age, ethnicity or work status, by providing a free and confidential service on work related issues.

In December 2016, two of our stalwart activists, Clare McCarty and Julie Petticrew, received awards from SA Unions.

Clare was recognised posthumously for her contribution to the Union Movement in SA over more than 40 years. SA Division NTEU proudly nominated her for this honour and, on the night, her husband Douglas McCarty (also an NTEU activist at Flinders) proudly accepted it on her behalf

Another key campaign focus this year has been to oppose a Bill to cut elected staff representation on University Council at Adelaide and Flinders. It was introduced to State Parliament in December 2016. If it is passed, elected staff positions will be halved from four to two. Branches have run coordinated campaigns against these cuts including meetings with the Education Minister and other key MPs and Legislative Councillors, writing letters to all Members of Parliament, backgrounding local media, and assisting students to lobby on their own behalf (their representation would also be reduced). We also had lobbying support from SA Unions.

Our goal is to have the Bill amended in the Legislative Council.

Other public campaigns we have lent our support to include dedicated leave entitlement for victims of family violence, White Ribbon rallies, International Women’s Day, jobs and safety rallies opposing the passage of Federal ABCC (and Building Code) legislation, annual May Day Parade (SA Division is affiliated to the May Day Committee), Palm Sunday

Walk for Justice, SA Unions National Day of Action against the Coalition’s vision for Australia entrench inequality across our community, NUS rallies in opposition to the increasing costs of education imposed on students, and to the FWC decision to cut penalty rates.

We also participated in a memorial event to commemorate the anniversary of Dr George Duncan’s death. Dr Duncan’s manslaughter in 1972 remains a tragic event in South Australia’s history, and the perpetrators have never been brought to justice. The memorial for George Duncan, who was a Law academic at the University of Adelaide, serves as a focus for legal and other reforms affecting the LGBTQI community that have been achieved in SA over the last 45 years. It also highlights the many cultural and legal changes still to be won. IDAHOBIT Day on 11 May gave us another opportunity to draw attention to these challenges.

On 10 May, the Adelaide Branch held a public seminar on Selling Students Short.

80 university staff, students and members of the public attended this lively panel discussion featuring National President Jeannie Rea, author Richard Hil, Flinders academics Heather Fraser and Nik Taylor, former Greens Senator Robert Simms and Adelaide SRC President Mark Pace. One day after the Federal Budget had been delivered in Canberra in which public investment in higher education was cut and university students were unfairly targeted to pay more for less, this event was a timely and important focus on the state of our sector nationally and internationally. nteu.org.au/sa

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NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 43

Tasmanian Division Tas Division Secretary is Kelvin Michael.

Division President is John Kenny (from April 2017). Division Vice-Presidents are Janine Tarr (Academic) and Jenny Smith (General).

Division staff are Emma Gill (Division Industrial Officer), Shannon Harwood (Division Organiser) and Deborah Wilson (Division Organiser, to Feb 2017).

The Tasmanian Division represents almost 700 members at the University of Tasmania (UTAS).

The membership at 1 July 2016 was 642 (392 academic, 250 professional) and it had grown to 679 by 30 June 2017 (407 academic, 272 professional), which represents a growth of 5.8% for the 2016/2017 year.

The Tasmanian Division has experienced another busy year, dominated by the build-up to and engagement in Round 7 bargaining, and by strong results in recruitment.

The recruitment was driven by the consistent activity of the organising staff coupled with a strong focus on member engagement in the lead-up to and through the process of collective bargaining.

In addition, we continued successful initiatives to boost recruitment (pay rise leaflet, rewards for signing on as a member, rewards for delegates who signed up a new member).

Following the failure to elect either a Division President or a Vice-President (Academic Staff) in the 2016 elections, the Division was subsequently thrown into some disarray when the Division Secretary took a period of personal leave from August 2016 to April 2017. Vice-President (General Staff) Jenny Smith was appointed as the Acting Division Secretary. Staff and officials from the National Office also provided some direct support for some functions, and the staff of the Division also shouldered a greater load.

