The University of Canberra has pushed through with its plan to tie staff salaries to Commonwealth funding, despite union threats last week it would initiate strike action.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The National Tertiary Education Union national office intervened in the dispute over the weekend, entering into private talks with UC management and agreeing to endorse the new pay deal which will deliver staff an average 3.3 per cent pay rise a year over the next three years.
UC attempted to bypass the union altogether last week when it sought Fair Work Australia permission to make a wage offer directly to staff.
The controversial aspect of the deal is UC believes it is the first university to seek to peg staff wages to Commonwealth income through the Higher Education Grants Index which is based on a combination of the Professional, Scientific and Technical wage index (75 per cent) and the Consumer Price Index (25 per cent).
The NTEU ACT division last week described the move as “unprecedented across Australia’s industrial relations landscape” and accused management of being wildly provocative.
ACT division secretary Stephen Darwin said the union would consider seeking a ballot for protected action through Fair Work Australia and would launch a campaign urging staff to vote no to the offer.
The union’s main concern was that the pay deal would tie staff to an unknown figure in its final year as the index has not been calculated for 2015 and that staff would be “taking management on trust”.
Mr Darwin said on Monday that the weekend negotiations had allowed the agreement to be shortened to define the final year pay rise – removing any uncertainty or risk for staff.
“That was a very significant issue for us. And while there are certainly some things we don’t like about this agreement, on balance we believe it is a good deal to take to staff.”
UC Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Nick Klomp said he had been contacted by the NTEU General Secretary Grahame McCulloch over the weekend to negotiate over the ACT office.
“We continued to get resistance to a truly innovative pay deal at the local level so we went directly to staff, and then the national office intervened.”
Professor Klomp said he believed the union would have been embarrassed and sidelined by the outcome as he was confident staff would have overwhelmingly voted for the deal.
“The feedback we have had from staff has been overwhelmingly positive and they are very excited about the pay rise. The national office believed that it was also a good deal for staff.”
Salaries will increase by 3.9 per cent in 2013, incorporating 2 per cent already paid in May 2013 and backdating to January. A further 3 per cent will be paid in January 2014. Under the new proposal it is only the January 2015 payment which is now dependent on the Index projection and on the best available current forecasting, the University and the NTEU estimate a probable outcome of around 2.4 per cent.
Professor Klomp said this would ensure UC salaries remained in the top third of Australian universities and would continue to be higher than salaries at the Australian National University.
A salary for an assistant professor at the top of the salary range will go from $117,325 a year in the final pay of 2012 to $125,604 in the first pay of 2014. A professional staff member on a UC Level 7 salary will go from $80,307 to $85,973 in the same period.
Other changes to the staff agreement agreed during the negotiations include the goal of doubling the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, the offer of leave to staff who are victims of domestic violence, the opportunity to choose to ‘cash out’ up to two weeks’ leave where eight weeks or more have been accrued and further professional development for staff.
In line with the Fair Work Act, a new seven day consideration period for staff to review the agreement begins on Tuesday, followed by a three day voting period.
