NTEU proposes a Jobs Protection Framework

Our sector is facing an unprecedented crisis. The drop in international and domestic student enrolments could result in a revenue shortfall of up to $5 billion. Universities Australia estimates up to 30,000 jobs (21,000 FTE) will be lost, without a real rescue package.

So far the Morrison Government has failed to come forward with any meaningful support, and instead have put a sequence of barriers into place to prevent university employees (including long term casuals) from accessing JobKeeper payments.

We will continue to campaign hard, but with no leadership from government we are doing everything we can to save every job we can. That’s why we are trying to negotiate a National Jobs Protection Framework with university employers, which would secure protections for staff that are not currently available under our enterprise agreements or the Fair Work Act. In order to save jobs it is likely that we will need to agree to some short-term amendments to working conditions. Any agreement reached would be time-limited, indicating when existing employment conditions would be re-established.

We want the Framework to include the avoidance of stand-downs without pay; no new external appointments; redundancies to apply only where the work is ceasing permanently; casuals to receive the work where it is still required to be done; and superannuation payments to be maintained. If we can achieve these things then we would consider offsets that allow employers to implement some cost-saving measures in exchange, such as deferral of pay rises, limited fraction reductions and direction to work other duties.

And of course, no agreement will be finalised until members across the country have voted on it. An online meeting of NTEU National Councillors on 24 April endorsed the plan by an 85% majority vote.