In May 2017, following a round of secondary elections, John Kenny became Division President and Janine Tarr became VicePresident (Academic Staff).

Deborah Wilson, who had been employed as a Division Organiser based in the north of Tasmania, tendered her resignation in February 2017.

Recruitment & Membership Training & Development

Images (L–R): May Day rally 2017; Rally outside Eric Abetz office to oppose penalty rates cuts; People over Property campaign.

Top: Newnham campus bargaining

page 44 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

Recruitment has been a priority for the Division, noting the decision of the 2016 National Council meeting to set growth targets of 5% across the Union as a whole.

Round 7 Bargaining Bargaining for a new Agreement commenced in August 2016. Initially, it was hoped that the bargaining process at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) would be completed in a few months, as both management and unions expressed a desire for rapid agreement.

The Division took a deliberate step to include two activists in the bargaining team who had established political and negotiating skills prior to their employment at UTAS, but had not previously participated in NTEU bargaining – this move proved to be very effective, both in terms of bringing members’ issues directly to the bargaining table and in terms of enhancing the rapport between the bargaining team and the broader membership.

A great number of negotiation meetings occurred between August and November 2016 - the local bargaining team was assisted

by Matt McGowan (National Assistant Secretary) and Wayne Cupido (National Industrial Officer) at most meetings.

Despite the hard work and commitment of our bargaining team, bargaining did not wrap up quickly, and has still not been resolved by the end of September 2017!

One key point of difference has been that UTAS management have been fixated on introducing a separate Agreement to cover a new category of employee to teach into (expanding) associate degree programs.

NTEU bargainers have been resolute in insisting on a single Agreement for all UTAS staff, and genuinely prepared to accommodate a new category of employee into a redrafted version of the current Agreement.

Public Advocacy & Campaigns Bargaining The primary area of campaigning has been in support of collective bargaining. In order to draw attention to the willingness of UTAS to spend big on property and corporate sponsorship, we held events asking management to value its people over property. Members, non-members and students attended BBQs on the two largest campuses (Sandy Bay and Newnham) to

write a message to the Vice-Chancellor on a person-shaped sticker, and then apply it to a cardboard house. These decorated houses were popular with members, and photogenic for the media.

In May 2017, it was announced that UTAS Vice-Chancellor Peter Rathjen had secured the top job at the University of Adelaide.

Both to wish him well, and to prompt him to complete UTAS bargaining before his departure, we printed a batch of postcards with a relevant message. The postcards were distributed to members who were encouraged to personalise the message and send it to the V-C. The Division has also engaged with State and Federal politicians to discuss the progress of negotiations at UTAS. This has been an enriching process, and we have received much support for our claims, particularly in the areas of job security and family violence.

Bluestocking Week In collaboration with NUS and the TUU Women’s Collective, the Division ran a number of activities to focus on improved security for women on UTAS campuses. We screened The Hunting Ground in Hobart, ran a number of catered events for staff and students, collected donations for the Hobart Women’s Shelter, and held a quiz night in Launceston.

A Student and Staff Safety Petition was developed to raise awareness of the high prevalence of sexual harassment, assault and violence at universities, and to empower students and staff (particularly those who are survivors) to have their voices heard and to be supported. Over 250 signatures were collected, and the petition was presented to the Vice-Chancellor. nteu.org.au/tas

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May Day After many years missing from the Tasmanian union calendar, the May Day March was recently revived in the streets of Hobart. This year the NTEU had a significant turnout at the March, and was the envy of many other Tasmanian unions!

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 45

Victorian Division Vic Division Secretary is Colin Long.

Division President is Paul Adams, Division Vice-Presidents are Kerrie Saville (Academic) and Tony Lad (General).

