Tasmanian Division

www.nteu.org.au/tas

Division Officers Tas Division Secretary: Kelvin Michael Division President: Darren Turner Division Vice-Presidents: Natalia Nikolova (Academic), Rob Anders (General)

Division Staff Division Industrial Officer: Emma Gill Division Organiser: Shannon Harwood (to July 2020) Branch Organiser: Janine Bryan (from Feb 2020) The Tasmanian Division represents over 750 members at the University of Tasmania (UTAS). Like every other Division, the last year has been dominated by the impact of COVID-19 on international student arrivals. Our members at UTAS have been bent, but not broken, by the demands of rapid shifts to online delivery and working from home, while at the same time coping with changes to both academic and professional structures. The industrial focus remained on implementation of the UTAS Staff Agreement, culminating in the negotiation of a variation to the Staff Agreement. The organising activities were centred around member training and delegate recruitment. In February 2020, Matt McGowan visited the Tasmanian Division and partook in the annual Division Council planning process. He spoke to the Division Council about the National leadership’s plans for the direction of the Union. Later in the same month, Division staff met over 2 days to draw up the 2020 work plan based on the priorities expressed by the Division Council. Division leadership continued to hold some meetings with various levels of UTAS management to discuss global or localised issues.

Bargaining & Enforcement In June 2020, UTAS management approached the Tasmanian Division seeking a possible variation of the UTAS Staff Agreement to manage the financial challenges posed by COVID-19. Negotiations were conducted at a very rapid pace, and the proposed Variation was approved by National Executive, and by members at UTAS. The Variation entered into force in July 2020. Since that time, weekly meetings of the COVID-19 Temporary Measures Committee (CTMC) have been convened to provide oversight of the Variation. The greatest impact thus far has been the removal of a 2% pay rise scheduled for July 2020 and a round of voluntary redundancies which will see an expected 150 staff depart from the university’s employment before the end of 2020. On a different note, bargaining for the TUU Staff Agreement, which affects a small number of members employed by the Tasmanian University Union, was concluded after an extremely drawn-out process. The finalisation of the Agreement overlapped with change management applied by TUU management, in response to reduced funding from UTAS to the TUU. Academic workload remains a perennial source of discontent at UTAS. The Tasmanian Division continues to promote the creation and revision of academic workload models across all colleges of UTAS, however the overall sentiment among our academic members is discontentment – which can be traced to dissatisfaction with an existing model and/or frustration re lack of progress towards a new model and/or lack of confidence in the application of any model by line management. In this vein, the Tasmanian Division was successful in re-convening the Academic Workload Consultative Committee, which is

established under the UTAS Staff Agreement to guide the development of workload models and documentation.

Organising Membership growth within the Division has been strong ~ 6.5% for the year, mostly delivered in the second quarter of 2020 – with similar growth patterns for both academic and professional members. The Division is bracing for increased membership losses associated with voluntary redundancies as well as other structural changes in the wind at UTAS. In October 2019, the Division ran a series of member training workshops on academic workloads under the Staff Agreement. These sessions were very useful in terms of explaining the way that the treatment of academic workloads had changed since the previous Staff Agreement, and seeking to empower members to work collegially to the greatest degree possible to achieve positive outcomes. Staff of the Division attended the Unions Tasmania-sponsored Organising for Growth Conference in March 2020 to learn about effective organising strategies and initiatives. Fortuitously, there was a focus on online organising, which quickly became highly relevant as the country entered different stages of lockdown in the ensuing months.

Campaigning The Jobs-Ready Graduate Bill brought by Dan Tehan and the Liberal/National Government placed the focus on the crossbench senators. From August to October 2020, the Tasmanian Division encouraged members and the broader community to contact Senator Jacqui Lambie (Tas) and ask her to block the Bill. Members participated in a zoom meeting with ALP politicians Tanya Plibersek and Senator Louise Pratt, holding large print versions of a national petition with over 16,000 signatures. Members also turned out for a snap action via zoom meeting which encouraged social media contacts with Senator Lambie’s office. The leadership of the NTEU at both national and state level were successful in holding a

meeting with Senator Lambie – the meeting took place one day after she had declared her opposition to the Bill (hooray) and also involved Michele Dowlman (NTEU member) as well as a student activist (Miranda Bennett) and a parent and teacher from the Tasmanian community (Simone McManus). As the sad reality of the Bill’s future became apparent, members of the Tasmanian Division also turned their campaigning energy upon politicians from the South Australian Centre Alliance whose support in the end allowed it to pass – a pox be on their houses!

Media Various sections of the media have been keenly interested in the goings-on at UTAS over the last 12 months.

The impacts of COVID-19 on the finances of the University made headlines, as did the idea of a negotiated variation to the Staff Agreement to address some of the financial stressors. UTAS management have persisted with the moves of campus infrastructure into the centres of Burnie and Launceston, but deferred similar moves into the Hobart CBD due to the current economic situation. The media have also been enthralled with our previous Vice-Chancellor, Peter Rathjen, following his fall from grace at the University of Adelaide and the subsequent revelations of patterns of sexual harassment, including proven allegations from many years earlier and prior to his arrival at UTAS. As the current UTAS Vice-Chancellor seeks to distance himself and other senior staff from the shade of Rathjen, it must be said that his legacy remains, and will continue to affect the operations at the University of Tasmania for many years unless there is a dramatic change in outlook, attitude and direction – which seems very unlikely in today’s world of corporate higher education.

Leadership Renewal After 6 years in the role of Division Secretary, Kelvin Michael will step down prior to 2020 National Council. During the last year, Division Council has been considering the succession process and will make interim arrangements until elections are run. ◆

Images (this page): Fiona McCarthy (UTAS) #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfies, 21 May 2020; UTAS members displaying the Union’s Fund Uni Fairly petition, Sept 2020; Social media graphic thanking Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie for voting against the Job-Ready Graduates Bill.