<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"><HTML><HEAD><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8"></HEAD><BODY><DIV><FONT face=Arial><STRONG><FONT size=4>Staff sue uni
over AWAs<BR></FONT></STRONG><FONT size=2>Lisa Macnamara</FONT></FONT><BR><FONT
face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif size=1>15feb06<BR>The
Australian<BR></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT
size=2>VICTORIAN academics will today launch a multimillion-dollar class action
against the University of Ballarat for allegedly misleading staff to encourage
them to sign individual contracts.<BR><BR>Law firm Maurice Blackburn Cashman is
acting for up to 700 academics and general staff at Ballarat, who will be
seeking $7million in damages when they lodge the action in the Federal Court in
Victoria. </FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>They accuse the university
of breaching the Workplace Relations Act by supplying false and misleading
information late last year as an inducement to staff to take up Australian
Workplace Agreements. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>Lawyer Josh Bornstein was
also expected to seek an injunction to stop the university from continuing to
enter into AWAs. "This is not the sort of conduct you'd expect from a university
because universities have a particular role in our culture," Mr Bornstein told
the HES. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>"They have a key function
to perform in our community, which involves robust debate and exchange of
information. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>"Here the university, I
think, has decided to get its hands dirty and engage in some good old-fashioned
propaganda, which is not being frank with its staff about what they're going to
lose if they sign an AWA," he said. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>At issue was the
university's insistence to staff that key employment conditions would be
safeguarded if they moved on to individual contracts. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>But according to the
National Tertiary Education Union and the legal team, staff would lose
entitlements including the right of access to the Industrial Relations
Commission for arbitration and protection against disciplinary action or
termination. They would also be subject to inferior redundancy entitlements.
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>"They [the university] are
withholding from staff proper information about what they will lose if they sign
one of those individual contracts," MrBornstein said. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>Ballarat's outgoing
vice-chancellor Kerry Cox yesterday issued a statement saying staff were
"delighted that the first batches of AWAs had been signed off by the Office of
the Employment Advocate". </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>"The university is now
able to pass on the much-deserved sustainable pay rises, with back pay, to
staff," he said. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>Today's action follows a
tussle between the NTEU and Ballarat over the Government's higher education
workplace relations requirements. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>Ballarat's NTEU branch
president Jeremy Smith, who is the legal action's primary applicant, described
it as being a long time coming. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>"Despite the union being
quite willing to compromise on a number of key issues, the university wouldn't
settle an agreement with us. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>"Now we find ourselves in
a situation where the university will only offer AWAs to deliver pay rises to
staff - and in return for signing an AWA, it's our belief that they are giving
away key employment conditions," Dr Smith said. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>Other universities have
settled or are negotiating enterprise agreements, but Ballarat has so far
failed. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>The union has pointed the
finger at Professor Cox, linking his hardline position with his role as
president of the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association. "We think
that's probably the single most important difference between Ballarat and
elsewhere," Dr Smith said. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>But AHEIA executive
director Ian Argall said there was no connection between his organisation and
Ballarat's position. "The AHEIA has no position [on AWAs], and there's no
suggestion that Kerry's attempting to persuade other universities to do what
he's doing," Mr Argall said. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif><FONT size=2>Mr Bornstein has described
the matter as a test case.</FONT></FONT><BR></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>