Division staff are Linda Gale (Senior Industrial Officer), Emma Barnes, Rob Binnie, Josh Cullinan (to Jan 2017),Clare Danaher, Margaret Maloney, Stan Rosenthal, Rhidian Thomas, Gia Underwood (Division Industrial Officers), Janet Bourke (Division Industrial Organiser), Miranda Jamieson, Corey Rabaut (Division Organisers), Russel Baader (to July 2017), Linda Cargill, Chloe Gaul, Anna Gunn, Lisbeth Latham, Serena O’Meley, Jesse Page, Garry Ryan, Liz Schroeder (Branch Industrial Organisers), Steve Horton, Hayden Jones, Dave Willis (Branch Organisers), Toby Cotton (Campaigns & Communications Officer), Gaurav Nanda (Recruitment & Campaign Organiser), Adrienne Bradley (Admin Officer/Executive Support), Noel Gardiner Admin Officer/ Industrial), Dustin Halse (Recruitment & Campaign Organiser, to May 2017), and Member Organisers Lachlan Clohesy (to May 2017) and Jo Taylor (to June 2017).

Images (L–R): Victorian Division Ball, October 2016; Melbourne Uni bargaining poster; Palm Sunday Walk for Justice for Refugees; Supercasuals bargaining at Deakin in March; Pay More Get Less at Monash.

Top: National Stop the War on Workers rally, March 2017.

page 46 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

Victorian Division represents nearly 9,700 members at nine public universities: Deakin, Federation University Australia, La Trobe, Melbourne, Monash, RMIT, Swinburne and Victoria University and the Melbourne and Ballarat campuses of Australian Catholic University.

This year has again been a challenging one for NTEU. We are well and truly in the midst of bargaining in universities and TAFE Colleges, and face serious threats from a deeply anti-union government that is also determined to cut university funding. Financial pressures are beginning to manifest in some universities as the demand-driven system matures and enrolments moderate, although it would be difficult to believe if you were only examining the trajectory of vice-chancellor salaries. There is a growing divide between universities at the top of the tree and those at the bottom.

The managerial and corporatist agenda continues apace in most universities, with an increasing number of senior managers coming from outside the sector and university councils dominated by business people. There are increasing pressures to maximise and commercialise research, expand the number of teaching-only roles, outsource or centralise key professional staff roles, and intensify workloads.

Meanwhile, the Union’s agenda around increasing the amount of secure work is having some success, despite concerted resistance from managers.

Over the course of the year, the Victorian Division continued to play an important role in broader union and social movement activities.

Recruitment & Membership Training & Development Union membership growth was a tale of two halves. The end of 2016 saw good growth, much of which was lost in the first six months of 2017. However, growth has picked up very substantially as the new financial year commences.

In the context of aggressive employers and an industrial system that is heavily biased against unions – indeed, the ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus, says that we have the ‘harshest system of laws against unions in the OECD’ – as well as moderating growth in employment numbers, any growth in union membership is a great achievement. Much credit should go to our Growth Team, and Branch Organisers, not to mention Branch Committee members and other activists.

The high level of activity occurring at most Branches – thanks to our Organisers, Industrial Officers, Branch Presidents and activists – is the fundamental underpinning of membership growth.

One great success story of the last several years is the Super Casuals campaign, which has seen the number of casual members grow substantially in real terms and as a percentage of our overall membership.

This latter point also reflects the growing number of casuals in the sector.

A number of Branches have continued to identify and develop delegates, and two days of delegates training was held in the

Division. Several days of training days for bargaining teams also took place. Delegate identification and development must continue to be a priority for the Union.

Round 7 Bargaining Many university managements continue with an aggressive agenda to weaken discipline procedures, undermine workload protections, and reduce other conditions of employment, while offering low pay rises and resisting much of the Union’s agenda for more secure employment and more reasonable workloads. So far, the worst management attacks have come in other states, particularly WA, but this is not to play down the threat posed by managements of Victorian universities.

