Sue Bull, Ballarat
Negotiations towards an enterprise agreement at the University of Ballarat have broken down. In response to the news, a meeting of 100 members of three unions voted on March 23 for a campaign of industrial bans, a series of rolling work stoppages and a 24-hour strike on April 17.
Matthew McGowan, Victorian division secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said: "It was a unanimous decision. It was a very angry meeting and the members are very concerned with the university's approach."
The campaign is a response to the university's refusal to issue a fresh pay deal offer after unions rejected an offer made last August. The university claims that it cannot make any offer until the state Labor government clarifies whether the level of salary supplementation that it provides for TAFE general staff will be 2.25% or 3% per annum.
On the university's own calculations, the difference amounts to only $44,000 a year. However, the low level of supplementation puts the university in the position where it will be forced to offer general staff a lower salary rise, according to management representatives.
McGowan refuted the claim and said the University of Ballarat was well placed to afford the pay rises sought by the union. "The university is crying poor, claiming that it cannot afford a 4.5 to 5% increase per year for its staff, especially its TAFE general staff ... but its 2005 budget figures say otherwise", McGowan told the March 30 Ballarat Courier.
The university's budget is expected to grow by more than $15 million in 2005, an increase of 16%, with TAFE receiving almost $2.2 million more in operating costs.
The union is demanding a 22.5% pay rise for the period 2003 to 2008 for all staff. The previous enterprise agreement lapsed in 2003. The April 17 strike will be the second after staff stopped work over the same issue last October.
The willingness of employees to take action has also been spurred on by the university's unilateral administrative pay rise granted before Christmas. Academic staff were awarded a 4.5% increase, while general staff received only a one-off payment of $1000 which was non-superannuable and diminished after tax was removed from it.
Ballarat University NTEU branch president Jeremy Smith told GLW: "I'm heartened by the response of members and I think we're in for one of the best campaigns that the branch has run. We've driven the message home that we're in for a hard time from the federal government in future and members understand that well. It's great to see that their response is to show a fighting spirit, rather than simply running up a white flag."
Support for this campaign can be emailed through to <nteu@ballarat.edu.au> or via NTEU, University of Ballarat, PO Box 663, Ballarat 3350.
From Green Left Weekly, April 13, 2005.
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