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[This is an AAP dispatch. Sorry no URL -- I got it from a mailing
list --- Dion Giles]<br><br>
<font size=3>Concerns over uni industrial agreements <br><br>
September 5, 2005 - 9:54PM<br><br>
A key union has condemned a secret employer request to allow universities
to cancel their industrial agreements if they cannot convince staff to
sign up to the federal government's new tertiary funding deal. <br><br>
Under changes to be introduced into parliament this week, the Higher
Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs) will link $280
million in federal funding to workplace reforms.<br><br>
These conditions include eliminating caps on casual employment and
forcing staff on to individual contracts known as Australian Workplace
Agreements.<br><br>
The Australian Higher Education Industry Association (AHEIA) has
reportedly requested that the government allow universities to cancel
their existing agreement if staff won't agree to the new
arrangements.<br><br>
In a leaked letter reported in The Australian Financial Review, AHEIA
executive director Ian Argall said that adopting the plan without
appropriate safeguards could undermine the government's planned
reforms.<br><br>
"Effectively, this has provided the unions and/or the staff with a
veto over needed government funding for universities," the letter
said.<br><br>
"It is not likely that they will be unaware of the power this will
give them or reluctant to use that power."<br><br>
Mr Argall instead proposed that universities should be able to qualify
for funding if they unilaterally cancelled existing non-compliant
agreements instead of proving they had reached a certified agreement
complying with the new rules.<br><br>
But National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) general secretary Grahame
McCulloch said this course of action would see university staff
conditions slashed.<br><br>
This would include reductions in the minimum salary rates and the loss of
key entitlements in areas such as job security, academic freedom, staff
workloads and parental leave, he said.<br><br>
In addition, he said the cancellation of any agreement would also be
certain to provoke major opposition from staff at any university which
went down this path.<br><br>
"The AHEIA should be defending university independence rather than
using the HEWRRs as a pretext to slash staff entitlements," Mr
McCulloch said.<br><br>
"The AHEIA's plan is totally out of step with the opposition voiced
to the federal government's plan by much of the university sector,
including the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee."<br><br>
The federal government has so far given no indication it is willing to
budge on its new funding requirements.<br><br>
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