We have only managed to achieve a new Agreement at one Victorian university – Deakin – in the first half of the year, and there is considerable evidence that we will not reach satisfactory arrangements elsewhere without considerable fight.

Ensuring that members – not to mention non-members – understand the role that the Union plays in defending and extending workplace rights and entitlements remains a harder struggle than it should be.

Bargaining in the TAFE sector continues in an atmosphere of ongoing muted crisis.

While most TAFEs do not face the level of peril experienced under the previous Coalition State Government, their financial health continues to be tested.

This is because the ALP State Government refuses to fundamentally rethink the TAFE funding system. Contestability of funding has not been wound back, with the result that private providers, many providing sub-standard educational

(and working) experiences, continue to undermine public TAFE institutes. There is evidence that the system is heading back into more serious crisis. It is in this context that the NTEU has been negotiating Agreements for PACCT staff and small numbers of TAFE staff teaching higher education programmes. We have also been involved in the statewide Multi-Employer Agreement for TAFE teachers, and in negotiations for a stand-alone Agreement for Swinburne’s Pathways and Vocational Education area.

Public Advocacy & Campaigns Victorian Division continues to play a major role in wider union activity, including: • Supporting industrial action by other unions, including the CUB dispute.

• The Secretary playing an active role on the Executive of the VTHC. • The Secretary being a member of the Trades Hall and Literary Institute, the government-appointed management committee for Trades Hall, and being involved in the committee overseeing the restoration of the Hall.

• Supporting the activities of Women’s Committee at Trades Hall.

• Supporting the ACTU’s Change the Rules campaign.

Our support for broader social movement causes includes: • Active support for Marriage Equality.

• Continued Involvement in the Asylum Seeker Pilot Pathways Project, which has enabled the placement of young asylum seekers in university places and

work traineeships, with very substantial contributions by the NTEU. • Continued support for the refugee justice movement, including financial and other support for Refugee Action Collective.

• Continued engagement in climate change action, including supporting the campaign against the Adani mine, continued support for Earthworker Cooperative and Cooperative Power Australia, engagement in the broader Just Transitions debate, including playing an important role in the ACTU’s climate action group, as well as membership of the global advisory group of Trade Unions for Energy Democracy.

• We provided support to the Australian Unemployed Workers Union for its annual conference.

• NTEU is partnering with NUW and MEAA in the Fair Australia Overland writing prize.

NTEU and the union movement more broadly face major challenges in the coming years. University employers are more aggressive in their attempts to weaken Collective Agreements, increasingly encouraged by a Federal Government intent on a radical anti-union agenda and cuts to public education and services. The overall political situation remains a significant challenge for progressive forces, and there are many and varied threats to a decent, fair society. Fortunately, the Victorian Division remains in good financial and membership health, with committed staff, activists and members. We will need all the commitment we can get, and more, to continue our struggle for a better Australia. nteu.org.au/vic

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NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 47

WA Division WA Division Secretary is Gabe Gooding.

Division President is Stuart Bunt. Division Vice-President position is vacant, Division Staff are Marty Braithwaite (Senior State Organiser), Alex Cousner (Industrial Officer), Mark Charles and Donna Shepherdson (Division Industrial Organisers), Beth Cole, Ryan Costello, Eileen Glynn and Jayne van Dalen (Branch Organisers).

The Western Australia (WA) Division represents almost 2,500 members at the four WA public universities: University of Western Australia (UWA), Murdoch University, Edith Cowan University (ECU) and Curtin University and the University of Notre Dame Australia. The Division also has members at Navitas and some private colleges.

Recruitment & Membership Training and Development At the time of writing the membership of the WA Division was 2451 a decline of 65 on the same time last year. A significant contributor to this decline was the loss of 300 jobs at UWA and smaller scale restructures at other WA universities.

Images (L–R): NTEU members at the annual May Day celebrations parading the Murdoch Uni Shame banner; WA Bluestocking Week breakfast; Murdoch University members vote to take industrial action in support of a new Enterprise Agreement; Len Hughes and Tom Stewart at UWA on the National Day of Action on 8 August.

