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<font size=3>No contract, no job, says Ballarat Uni <br><br>
January 19, 2006<br><br>
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<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/no-contract-no-job-says-ballarat-uni/2006/01/18/1137553651595.html">
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/no-contract-no-job-says-ballarat-uni/2006/01/18/1137553651595.html<br>
<br>
</a></font><font size=3>NEW staff at Ballarat University will have to
sign an individual contract if they want a job.<br><br>
The university has confirmed new workers must sign an Australian
Workplace Agreement, offering terms and conditions already rejected twice
by staff.<br><br>
Vice-chancellor Kerry Cox said it was a condition of employment for new
staff. "Staff don't have to come to this university," he
said.<br><br>
ACTU president Sharan Burrow said the move was proof of the Federal
Government's real agenda to remove the right of workers to collectively
bargain and force them on to AWAs that reduce wages or
conditions.<br><br>
"The new laws just give absolute licence, condoned by the
Government, to employers and public institutions to deny any new
employees basic rights and conditions," she said. "You're going
to potentially have a situation at Ballarat where you have new employees
on conditions that are inferior to those of existing
staff."<br><br>
Professor Cox said the AWA offered better salaries and conditions of
service than staff could expect under a union-negotiated agreement. He
said about 150 of the university's existing 1200 workers had signed an
AWA, and he expected more to follow. Only staff who sign AWAs are given
pay rises, backdated 18 months to when the university's enterprise
bargaining agreement with the union expired.<br><br>
National Tertiary Education Union state secretary Matthew McGowan said
the AWA being offered stripped away important conditions of employment,
including job security.<br><br>
"The terms of the agreements being offered reduce the level of
protection that staff have against summary dismissal," he
said.<br><br>
The new industrial laws were passed last year and come into effect in
March. They remove the "no disadvantage test", which protected
workers from being offered below award conditions when negotiating AWAs
with their employers.<br><br>
<b>MEAGHAN SHAW<br>
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