Ballarat Uni staff reject non-union agreement

Jeremy Smith, Ballarat

A long campaign for an enterprise agreement at the University of Ballarat came to a head in the middle of October with a ballot on a management-drafted non-union enterprise agreement.

At stake was a 5% increase in Commonwealth funding for 2006 and a salary rise for staff. Many staff have not received a percentage pay rise since April 2003. Against the odds, a majority of staff voted to reject the agreement. A strong campaign by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) resulted in a resounding vote of 451 against and 335 for.

The campaign included seven all-staff meetings, doorknocking, regular email messages, radio advertising, systematic media work, numerous fact sheets and broadsheets and posters. Management utilised its access to an all-staff email facility, posters, publicity attached to all pay dockets and roadshow-style meetings of staff to sell its messages. The NTEU campaigned around compromises of due process in a number of provisions, maternity leave conditions well below the emerging standard in higher education and salary offers lower than those made at the majority of universities.

Management's main selling point was a salary rise, the prospect of redundancies if the agreement was rejected, and some improvements in leave provisions. On hearing the results, NTEU Victorian secretary Matthew McGowan commented that it was a great win for the union, but that negotiations "need to recommence this week if we are to finalise a more acceptable agreement that meets the government's deadline of 30 November. The responsibility for this clearly rests with University management."

A packed meeting of 140 union members on October 26 was euphoric about the result, but also debated how to force the university back to the table should management not agree to immediately recommence negotiations. The meeting also voted for a half-day stop-work to participate in the November 15 national day of protest.

[Jeremy Smith is the president of the University of Ballarat branch of the NTEU and a member of the Socialist Alliance.]

From Green Left Weekly, November 2, 2005.

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From GLW issue 647