Top: “Secure Work is Fair Work” was the bargaining campaign theme sported on the Tshirts of NTEU members on the May Day march.

page 48 • NTEU Annual Report 2017

The Division has completed an ambitious programme of training in the past year, offering courses for Delegates (Stage 1 and 2), Division Council conference, OHS, as well as developing a number of training modules and holding Division-wide delegates’ meetings; as well as conducting Lunch’n’Learn series on campuses covering topics such as Preparing for Enterprise Bargaining, Academic Freedom, Tackling Challenging Workplace Behaviours and Options for those in Fixed-term/insecure employment.

Industrial The WA Division has been intensively bargaining with the four public universities in WA since April 2016. These universities entered with a common agenda and strategy to attack the working conditions of members in WA. While three; UWA, Curtin and ECU, ultimately proved willing to negotiate and compromise, Murdoch alone continued with the hardline approach. This ultimately resulted in the termination of the Murdoch Agreement.

The Union compiled and presented a strong case to the Commission in opposing the termination but it is clear from this decision (and the ones that came before it) that the laws are fundamentally broken and heavily favour the employers.

While Murdoch has given undertakings that commit to maintaining wages and some conditions, a raft of entitlements disappear or are substantially modified on 26 September 2017. The undertakings from the management, which are not enforceable and all but one of which expire in six months time, are clearly a move designed to force the Union and employees to accede to an outcome in bargaining that would be otherwise unacceptable.

The support for the Murdoch Branch and its members from across the country has been very gratefully received and has strengthened the resolve of our members to continue to demand fair working conditions.

Murdoch also continues with its Federal Court action against the Union, the WA

Division Secretary Gabe Gooding and WA Industrial Officer Alex Cousner.

The Division actively supported the following activities:

In better news the Union has negotiated good quality Agreements at UWA that deliver payrises between 5.9% and 9.5%, and has reached in principle settlement at ECU and Curtin.

• Griffin Coal protests by AMWU

The Division would like to thank the General Secretary, Grahame McCulloch, for his active efforts in supporting bargaining in WA. The gruelling travel schedule necessary to maintain this commitment is recognised and greatly appreciated by the bargaining teams and the members.

• WA State Election

Bargaining at Notre Dame will commence later in the year.

The Division maintains a very active social media presence and generates an e bulletin circulated to a subscription list of over 3500 people. These two avenues are the primary vehicle for communication at Division level and are viewed as being influential.

Despite staff shortages, the Division has continued to successfully represent members on a range of matters while bargaining has been underway.

Public Advocacy and Campaigns The vast majority of the Division’s public advocacy and campaigns in the past year have been based around bargaining and lobbying Federal and State politicians on the issues at Murdoch as well as some follow up from changes to State University legislation.

• May Day • Marriage Equality • Change the Rules • State Anti-Protest Legislation (now defeated following the change of State Government)

Communications and Other

I would like to personally thank the bargaining teams for their magnificent support in often trying circumstances and congratulate them for the excellent outcomes achieved, at Curtin: Tony Snow, Sian Flynne, Jonathan Hallett and Corinna Worth and Jonathan Hallett; at ECU: Ute Mueller, Cathy Moore, Anthony Hevron and Nardia Bordas; at UWA: Jamie O’Shea, Stuart Bunt, Sam Green and Sanna Peden; and of course at Murdoch: Anne Price (now resigned), Jo Ann Whalley, Claire Fletcher and Jeremy Northcote.

I would also like to thank the Division Officers and delegates for their support, encouragement and active engagement over the past twelve months. nteu.org.au/wa

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The Division has been under extreme pressure for over 12 months with the intensive bargaining attacks from the employers and some turn-over of staff. The WA Division Staff should be recognised for the work in the past year under what have been difficult circumstances.

NTEU Annual Report 2017 • page 49

nteu.org.au/annualreport